Animal Crossing New Horizons Review | One Year Later 

I did sink hundreds of hours into this game but it’s just not an animal crossing game. It just feels like Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer Deluxe.

This is definitely one of those games where the journey is better than the destination. A lack of a reason to play is why I prefer new leaf

it's so sad, acnh is really like not even an ac game. it's a decorating/collecting game at its core, instead of a life-sim game. i miss wild world!

The problem with New Horizons is that we're not anticipating what we want, we're bored waiting for what we _need._

But that's just the state of modern gaming in a nutshell... "it's pretty, but there's nothing else to be gained".

I stopped playing ACNH this winter, but my fondest memory in all of gaming was the first 2 to 3 months I binged this game during the peak of the pandemic. If I wasn't playing the game I was on the reddit connecting with the community, looking at everyone show off their islands or designs, if I wasn't on reddit I was on RU-vid or twitch watching other people playing. If I wasn't on RU-vid or twitch, I was on nookazon bartering or trading. New Horizons was a radiating light during a time of immense loss and darkness, and I am forever thankful for this game and it's community. Even now, when I zoom out and realize there's not much to do in the game these days, my first 3 months with New Horizons was a very special memory for me.

I had a discussion with someone who hadn't played the previous games, and I explained the differences in comparison and the experiences I had that Horizons is simply unable to replicate to any degree. In our discussion I called this game a "fashion show", where the main point is to show off your little towns and your cutesy villagers with cute outfits. Because the villagers have no distinct personalities besides "I like food!", "I like gossip!", "I like working out!", so if they're not interesting to talk to then what reason are they here for? To look cute.. That's it. These villagers are an accurate representation of the average social media user.

I agree with you 100% all the Updates just feel like Nintendo saying alright kiddos now here's this part of your game back but less polished than the previous game. It's very frustrating

I sometimes remember we're still at stage 2 with the Nooks Cranny updates after a WHOLE YEAR and cry 🥺 Nintendo should have included a lot more content from the beginning, but they did not manage to do so after a whole year which is just ridiculous.

I’d like if ACNH had a music app that let us change the soundtrack to any ac soundtrack

I'm really hoping this is the year that New Horizons becomes exciting again, Nintendo absolutely needs to step it up and give players actual content rather than forcing us to create our own fun. Tortimer, Brewster, Kapp'n, Gracie and upgrades for the existing shops would totally give me an incentive to play again. It very much feels like they gave us an unfinished game and told us to just "wait it out".

"the missing characters and features will be coming back in future updates!" Yeah, that's the problem. We SHOULDN'T have to predict which update will give us back characters and features that have already been established in previous titles.

i still haven’t gotten over the alpha dream bankruptcy. i really hope the mario and luigi series isn’t dead forever. i love those games too much.

Another thing to add to your discussion of the discourse surrounding the updates is how a lot of people deflect valid criticisms of the game by saying something along the lines of “Well, Nintendo said they’re going to continue updating the game well into the future”. While yes, what they’re saying is true, I don’t think it’s a valid justification for the current state of the game, especially now that we’re one year in. It’s not like Nintendo has dropped a detailed update schedule outlining what features will get added and when they will be added. So to justify the lack of quality of life improvements, missing series-staple NPCs, minimal daily activities, no new buildings, no new non-event furniture and DIYs, etc. with an excuse that maybe one day in the future some of those things can be added in just doesn’t work for me, as I’m sure it doesn’t work for a lot of others as well. I will say, initially, I felt like this justification did hold more merit. We didn’t really know what to expect with each coming update at the beginning, so it did feel like Nintendo would start adding in substantial features to keep us returning to the game. But now, I just can’t believe people still put so much faith in the update schedule. Now that all main holidays, which were clearly the focus of most of the updates, have been added in to the game, the recent version 1.9 update kind of felt like the benchmark for what a non-holiday update could look like one year in. And while it did flesh out the designing side of the game more and add in some minor holiday shopping items, the main draw was Sanrio characters and furniture, aka a way to basically monetize the game further. Instead of adding in a bunch of new, free content to celebrate the games one year anniversary, we got a bunch of stuff blocked behind a paywall, which doesn’t leave me too optimistic about the content of future updates. This is also the first time since the game launched that we didn’t get a clear message indicating the window of time when the next update will drop, so who’s to say the update frequency will still occur as it did during the first year of the game’s life.

