Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out in March of 2020, now over two years ago, but in the time since the game's received tons of major updates alongside a full DLC expansion. So, many continue to have questions about the game and wonder if they should take the plunge and give it a go. Accordingly, we're here to answer some of these questions. In this article, we'll let you know if Animal Crossing: New Horizons is worth it, multiplayer, free, or on PC.
Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons Worth It?
Of course, this is a personal question, but as Switch's second best-selling game, suffice it to say that a lot of people think so. However, Animal Crossing is an unusual franchise very different from almost all other Nintendo IPs, and there aren't many games like it (and none that were particularly successful). It takes a certain kind of person, or mentality, to fall in love with an Animal Crossing game, and New Horizons isn't any different.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a sandbox game like Minecraft, but there's a lot less you can do in Animal Crossing than in Minecraft. In New Horizons, the meat of the game is building up and customizing your island, and that's really it. You can decorate your house, choose which villagers you want to live with, and even head off to design vacation homes for your residents, but really, it all comes down to designing, creating, and managing a space.
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Naturally, it's a chill experience, and it's filled with bright, colorful, and cute things, graphics, animations, and everything else. If you're looking for action or narrative, look elsewhere. If you want to compete or level up a character, this won't be for you. If you like open-ended sandbox experiences with a lot of freedom for self-directed goals and gameplay, you should try Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
You'll be told exactly the above in the reviews of the game that went live a few years ago, but what they won't tell you is that in the time since Animal Crossing: New Horizons has many, many new things to do that all serve that larger goal of customizing your space. Many features in previous Animal Crossing games that people missed in New Horizons have returned to the game, and the game's also gotten a major DLC packed with tons of content.
Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons Multiplayer?
Yes! Animal Crossing: New Horizons has had multiplayer since its 2020 launch. However, it's not exactly traditional multiplayer in any sense. It's not, exactly, co-op, and it's definitely not competitive. Nor is it asynchronous or some strange new thing. It's not complicated, either, though, and here's how it works:
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Everyone in Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets an island to live on that, over the course of the game, they build up. What you can do is visit other players' islands and invite them to yours. You can trade with players, but you'll have a limited level of interactivity with other peoples' islands, though this can be adjusted a bit depending on how much freedom the person who owns the island wants to give you.
There's also local multiplayer of a similar flavor in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can't have multiple islands, but you can have friends, partners, and whoever you've got around pick up a controller and play with you. Plus, other local players can even get houses built on your island, which is nice. Ultimately, though, people playing cooperatively with you will be limited significantly in what they can do on your island as compared to you, the island's owner.
It may not sound like much, but visiting other people's islands, as well as downloading their custom designs for all kinds of things you can use to decorate your island, is a big part of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience. Plus, there are huge, populated Discord servers and dedicated sites where the Animal Crossing community trades everything imaginable in-game.
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Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons Free or on PC?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a premium $60 first-party Nintendo game available on Nintendo's Switch console (as well as the Switch Lite, of course). However, today, it's pretty reasonable to find a copy for $40 or $50 with a little work, but Nintendo doesn't really like to bring the price down on games all that much, so don't hold your breath.
Animal Crossing isn't on PC. Not officially at least. This is where it gets interesting. Nintendo Switch emulators on PC are still relatively early on in their development and capabilities, but there are already two working ones, Yuzu and Ryujinx. Both emulators can play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so you technically can play the game on PC, if you want.
However, performance still isn't great, and there isn't yet a great suite of mods expanding the game's technical capabilities further than what we saw on Switch. Ultimately, if you're looking for a stable, bug-free experience, New Horizons via emulation just isn't there yet, but if you can put up with some quirks, you might want to check it out. Either way, these emulators are definitely software to watch out for in the coming years.
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