Animal Crossing New Horizons is a big hit for Nintendo, selling over 13.4 million units. It’s an enjoyable game at first, but is it worth all the hype (and sales) that it’s gotten? It’s fun at first, no doubt, but over time, it gets old. There’s no endpoint. It’s definitely a well-made game, but does that make it a great one? That is the question, and the simple answer from my perspective is no, it is not. It’s a lot of fun, and fun is a key factor in any great game, but simply being “fun” doesn’t make a great game. There needs to be more than that, and Animal Crossing is severely lacking in that regard.
Animal Crossing’s biggest flaw is that there is no end game. Yes, it’s not that kind of game, but it’s not incredibly rewarding by that standard either. It’s fun at first, but it gets old fast. That’s the biggest problem with New Horizons. It’s not satisfying. Yes, there are some rewards here and there for completing tasks, but other than that, there’s not much there. You can tell a lot of hard work went into the game, and no disrespect to those who poured their hearts and souls into the title, but after a while, it feels like a chore, not fun. Heck, I check on my island once a month now and I started out playing every day. It’s not sustainable. It’s fun at first, but the only thing I’ve checked since I bought it is my birthday, which was cool and all, but it wasn’t necessarily a reason to keep playing several times a week.
Apart of the fundamental flaw of Animal Crossing, though its signature trademark, is its lack of an end game. You just keep playing and playing and playing with no end in sight. That’s not a bad thing, but it gets boring and repetitive over time. When this occurs, it stops being fun. It merely gets old. That’s not to say New Horizons is a bad game; far from it. It’s a very good game, but it’s not a great one as so many proclaim, and definitely not one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch. It’s fun, at first, but grows old quickly. It’s taken the world by storm, but this doesn’t mean it’s an elite game. Popular opinion doesn’t necessarily reflect how great a game is.
Animal Crossing New Horizons is a solid game. It’s fun, for a while, it’s charming, and it’s endearing. That being said, it’s not a “great” game. It grows old fast and lacks the “it” factor that makes an elite game. That being said, that’s what Animal Crossing is. The lack of any kind of ultimate reward hurts, and while you do get rewarded here and there, it’s not satisfying. The game is fun, but it isn’t able to sustain itself. There is a lot to do, and it can keep gamers occupied for hours on end, but it is far from being an elite or even a great game. The game is fun, but that’s not all there is to a great game. There has to be some kind of end goal, and New Horizons lacks this.
While it is very good and very well made, it’s also one of the most overrated games we’ve seen this generation.