New Horizons was my first Animal Crossing game, and I went into it knowing absolutely zit about anything apart from "cute visuals and I can make pretty things". It's definitely lived up to that promise, and I still spend an inane amount of hours each week purposefully designing my island to be my perfect little retro European paradise filled with references to all my favorite movies and little spaces for me and my friends to hang in. And then like a week ago I found out there was a coffee shop in the previous games. And a hairdresser. And that villagers actually did shit. And whatever the hell else I just never knew existed. Like, your seriously telling me that this entire time I've had to pretend my house was a forth town building to make my island layout work, but in previous games you had a whole ass café? Your telling me that There were more than three special characters who hung around town and that Celeste did more than give out crafting recipes? I mean ACNH I love ya man but for gods sake I'd love for my town to feel just a little more alive.

I feel like we’re almost one and the same with our animal crossing opinions. You encapsulate exactly how I feel about the state of New Horizons in your vids so I’m pumped for this review

i feel mixed as well. i enjoy the life sim aspect more than designing so the fact they didn’t balance the two at all really bugs me. i like designing enough to where i’ve gotten tons of hours and still play somewhat consistently, but it only took a few months before the game felt more like a designing sim than it did animal crossing. one specific problem with progression i have is how able sisters sells sooooo many clothes each day... seriously it barely takes any time at all before you have tons and tons of clothes. so for me, there might as well only be one shop at this point. it just baffles me how a lot of the games major shortcomings are just plain stupid... how on earth did they think the dialogue in this game was good enough? how did they not realize how quickly you run out of motives or things to do? it feels like they kind of lost touch with what animal crossing is. they really pushed the designing aspect to make it appeal to casuals and half assed everything else in my opinion. like you said, villagers don’t even feel like people, they feel like cute decorations (not helped by the fact they literally look like plush dolls now). the atmosphere was just murdered and it honestly feels like half the charm fades away pretty fast, i love the game, i’ve put so much time into it, but man i never thought they’d miss the mark on so many things that feel essential to the series.

Spot on critique. My biggest complaint is how cookie cutter and overly generalized a lot of the game's core features are. Every holiday treats every villager as a generic, interchangeable pawn with no unique desires or personality traits. They're just cute quest NPCs that churn out/trade whatever item you need for x holiday, be it DIYs or materials. They don't ever even touch on any personal likes / dislikes except for the randomly generated food/drink/music genre that just keeps changing every time you talk to them. It's just madlibs. I know they did that in previous games too, but I expect a game released in 2020 to up the ante somewhat. I also have to mention the fact that a ton of things have been made so much slower for reasons I cannot fathom. Leif in NL feels like Usain Bolt compared NH. Tickets and DIYs have to be printed individually. Sahara is a COMPLETE NIGHTMARE to engage with. There's an absolute assault of repetitious and annoying dialogue from characters I once adored, just so I can pick up a few items. I also think they give way too much direct power to the player villager in this game, the animals should actually be a part of running the island and at least make requests about where they'd like to live, what sort of garden they want, who they like/dislike etc.., but that would require them to actually have personalities again which is a stretch. They don't even visit you anymore, so I guess they don't care. Anyway, I've still played the game for like 900 hours because it's Animal Crossing and there's such an amazing foundation to build on there, especially when it comes to the visuals (the NH versions of the villagers are incredible and their interactions with the environment is one of my favorite new features), but they're really breaking my heart with the directions they've been taking. I truly hope there's a big update coming that focuses on villagers and bringing back old characters like Kapp'n, Brewster, Blanca, the police dogs, Gracie, the pelicans.. I even want Club LOL back! Ok essay delivered cheers yall 🥂

