Animal Crossing: New Horizons- All gift but no holiday?

[YoshiM]

I read an article on NintendoLife regarding AC: New Horizons. Apparently if you got the game as a Christmas gift and haven't "leveled up" your town high enough, you were not able to participate in the holiday festivities (Toy Day or New Years).

Personally, I think that kinda stinks, especially if you're a long time AC player. There was never any "requirement" to enjoy those events before, so why make it one now especially since it was hyped in emails and such from Nintendo? Lazy programming to not want to accomodate different progress situations?

The comments ranged from the events being "meh" to "oh just wait until next year". Granted games and their issues are more "first world" problems, but is it a bit daft of Nintendo to omit brand spanking new players from enjoying a holidy event because they haven't upgraded enough yet? Or is this more of the player feeling "entitled"? I lean on the former because it's a holiday for crying out loud- it's not like they are giving out gold shovels you need to wotk toward.

Thoughts?

[gbpxl]

No horse in the race since I dont own the game but yeah that wouldve kind of annoyed me.

[Baloo]

I don't even see the point of owning the new AC game for Switch considering it seems to have less features than the 3DS one, which itself wasn't quite different from the Wii or the DS ones at the end of the day if just a little more polished. Seems like Nintendo has begun removing features from games a la Capcom in order to try to make more money.

For anyone who wants a better AC experience, you can even play City Folk and Wild World online again through Wiimmfi, or New Leaf on 3DS is quite good as far as AC games go, even though they all get a little old after a while.

[YoshiM]

I don't even see the point of owning the new AC game for Switch considering it seems to have less features than the 3DS one, which itself wasn't quite different from the Wii or the DS ones at the end of the day if just a little more polished. Seems like Nintendo has begun removing features from games a la Capcom in order to try to make more money.

For anyone who wants a better AC experience, you can even play City Folk and Wild World online again through Wiimmfi, or New Leaf on 3DS is quite good as far as AC games go, even though they all get a little old after a while.

Thanks for the Wiimmfi mention! I remember hearing something about that but never investigated it.

I never really dug into AC: City Folk all that deep. It felt like Wild World but the house seemed to devolve back to the original AC (two floors, one bssement vs the two story multiple room design of Wild World).

[Nz17]

Celebrate the holidays, I say! There should not be haves and have-nots - everyone should be invited!

[YoshiM]

Nintendolife had an article on AC:NH being "the pandemic game" that people could escape to and have some sort of socializing (even though I don't think you can have full conversations through the game). And that brings up an interesting point that different readers touch on: AC wasn't really about socializing with other humans. It was about YOUR time with the animals.

Wild World gave us that taste of human multiplayer but didn't sacrifice the quality of what the animals said. New Leaf shifted more responsibility onto the player (and only one can be mayor per cartridge) but also increased communication. Ultimately, with all the extra fluff, the animals don't say too much. Balthers isn't anything like his name-you give him a single fossil and he says how it reminds him of when he was a young chick. That's it, no stories or tangents. I haven't talked to her in a while, but I don't think you can flirt with Celeste either like in WW.

The only one that still comes up with great quips is Cap 'n, and that will cost you a cool $1000 bells. Other than that...I don't care too much about my town. Yeah I feel compelled as my kids will mention something new but that's it. I am tempted to play City Folk to give that a go. I remember when I got a Power Ranger like outfit, I suddenly posed with another animal in the same outfit.

But the more I read about it-I want nothing to do with New Horizons.

[Tanooki]

I think you're over selling the negative or maybe seeing a bit of a boogeyman there that isn't.

Is the game perfect, not at all, it has at least one large aggravating issue with it, but it's not what you went into in the slightest as you can be pretty social with it if you choose (I didn't.) What ultimately made me park the game, you break stuff far more than a breath of the wild rage quitter would put up with. Common tools you use each day will break, at least once, then you need to waste more time to get the goodies to make new ones or buy them. I got fed up first with digging and rock smacking for coins and stuff as the shovels would break over and over, next came the axe, and beyond that the net. It just gets old when they keep snapping. It's not bad to make another, but it is bad having to get the resources to.

I really liked the idea of free terraforming as you can setup all sorts of cracks, canyons, private beaches, a hill for your home to keep trolls out, or maybe a river/moat to do this, lots of choices. It's one of the better titles in the franchise. I still love the original (GC) one best, then I guess that 3DS one as it had a lot going on too being mayor and all, but this new one, overkill item breakage aside is one of the best.

[YoshiM]

So your common tools broke after too much use, including the net? What kind of insects does that game have? They heavily armored with sharp spines or steel mandibles or something that rip the netting?

I just sees it as I read it as I don't have a Switch or AC:NH. The holiday article at the top stirred my pot as I sometimes can't play on a holiday. So if it's important enough to me, I'll time warp to enjoy it. But now it reads like holiday based items are dependant upon your town status (never saw that before) and connectivity (to unlock or download holiday specific items, scenarios, etc) and the TRUE date (ie no time travel). I understand Nintendo wants an even field so no one spoils anything...but who made them Mom and Dad? It rubs me wrong in that respect as the player had control over their game.

Now I don't know if you can get the timed events or items if you go backwards in time in AC:NH. If you can, that's an OK compromise. If you can't, then that kinda sucks.

My gripe with human socialization isn't so much that you can, it's that the scripts for the animals are starting to decline, at least from my experience. Just yesterday I played AC:NL and was overjoyed at the slightly sarcastic, bored bunny that is Zipper. I milked the eggs hardcore, getting lots of prizes (which led to furniture, which Reese was paying extra for) and Zipper would go into his song, stating in low tones "you probably memorized this already". It was great and something I missed from past games.

Using the metaphore: I'm not seeing a boogeyman but instead I'm seeing a person I spent a lot of time with over the years. However they changed to the point I don't want to associate with them in their current state. They are with a new crowd that I'm not interested in following. But I'll vent my frustrations of the shenanigans they do.

Steam is getting an AC-alike called Hokko Life. The home setup is pretty granular with early videos (like choosing cushion fabric on a couch). I'm curious if that might out AC Animal Crossing.

[Tanooki]

So your common tools broke after too much use, including the net? What kind of insects does that game have? They heavily armored with sharp spines or steel mandibles or something that rip the netting?

I wouldn't mind it if it wasn't very aggressive about it. Using a net like 20x will break it, an axe, more than 5 trees it'll break, fishing more than like 10 will snap that. You'll find that during just a day you want to do the minimum and be done, which would be shake every tree, dig up the 5 fossils, knock the 2 rocks for coins/special item, etc. You'll destroy nearly every one of your basic needs tools for those functions once, maybe twice depending on what else you may do beyond the very minimum to get the dailies done. And the thing is, older games, stuff broke too, just had to re-buy it, not harvest a lot of stuff to do it and it took much more uses to break it.

The saving grace was doing the efforts needed to get GOLD tools, they never break, ever. In this game, they do brake, and not with too much more effort than common stuff, yet take some hard to get items to craft them. They're realistically worth more as a trophy to make and stick in your house given the losses of resources and time just finding those things to make them again.