Photo by BagoGames via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is getting a new update to add more to the already-meaty experience.
There is now another vendor that comes around and then to sell the player unique products. This time around, it is related to gardening. Leif’s Garden Shop is a visiting vendor who allows the player to purchase unique products related to — you guessed it — gardening. This additional customization is quite nice, considering that plants are usually ignored in the game. The new shop allows the player to purchase bushes among other aesthetic plants to make their islands look nicer.
Another character returns from previous games, named Jolly Redd, in the form of Jolly Redd’s Treasure Trawler. Previously relegated to a tent, Redd now sails a ship selling his classic (and often counterfeit) art. As expected, this additional branch of collectibles has also opened a new branch in the museum where you can display the real art.
There are also special events.
The most notable one is Nature Day. Beginning April 23 and ending May 4, this event is probably the more palatable event in comparison to Bunny Day. In this event, there are new ways to get Nook Miles through environmentally-friendly activities, like planting bushes. It also comes with a new limited-time island maze called Mayday, where the player maneuvers a hedge maze.
A couple smaller events that have been announced include International Museum Day from May 18 to May 31, where you can gain additional rewards for catching fish and visiting your museum. Wedding Season begins June 1 and lasts until June 30, where you can actually help an animal couple take photos for their wedding anniversary.
These piece-meal updates are pretty good with a healthy amount of improvements from the addition of more customization to the island through vegetation to returning features. These events are also quite nice, with Nature Day being nowhere near as intrusive as Bunny Day, where your involvement in the event is all up to you and not up to the game randomly giving you an egg when you would much rather have anything else. The opt-in nature of these new events is rather promising, and I believe that it is a good step in the right direction.
In general, this update is a pretty good start to the line of updates Nintendo has promised us. I do wonder how long this will be able to sustain itself with free updates alone. “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” controversially was marked to have in-app purchases when rated by the ESRB ratings board. So far, the game has strayed away from anything related to the purchasing of products in the game with real money. I do wonder why the game was given that specific label in the first place if the game was never intended to have microtransactions of any sort in them.
Only time will tell if this marked label will develop into a different story.
Edward Park is a second-year BSED English major in the writings track. EP909756@wcupa.edu