When I was about 9 and I played New Leaf, which was my first game, I used to be so bothered about designing. I loved it. When I returned to the game after not playing it for 3 years, not only had it been frozen in time (all my villagers were still there holy shit) but I was surprised by the quality of my town, considering it was a 10 year old that worked on it. (the infinite fruit baskets helped, ahem.) -- I cheated for everything; the city square, the community projects -- everything. And it was fine then, but when I played New Horizons which gave me all the freedom in the world, I went back to my old habits and just went ahead to try and unlock everything right away. And you know what? I grew into enjoying the experience of talking to your villagers, doing quests for them, slowly upgrading your house... and now that I want it, it's gone. I learned to appreciate the experience of animal crossing a lot later. But, you know, it's never late to make it right. I still have my 3ds, and I find myself going back to my New Leaf town a lot more than my New Horizons island.

This is my first mainline AC game. As a new player with 170 hours, I'd really like to see old characters and shops to come back, more unique dialogue, and more buildings. I'd be totally open to moving around my island to add a couple more shops. I personally love the game with its flaws, but I feel like it's being held back and it could be so much better. And I agree about the tutorial. It was easily the best part of the game and I'm sad the rest of the game doesn't have that magnitude of character interactions

Wow you conveyed *everything* I've been feeling about this game!!! I desperately wish they integrated the 'updated' features like diving, pumpkin farming, and the dream suite in mini-tutorial style episodes like they did for the start of the game! For example instead of going into the Nooklings and having them say 'hey we have wetsuits now', you could run into Pascal and do a mini-quest to help stock the Nooklings with wetsuits. The updates as they have been implemented have all been pretty jarring and unsatisfying to unlock. I think integrating the little story/tutorial cutscenes with the NPCs in the updates would have gone a long way in helping the game feel similarly intimate and charming like the previous titles.

thank you for opening my eyes and giving me the answer to the question I've been asking myself for months now- why acnh isn't fullfilling me, why I stopped playing so soon- I played acnl to live in this 2cd world, to grow with it. To not feel lonely or to simply escape from the world/problems. When I bought acnh (after just a few weeks/only really played after the big updates) I just felt this loneliness, emptyness. Almost like a huge void. New leaf made me/the world and villagers feel alive!!! When I watched your video abt new leaf I actually cried. I loved that game. I grew with it. I feel so much nostalgia toward it and my wish to play it again (new town and revisit my old one) is bigger than ever. With nh I felt overwhelmed: this huge island, it made me feel alone, isolated, lost, too much like in my real life, the media that put this pressure to make the most and more of your island (looks). New leaf was just perfectly right, especially for me as a child back then... Also the community of new leaf was always so pure. But sadly I know that It'll never be like it was once. But I wish to relive those memories. It made me feel. So many emotions connected with those old times.🍃 🌾 🍄 Whenever I just hear the music... It makes me tear up... The game genuinely is not "a" but "the" masterpiece (to me). I genuinely cared for these villagers and when I found my dearest one => Wart Jr. in nh on the campsite, invited him, it just wasn't the same at all. No life, no personality.

Super agree with what you said about updates and not feeling like you had to work for them. I'm excited to replay the game when it's done and fully judge it then. But in the meantime the way they choose to implement items just to get them out is worrying. Like they just put the mario items in the catalog instead of making a fun system like the fortune cookies. Or the diving suit is available before you even get the vaulting pole which kind of defeats the purpose. I think the game will be really great when it is done but I'm worried they wont go back and add the magic to stuff they had to rush out. Which will leave those part feeling inferior and unfinished.

If Im being honest with myself I think New herizons is the worst Animal Crossing game

Dude. I though you had an hundred thousands followers by the quality of this video. You got my sub!

For me the soundtrack of this game is a lost cause. So here’s an idea! They should give our phone a music app that allows you to switch the games soundtrack on the fly. Have different radio stations that let you choose from Animal Crossing on GameCube, Wild World/ City Folk, New Leaf, or even a K.K. radio station that just goes through all his songs.

