Our conception of the paradisiacal is one of those few ideas that have remained unchanged or, rather, strongly rooted in the tropical and everything related to it.
During this quarantine this series of idealized concepts have wandered more strongly than ever in our minds and in many cases they have cannibalized other types of thoughts that we will probably not have access to again for a long period.
Although they can never replace the experience of being in contact with nature or the pleasant sensation of living in a paradisiac environment , sometimes simulation games can help us to pass the bad drink and this is what Animal has achieved in a few weeks. Crossing: New Horizons has become the second best-selling Nintendo Switch title, only behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe , which to top it off is a port of the Wii U installment.
Animal Crossing is one of Nintendo’s most entrenched franchises and until a few years ago it was considered almost niche. Like most of the proposals of the Japanese company, it was very marked and with a strong contemplative character , which at first strongly collided with a society of 2001 post-end of the world, patizamba with the Internet and the euro; Those strong swings did not allow us to sit down for a second to even meditate on everything that was happening.
My first experience with the franchise was with the Nintendo DS installment, Animal Crossing: Wild World (2006), although all previous installments followed the same trend. We are the new inhabitant of an already formed town and with its neighbors previously chosen by the cpu , and upon arrival we are greeted by the well-known raccoon Tom Nook who will act as manager of our town – along with Canela – and as a local vendor; the experience seems to be idyllic, when we arrive at our house coming from the imaginary of all the tales of the Brothers Grimm and ready to begin our peaceful journey… Surprise! You have to pay the mortgage on your house and therefore start looking for a source of income that can satisfy the speculative desire of the one who promised them like a charming raccoon. And to be able to cover those expenses we must start picking fruit, cutting down trees and planting new ones, even catching bugs or fishing . And in order to carry out many of these actions we will need the appropriate tools (net, fishing, shovel …) and who is the only one who can provide it …
We have already taken the first step in Animal Crossing, hating Tom Nook.
Another fundamental core of this franchise is based on relationships with our neighbors . In Animal Crossing , as in life itself, we find the most diverse inhabitants: some obsessed with bodybuilding, others with being fashionable, others wanting to put it together, some more intellectual (and pedantic) … But what? They will always be on the island every day greeting us and sharing their ideas or daily concerns .
With the passage of time and as we have cultivated our friendships, they will rethink their way of greeting and even dare to designate a new nickname for you while others will decide to leave to live new experiences.
What does this delivery offer us?
Now, focusing on the issue at hand, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons , as its title indicates, the proposal looks at itself and sets out to find out how much it can expand and how far it can go by expanding its horizon of expectations.
Sticking to what has already been explained, the main change this New Horizons is that for the first time we change the scenario, from a small wooded town, a closed ecosystem, to the inexplorability of the virgin lands of an island , a change of its own paradigm that does not it is far from like tossing a coin. An ecosystem that appears wild and with a whole process of urbanization ahead.
For the first time in the franchise, we will build our village from scratch , so much so that the first thing we will have to locate will be Tom Nook’s tent, who, of course, is the promoter and precursor of this so-called “Island Settlement Plan deserted ” , which has certain colonialist reminiscences, if I may say. Once we have decided where to place the store and the prototype homes of our first three neighbors and ours, the raccoon will give us the Nookófono, a smartphone from where we can do most of the actions and queries within the game .
After this, and how could it be otherwise, it will be time to go through the cashier again to meet the expenses of our future home and mobile phone . Again, fishing, capturing critters or logging will be key during the first stages of the game to be able to face our debts although with a great difference, now the tools are manufactured by us .
Being very consistent with his decisions, we are on a desert island, without shops, without houses. It would be absurd for Tom Nook to carry an infinite inventory that we could stock up on, so we have to roll up our sleeves and start making the utensils, or even furniture we need, a clear inheritance of Minecraft and the entire torrent of survival games and crafting of the last ten years.
As we advance in the game, we will make our town progress and with it new establishments that will allow us to acquire new and varied furniture in order to achieve that art deco kitchen that has brought us so much sweat and tears in all deliveries.
The system for points or “Nook miles” also makes its debut, a kind of system for objectives, both long-term and daily, which serve to further motivate the player to maintain a daily activity with the game, although sometimes sinisterly reminding us of the systems. of rewards that we talked about in our interview with Ramón Baylos. The points that we obtain can be exchanged for different decorative elements for our town, be it fences, wells, mills or even a full-scale Godzilla figure , it is not a joke.
Terraforming is another debutant in this installment, for the first time we will be able to physically change the terrain of our island, elevations, lakes, rivers and with creativity (and for a long, long time), we will be able to create the town of our dreams. We can even change the material of the terrain and further customize the different spaces on the island .
