“I thought about getting a tattoo of my favorite Animal Crossing character. But I love Dottie, she’s my BAE.” – J.Z.
Wow. A new tattoo? My significant other said this and gave me a bit of a shock. She does love the game, but who knew she loves it this much. Animal Crossing, New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch arrives March 20, 2020, and it’s a big deal for a lot of people. The special edition console for the Switch to go with the new release will be out one week earlier, on March 13th.
I would have no idea, but I spend a lot of time with my sweetie, one of those people who tell me, “Don’t expect to see me or talk to me for a couple of weeks after March 20th. So, I said, “Self, it’s time to interview your sweetie about Animal Crossing for NAN.” Here we go.
EVAN CONROY: So, the new edition of Animal Crossing is coming out. Have any feelings about that?
JZ: I preordered it the date it was announced.
EC: What are you expecting or hoping for?
JZ: There’s a lot of things. We’ll have the same villagers that we love. But the graphics are MUCH better. And the ability to interact with other players, locally and on the internet, is greatly improved.
EC: Didn’t you have a bad experience with an old version that is corrected now?
JZ: Yes. I let another player visit my New Leaf town on my island, and before I could stop them, they chopped down all my trees, which was heartbreaking. I literally cried for like, two days. I was so upset. It was like my house had been robbed. In the new game, visitors who aren’t in your inner circle won’t be able to use “destructive” tools like the ax and shovel, in your town.
EC: We watched the launch video together; what are some new things that excite you?
JZ: I think it’s cool you can have up to 8 players on your island that can each have their own house and play the game. Up to four players can play together at once.
EC: Is that a big change?
JZ: Yeah, because you used to be able to go visit a friend in their town and play with them, or you could have up to four players that shared your town, but only one at a time could play; we had to take turns.
EC: Are you part of any communities around this?
JZ: Yeah, I’m part of a huge Facebook Animal Crossing group. One member is 82; she’s the oldest I’ve seen; she’s played every version of Animal Crossing, and she’s really excited for this one.
EC: What is it you like so much about this game?
JZ: Nothing bad happens. You build and create your world. You make friends with animal villagers. You actually can have rich relationships. Catching fish is fun; growing flowers and trees is fun; there’s just always a lot of things to do, but you don’t have to do anything. Except for pick weeds. You have to pull your weeds.
EC: What happens if I don’t pick my weeds?
JZ: I don’t know what happens in this version, but in the old versions, Isabel would yell at you and villagers would complain and your house would get roaches. It’s true; you’d get roaches and they’d run around whenever you came in the room. I don’t know what happens in the new version. One of the biggest complaints about Pocket Camp (the phone version) was that your camp had weeds, but there was no way to pull them. So, if you were used to being proud of your tidy town, it would drive you crazy. I really didn’t like that I couldn’t pull the weeds.
EC: What should non-fans of Animal Crossing know?
JZ: I don’t know. I think one of the coolest things about the game is that the console knows where you live and it has the date and time, so the game mirrors seasons and weather, and the animal villagers all say Happy Birthday to you on your birthday, and the whole town celebrates holidays together. Like Isabelle used to give you sparklers on the Fourth of July. Nintendo often would send you presents on holidays. Special things you could only get on holiday. They would arrive in your mailbox.
EC: You mean, your real-world mailbox?
JZ: No, the in-game mailbox. It wasn’t always holidays. Like when Mario Kart was released, they sent you a Mario cap your character could wear.
EC: (I tell JZ about the new info on the game, including the screenshot with a grave, and the speculation that Joan is dead)
JZ: I hope not; I like Joan. The turnip (stalk) market was fun.
(I tell JZ that New Horizons will have the most gender-neutral character features any Nintendo game has had.)
JZ: That’s cool. How do I feel about that? I’ve always wanted to sort of experiment with making my character really different than I am in real life, but I always end up with a character who is really similar to myself; I’m not sure why that is.
EC: I take it you recommend Animal Crossing?
JZ: I love it!
Written by Evan Conroy