This video perfectly reflects how I feel about this game. While it came with some stuff that actually improved the series, it feels like it took many steps backwards in the process. I stopped playing in December of last year, due to the fact that the updates weren't substantial enough for me, and I started getting bored of it. I fully upgraded my house in around November, and after that I didn't really have much to spend my bells on. Unlike in New Leaf, none of the furniture items at the store really caught my attention, and the only thing I could really spend bells on was moving buildings around, in which I didn't really care to do, as I prefer the life sim aspects of the series more. Maybe one day I'll come back to New Horizons, once the updates are done, but until then, I'll probably go back to New Leaf and restart my town for a third time.

I just hope in the next major update we get an expansion on Timmy and Tommy's store. I want Flick to have his own shoe and accessory store, I want Leif's plant shop back and I especially would LOVE for Gracie to sell some of the furniture from the New Leaf series. (I miss the Rococo series.)

"7 new animals" poor Megan lol Honestly, at this point, my only wish-list is that we get at least 2 more shops, preferably a café and a gardening store, and decent amount of multiplayer games/activities that you can take part in with your villagers/friends/other players. That way Leif could move in permanently on the island. Kicks could also move into Able Sisters.

Everything here was perfectly said. I've been playing since the Gamecube version and I honestly have to say I've never been more disappointed. I was so so excited for this game and like you said after the first two weeks there was just...nothing. A stunningly gorgeous game with no almost no content that's way too tedious(and it doesn't help that it feels like Pocket Camp is continuously getting all of their creative effort). I truly love Animal Crossing and I really really hope they finally listen and get to work on fixing things!

This was a fantastic review/retrospective of this game! I agree with basically everything you said, and you helped me recognize why New Horizons feels emptier than New Leaf did. The lack of endgame content and motivation for the player really hurts the overall experience. You're totally right about the first few weeks, they are definitely the best part of the game. And that museum metaphor at the end is just *chef's kiss* Okay, that's all the time I've got. I gotta get back to playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on my Nintendo 3ds

the tutorial was so much fun! thank you for talking about this. I've reset my island a couple of times to replay it

Pretty much summarizes my thoughts. Watched it in full. Great review.

This is the first animal crossing game I've played beside the pocket camp. I cannot believe that the villagers HARDLY interact with the objects. Why create a fun fair with a merry go round that no one can ride, place a bath tub no one can use and so on......I put all these items around the island for no reason. And omg yes there no progression. I loved the first 2 weeks when there were actual things to unlock and achieve but as u said there was nothing after that. Even I think 2 stores are so boring. I actually wish there was more to unlock and achieve. Now that I unlocked the 2 stores and upgraded resident services I feel like there is NOTHING to do every day except just catch things and edit the island but that's literally all. Even after the updates it's bad. Instead of giving me all the cool stores I need to fly to Harv's island to go there and they just have caravans. They should be on our island. We need more objectives. And omg bring the post office back with the pelicans.

Every single word of this is true to the absolute maximum, thank you for perfectly expressing my excruciating frustration with this game and why it hurts my soul :)

I forgot how much I missed the progression and pacing until I watched this. Even if they do bring Brewster back this year, it almost doesn't seem as special for it to just be plunked in during an update vs in new leaf, at least you had to work towards getting The Roost for a public works by donating items etc. Still love new horizons and playing every day, though ☺️

The hourly music's biggest issue is that they do not fit the time they are in. New Leaf's music fits every hour so perfectly. I like most of the songs in New Horizons and I honestly don't mind the synth, but they are just good or sometimes really good. New Leaf's themes in my opinion are all excellent and absolutely incredible.

When someone asks me what animal crossing new horizons is missing I sum it up to “Charm”. Its really hard to describe it to people who haven’t played the past titles. Your review was great and really went into the game well. And that’s not to say that I don’t love the game, I do! I have over 500 hours invested. and it came out at a time that I was really needing it. It honestly came out during a time when everyone needed it. But it really lacks the “second life” feeling and the urge to come back every day. While it was frustrating at times playing NL and not being able to get something like Brewsters it was all the more rewarding when I actually did! And in the OG GameCube game the dialogue was amazing! I miss the villagers actually being mean! I miss them literally stealing your money haha. New Horizons is beautiful, and I love the design aspects, but I don’t think they fully make up for what is missing.

I stopped playing NH after about three months. I played NL almost daily for 6 years.