Another aspect of customization that has had an impact on the virality of this installment is the option to create designs . From the game itself we can create any imaginable design and insert it into clothes, furniture, the floor itself … And of course we can share them online with other users.
Animal Crossing has also enjoyed good health due to its online multiplayer option that allows us to visit the villages of our friends and help them with daily tasks, or enjoy the different activities on the island. The purchase and sale of turnips can also be carried out, which has in turn created another business market where users who have a high sale price often negotiate with other players to travel to their island, of course this breaks part of the gaming experience.
What is turnip selling? You will ask many.
As in every delivery Juliana (heiress of the business) will come every Sunday to sell us turnips for a price that varies each week. We will be able to sell these turnips almost six times more expensive than what we buy them , assuming a great advance in all the projects we have for the island and in our pockets; The harsh reality is that selling turnips is little more than a nightmare thanks to fluctuating prices. Nendo and Tendo will be the only buyers on the whole island and they change prices twice a day, which means being hooked every day to try to sell our turnips at the highest possible price (which does not happen some weeks).
The ‘Animal Crossing’ phenomenon – the safe space of video games
The jump to Nintendo Switch has allowed to renew itself in many aspects of which we have been mentioning throughout the analysis, but without a doubt the one that will extend the life of the game the most will be the updates . Almost every quarter Nintendo offers us new content for free that extends the Animal Crossing experience: a new section in the museum, seasonal events, or directly new functions such as being able to swim in search of underwater creatures . The next big update is expected for Halloween and promises to give us a few more hours of entertainment.
All these factors – and the confinement – have led to situations such as that of the actor Elijah Wood talking to a fan on Twitter to sell his turnips , the journey of actress Brie Larson around the island and also the fake television program made entirely with The tools of the game, Animal Talking , where different celebrities are interviewed in true talk show style, have pushed the brand to unsuspected limits and have fattened the pockets of the big N even more if possible .
There is a small detail that fascinates me about the game: when we change the soil of the island, it does not matter with what material we do it, the original grass of the island always sticks out from under the corners. A very important message that the game sends us and rooted in Japanese culture, a highly industrialized way of life, very urban but that lives with absolute respect with its roots, unable to step on them. The title thus reminds us at all times where we come from, where our island comes from, by many buildings or bricks that populate it; a tremendous message of humility that never hurts to remember .
New Horizons is clearly the best version of this franchise, but some of these new changes put some stress on me and the way I always approached these titles. One of the virtues of Animal Crossing is that it never demanded more from you than you wanted to give it, if you played one day one week, nothing happened; if you want to play every day, go ahead , you are welcome.
But with all these changes to feed the retroactivity of the game, seeking to generate a more organic, more alive system, it is also generating a certain dependence on progress . The miles are always active and you want to get that cool statue, so “I have to go in today, even if I don’t feel like it .” Thanks to the wide customization options and the internet, I can see the utopian worlds that the community is setting up on YouTube, “My island is a complete disaster, I have to invest more hours and watch hundreds of tutorials to have an island in good condition.” These are some of the thoughts that wander by the most assiduous players and that collide squarely with the original proposal . Animal Crossing is a place where everything is okay, where you do your best and everyone is grateful to have you. It was never a competition, a game with a clear objective, a goal or a trophy, it was a long-term project in which the priority was rest. It is still there, because Nintendo knows where it comes from and what it was that made it be at the top ; still the message has been diluted in this New Horizons and it is partly not his fault. He is a child of our time like all of us, now it is viral, everyone has their island and that is good but … As well it tries to show the game, no matter how much we try to define our ego, no matter how much we try to show others who we are , that we are an active part of the constant conversation of the world … We can never forget our roots .
Although New Horizons has expanded its base audience, with the help of the coronavirus, its proposal may still be too repetitive for the general public , in the end it is still a simulator of social life loaded with mannerisms within the so-called category of wholesome games . They are thus designated to those comfortable games, which offer a safe space to those who play them , away from gratuitous violence or messages that can generate emotional discomfort.
Of course I want to get away from any pejorative sense that my words can attribute to this subgenre, since they are very necessary these days: everyone has a space, a hobby, something to hold on to when everything else is being eaten up by nothing . Paradoxically, for me and for many people, video games were our safe space, far and unknown from the outside, but as they matured and developed as a medium, they have also given rise to all kinds of discourses (both positive and negative) and that has led to the videogame exposes us to situations that make us uncomfortable or that throw us a series of unknowns that would give us to write more than a thousand essays, stripping them of their disinhibiting function and generating a lack that these other types of games have been filling. We need video games to disconnect from video games.
