While the world falls apart outside our windows there is only one thing that seems to be keeping most of the population sane. What is this mysterious yet wonderful sounding thing? Well, it’s the game that came out for the switch on March 20th of this year, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This is the 5th animal crossing game in the series and is a crowd favorite. 

Now some might be asking, “what is this game that is played by so many?” Animal Crossing: New Horizon has around 11 million players which makes it pretty popular. Animal Crossing is a game that is meant to be relaxing. It is a game that you can’t lose at and doesn’t have any time limits. In this game, you are able to upgrade and decorate your home and island. You are able to buy different types of clothing and change your avatar’s appearance. You are also able to have villagers move into your town and you can interact with them by doing favors for them and giving them gifts. Every villager has a unique design and a different personality, promising that you will never get bored. There are around 397 villagers in the game which almost guarantees that you and your friends will have different people to interact with. 

Besides the villagers that move into your town there are other animals that come for different reasons. There is Tom Nook, the owner of the island, and his two nephews Timmy and Tommy who run Nook’s store. There is Isabell who greets you everyday and helps with running the town. Then, there are the Able Sisters Mabel and Sabel who own the clothing store. Finally, there is Blathers who owns the museum. There are also special characters who aren’t in town all the time. There are ones that are in town depending on the day or season and there are characters that you will see multiple times a month. 

There are other things to do besides interacting with villagers. This game introduced crafting, which is when you collect supplies to build furniture and tools. You collect supplies by hitting trees with an ax so they drop wood, you shake trees to get sticks, walking around and picking up weeds, and you can hit rocks with your shovel to get ore. You can normally find a recipe each day sitting on the beach in a glass bottle. Another fun thing to do in Animal Crossing is shooting down balloons. Occasionally when you are wandering around your town you will see a bright colored balloon floating around carrying a present. If you shoot the balloon down it will drop a present which always holds a surprise. You can get anything from an article of clothing to money.

Some of the most interactive things you can do are fishing, diving, catching bugs, and digging up fossils. There is a variety of fish and bugs you can catch and each time you catch something you can learn its name and you get a pun. The fossils on the other hand, you don’t get to know once it is until you ask Blathers. If you give your catch to Blather it will go into the museum and he can also give you some fun facts about whatever you gave him. You can fill up your museum and it’s so satisfying to watch your collection grow. You can also buy paintings and donate them (but be careful because sometimes they are fake). 

If you don’t like playing alone your friends can also come to your island and they can go to yours. Whether you decide to play alone or decide to play with your friends this game is a game for all ages. It will keep you entertained and busy. So go and have fun and forget about the mess outside our houses for a while.