I really love New Horizons, I just wish there was more to do as a community. Yes there are holidays, but other than that, most of my residents don't do anything together or interact much. I wish there were more community events (a picnic, a game day, SOMETHING) besides the holidays that, for the most part, just give us more furniture.

i miss being able to leave the village to get your hair done or shop for furniture, its quite sad you cant leave the island to do that. yes you can visit other islands but you can’t really do anything there. i miss the little centre ville they used to have

I have a list of quality of life complaints about a mile long for this game.

Here's what I think about New Horizons. "What's the point of doing whatever you want when there's nothing left to do."

11:55 🤣 this was a great review even though I disagree on the soundtrack part and other points. I loved the soundtrack and theme "Welcome Horizons" brought to the table. I love all of the tracks to be honest but 2am, 6am, 10am, 11am and 5pm slaps hard. This is my 1st AC game so I don't have the nostalgia to step back and look at the series overall.

underrated video in which you basically nailed the exact problems I have with the game and I'm quite confused why seemingly nobody else talks about the issues of new Horizons. Due to the Switch's popularity many people probably are new to the AC franchise and never played an AC game before -that's the only explanation for the overly positive reception of the game I can come up with. I've played New leaf for years while New Horizons couldn't even engage me for one single year -I've never even seen autumn and winter in the game because I ran out of content during Summer 2020 and lost all interest in the game. The non-fitting and annoying synthesizer soundtrack didn't help either. Game's been untouched by me for almost a year now.

I think you really hit the nail on the head with this game. Really great video.

This video has absolutely nailed how I feel about this game, it's so sad to think how right Salt Factory was back at the 3 month mark "it's an extreme degradation of things to do". It still hasn't improved, back to New Leaf for me.

I agree. The tutorial stages were so much fun! Being like hmmm I wonder what will be my task tomorrow. After You beat the game it’s like okay what now besides terraforming? 😅

I'm glad to see you touched on the topic of this game's music! It feels lacking, and I greatly prefer the soundtracks of the previous games. I had to laugh when you mentioned your favorite tracks were 6 pm and 2 am, because those are my favorite tracks as well!

THIS WAS SO MUCH HYPE GLAD I CAN WATCH IT NOW!!!

Good review. You helped me to pinpoint some overall reasons for my disappointment (such as lack of progression), and at the same time you helped me to understand why I keep coming back to this game! Thanks for the thoughtful analysis.

jesus christ finally someone else who isn't just barfing praise over this game for looking pretty and having decent design elements, someone with my playstyle!! this was the first review for the game that really helped me with my thoughts on it, thank you!

this is like the sims 4. giving us some bad or little amount of stuff for each update

I feel like the progression system they were going for, is the island itself. As you design your island your Isabelle gives your island a rating. So it kind of works, but I agree on breakable items, if they made golden tools unbreakable, then it would be fine, but no.

Protendo, you captured my thoughts on this game nearly perfectly. Been a fan of the channel for a long while now, and I gotta say it's really nice to hear your thoughts on this. I fell off the game after the diving update, so hearing the thoughts of someone who feels the same but stuck with the game is nice. Keep up the great work bud!

Great review, I remember how much I played this game in March and April last year and had around 200 hours in it. I thought it was amazing until I paid that last debt, got really nothing for it, and then all the small cracks (minor lasting issues I had) just all busted the seems of the game. I didn't hop on until last month for its 1 year anniversary and only played 15 minutes of it. It only took two of the same lines of dialogue from my smug villagers back to back to make me close the game again. haha

I cannot believe I just watched this video now and I feel like you have vocalised the things that frustrated me throughout gameplay and summarised it so well!! I find myself sighing out loud and verbally agreeing at nearly every issue you mentioned 😂

This was honestly a great video, thanks so much for making it, a great watch. I personally love the game for how it has changed my life and how I now make RU-vid content myself because of it. I really love the direction the game is going in, and I personally love the update structure, although they should've had all the New Leaf content as a basis to work from. I remember being so hyped for the Summer Update Wave 1... but now looking back, it was just what New Leaf has had for so many years. To be fair, the team has been hard at work on Splatoon 3, so maybe that final year of updates after Splatoon 3 releases could be amazing and blow us all away. We can only hope.

Terraforming is already very emersion breaking on it's own. You don't have to enter a designer mode, like in the house, to make it any less realistic. The amount of control the player has over their island is artificial and doesn't make me feel engulfed in this world the same way I was in games like the GameCube game. Terraforming should NEVER be in an Animal Crossing game! If they wanted to give players more control over there island they could have handled it in a much better way than making the player a freaking god! I have an idea: how about the Resetti bros have little construction shop, where you can pay them to create little chunks of land like a pond or cliff or something. Maybe instead if that's too limiting, you can give them a blueprint that redesigns the entire island to your liking! THAT would give the player much more control without giving them too much control! and it also makes sense because moles are ground arranging animals and these two great characters have no other purpose in this game. It's little things like this that could have made the game feel more like an Animal Crossing game.

I really do wish we could unlock more shops

I think i liked the atmosphere of my island at the beginning, now it just feels too cluttered :(

The hourly music in NH- 🤠🤓 The hourly music in NL- 🛀🧘🏻‍♀️

Honestly after spending 1016 hours in NH and getting almost every single item in the game I just fell empty inside.... This game is only good for a first time experience compared to other AC games it has lot of really good stuff but it also lacking a lot I’d say the worst thing about the game is the villagers and their dialogue because you don’t really feel like you’re connected with the villagers and honestly I’ll just give the game a 6/10 too

I couldn't agree more about the soundtrack. To be honest, it's the main reason I don't really want play the game anymore because the synth is just so irritating to me. I wish we had the option to turn off the music completely and just enjoy the sounds of nature or chose from legacy soundtracks.

23:20 THANK YOU!!! Feels so good to hear someone else talk about the holidays being watered down NL versions.

Well how'd you manage to convince me to purchase a game I had no desire to play with this video. Well played sir, well played. Reverse phycology

The biggest problem? Just because you can replace something with a kiosk or mirror to make it quicker doesn't mean you should

Hell yeah I respect you for doing the work and sharing your experience with us I've been wanting to try this out and was hoping to find a current review.

Great review. And thank you for calling out how well the lighting and weather effects are. Those have been some of my favorite parts. Well that and the poor neglected museum... I think the real misses in this game are really painful because the game COULD HAVE BEEN so amazing.

Biggest problems in my opinion 1. Very surprised tortoise island games didn’t return last summer. I thought that would be a major priority on their to do list as devs. Still no multiplayer fun for a game that stresses multiplayer 2. Tons of furniture and clothes missing from the game that every AC had had usually. Also lack of interactive furniture was surprising. Pocket camp devs made a ton of interactive furniture. Would have liked interactive furniture. 3. Cutting npcs and stores. Would be fun if more npcs and shops existed. For example... even nooks store was a big part of every ac. Barely getting to upgrade it at all in base game is not cool. Shampoodld could be a fun way for them to add new exclusive hair. Gracie grace is fun for end game content, play to afford rare furniture. Would love the cafe as a Sep building like new leaf (but we know it’s datamined for the museum). 4. Villagers- never ask you to do favors or have unique dialogue. Mostly mini games and npcs missing makes it less fun.

All good points! Especially for someone that plays for the progression, atmosphere and characters But what I wish they could is more features instead of just a few items, like more features like things to do online when you have friends besides having them over and showing them around

New Horizons is what happens when the developers release a game that is less than 50% finished. This game needed another year of development to be complete,but instead Nintendo released an unfinished game with the promise that the development team would finish it over the course of 3 years (!) and then proceeded to pull the development team off the game to work on Splatoon 3. So much for ever finishing this game. What we have now is pretty much the complete game.

THANK YOU for point out the music I literally turn mine down all the time it’s just too loud it takes me out of the game way too often

100% agree with you, animal crossing tutorial phase was the best thing about the game and if you are not an imaginative and creative person the game is just done for you. The other thing is designing an island is not easy or simple, you need to have simple ways to experiment and figure out designing but the way it's done is so labor-intensive and tedious.

The whole DIY section spoke to me. Still waiting for the signpost and angled sign post a year later. Oh, and the bamboo partition. Yes, I know I can find one at a treasure island- but that makes me feel like I'm cheating lol

On the topic of the waterfalls being so loud.. Why is K.K. Slider SO QUIET?? Everyone hypes him up so much, and when he finally comes to your island, he just gets a stool and an acoustic guitar, every Saturday. And no one comes to his shows 😭 Poor lad

Tbh saddening as it is. Animal Crossing New Horizons actually made me pessemistic for the future of animal crossing. It was supposed to be 50% life simulator and 50% Customizability. It ranges but I was never interested in customizing my island nor towns in animal crossing. I thought the point was to collect things, make money, Talk and befriend villagers and Just chill to the music when im outside. Especially at 7 pm on new leaf. The entire point of Animal crossing was not in new horizons it felt like a completely different game. It was just grinding, I hated the music, hated the grind, hated my tools breaking, HATED THE HELL OUT OF CRAFTING! because i dont wanna look for resources 24/7. The only thing that you should worry about in animal crossing is Animals birthdays, Or Money! You know. Tbh, i would give this Game a 2-3. The only thing that makes it not a 0-1 is the graphics and thats it. I feel like the only thing that was improved was the graphics. It invested all of its time appeasing the building and creative side that it neglected 90% of the elements in a animal crossing game and feels like a regression in the series. It dosent feel alive, It feels like the emptiness of minecraft and not in a good way. It was Frustrating and boring.

The villager interactions are only interesting when they are talking to each other. They actually can be sassy.

I dropped New Horizons after a few months and Im back to New Leaf. I like New Leaf so much more. It has much more soul and depth. I get so excited when I met people on Tortimers island. You can see how many people still play New Leaf 😍

You’re one of my favorite channels! So underrated

I agree with basically everything said here, but with each new "update," I get angrier as I recall everything that's still missing from New Leaf and likely won't be added at all. I feel ripped off, frankly, and not for the first time since getting my Switch.

This is the most insightful and complete take on NH I've seen/heard. As a newcomer, I loved the game to bits when it came out... and I still do, but more for the fond memories of designing my island and sharing it with my mom than anything else. I think my excitement tanked when the 1-year anniversary was pretty much glossed over - and the lack of an update roadmap doesn't make the future any brighter. Also, I got so fed up with the music that I either listen to something else or only tune in when I like the soundtrack. Kinda wish we could revert to the tutorial music, that wasn't actively annoying at least. Fingers crossed...?

i remember back before release on a community post i commented saying that it would be great and funny if the vaulting pole could break while you are jumping over a river, leaving you to fall in the water, to which you responded that you would pay extra for that to be a feature and i sometimes i still think about how you would eat those words as fast as possible if we had hindsight. good review, had been looking forward to it. i managed to play every single day since release, i guess we’ll see if that can still hold true a year from now!

Great review. I think as much as I enjoy or have enjoyed New Horizons I think it can be best summed up as going to a gig to see a band or artist sing live but most of the time they want the crowd to get hype and sing the lyrics, and just, no I'm not here for that - I paid to hear you sing. I also worry how much resources Splatoon 3 development has taken away from AC - is this why we don't have a decent soundtrack and that we're missing half of the features only for them to be patched later? I know in part it'll be their design philosophy, but it kinda stinks that I'm waiting for it to get the features that New Leaf had like Brewster, Kapn and Tortimer back.

The lighting still blow me away cause it almost look like the pre rendered trailers and art they did for promotion for prior games

Love the deep dissection you put into this game. Waiting a year was definitely a good choice. Allowing you to really think about all the mechanics that this game has to offer. And that it's 30 minutes long allows much time to describe what you had in mind. Lost of reviews are about 10 minutes which I can't understand how they are able to tell their point of view on a game like this in only 10 minutes. Seems they are only doing this for views and content rather than genuine opinion and feeling on the game. Nice work

I am a really inpatient person usually but listening to this was so distracting. I played acnh while listening to this too and everything about this video really is interesting to listen to. Theres only one thing i dislike about this. The views are too low. Honestly I expected like a million or more because it really deserves it. And the fact that you waited a year to make this?! You bring up not only the flaws of the game but the game itself. Like the details nobody really notices. It really adds a lot to it. Regardless of what you’re talking about i would listen to it. I could honestly listen to you all day without getting bored. I love hearing ur opinions and thoughts regardless of me agreeing. And you respecting others opinions to really makes it all better. I am so happy i clocked on this video and you definitely deserve a subscribe from me. Keep the good work man. I will try to watch most of your videos! You just made a new fan. Thank you for this amazing content. I appreciate the work put into this 30 minute video ill totally rewatch it several times.

I’m very glad you did this review a year later. I think it’s very important for really any product and especially for something like Animal Crossing because of the concept of real time being used in this game. Looking back at reviews from over a year ago, they’re all perfect. And there’s nothing wrong with that, of course. People have different opinions than others and they should be respected. But since it has been 7 years since the last game, I think the excitement got to everyone because of that, they looked over the game’s flaws. I myself am guilty of that, as I’m sure we all are. I guarantee if you could ask those who reviewed the game last year if their opinions have changed about the game, they would answer yes. I will say Nintendo has done a pretty ok job addressing issues that players have had in recent updates, such as creating a cloud save system before the game’s release or adding 50 more design slots the other day being a recent example. But that’s just me. Great review! Really enjoyed it! 👍🏻

I listened very carefully, I think this is a perfectly fair review, thank you!! I completely agree with everything you said about the music and the special characters, though I did clench my teeth when you gave it an overall 6 haha 😬 It’s an 8 for me, I’d love to see an island tour or some gameplay from you one day!!

The music also changes if it’s raining or snowing. I love snowing music specifically

This popped up in my recommendations after I made my video on New Horizons, and this video was great! I'm surprised you don't have more subs.

Yeah I quit the game for now and I might restart once it’s fully updated. It’s sad because animal crossing used to be my favourite franchise and now I’ve almost totally lost interest in where the franchise is going. It’s telling that I still play wild world and new leaf but I’ve dropped off new horizons completely

This video was amazing! Made my day!

AMAZING REVIEW!! I agree with most of it and I am also the type of a ac player who enjoys New leaf and Wild World more.

Tbh this is the best review of New Horizons I‘ve seen so far. I agree with everything said in the video, and it is sad to see that they didn‘t improve anything with an update this year. Even if they don’t want to add new content, at least a quality of life update would bring back many players.

After not getting the garden bench DIY for like 10 months, I just bought it online. I still haven't gotten the DIY myself yet.

New horizons is what got me into the animal crossing franchise last year but I got new leaf as my first game because it’s much cheaper and I wanted to see if I liked the game and I really did so I begged for new horizons for Christmas and I got the game and it’s such a blast especially since my neighbor plays it and she has a really nice island so now I’m hooked lol

Great review and agree with much of it, however you did not mention something that, for me, is the thing that frustrates me the most and has been the main reason I have stopped playing from time to time - Storage! In a game that is heavily about collecting tons of items and decorating your island I really don't get the logic behind that game design decision! I would have worked towards upgrading my home 'without' it being tied to storage upgrades anyway, the only difference is that I would have enjoyed doing it! And of course they compound the problem because of daily stock rotations in the shops kind of encouraging you to buy the items because you don't know when you will see them again. I get that one could merely 'catalogue' an item and then sell it but when you also get restricted to only being able to buy 5 items per day from the catalogue the game kind of discourages you from doing that! The only times I have stopped playing are simply because I am fed up of having a ton of items out all over my beaches, completely wrecking one of the key aspects of the game, creating a beautiful island, whilst I work towards the next 'storage upgrade'!

I feel like the game would be exponentially more enjoyable if they just made one update solely focused on villager dialogue. It is so lacking in its current state and an overhaul would keep me coming back to play. That, and bringing back the special characters, obviously.

I seriously would have prefered a New Leaf remake with a few extra perks.. New Horizons feels so unfinished (like many Switch games)..