Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch 2
Tested on: Switch 2
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition – Review
It’s hard to believe that Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released for the original Switch nearly six years ago, making it already a fairly ‘old’ title. Luckily, the game has received enough content updates over the years to keep people coming back to manage their island town and go on adventures, solo or with friends. While we were secretly hoping for a new game in the series, it is a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition that will have to keep us occupied for the foreseeable future. As we extensively covered the Switch 1 version when it came out, we’ll refer you to our original review by clicking here, which covers all the basics. In this article, we’ll mainly be covering the Switch 2 upgrades and additions.
If you’re already familiar with the game, or if you read our original review, we can actually tell you that the Switch 2 version isn’t bringing that much new content to the table. In the Switch 2 Edition, you’ll find improved graphics, better loading times (this is also the case if you play your original Switch 1 copy on the Switch 2), multiplayer for up to twelve players, mouse controls for decorating, and the megaphone. The latter of all of these is a fun gimmick to locate your island residents via the built-in microphone, but it’s probably something you won’t use that much.
Graphically, things may not seem so significant at first, but you’ll notice less jagged edges, more vibrant colors, and just a general layer of polish that went over this six-year-old game. The FPS is still capped at 30, however, which may disappoint some players. The loading times have improved, but if you’re playing online, watching people land on your island is still as tedious as ever. If you are now hosting a twelve-player party, keep in mind that you’ll have to go through that loading screen eleven times.
Last but by no means least, the addition of the mouse controls for decorating. This feels like a huge step up from the otherwise clunky controls when you like to decorate a lot. This also comes in handy if you are digging into the new hotel content that came with the 3.0 update. That being said, the mouse controls really feel innovative and like a huge improvement for the series, but a lot of other menu commands are still done via the traditional controls, which is a bit of a shame. It would have been nice if you could actively drag and drop from your storage, rather than just when decorating the room itself.
If you are a returning player and haven’t played in a while, then you’ll also enjoy what the 3.0 update has to offer. There are many small QoL improvements, such as snapping on a grid when doing some island designing, but there’s also the newly added hotel. The hotel is somewhat of a ‘Happy Home Paradise‘ light version, but it’s a fun inclusion for those who don’t own the DLC yet. Even for those who own the DLC, it’s still a nice daily distraction, and it also makes your island feel more alive with new faces roaming around. There are eight rooms you can design, with one VIP room that you could redesign every day as a sort of daily task. Actively working on the hotel will score you new tickets to spend in the hotel gift shop on cool-looking items.
Conclusion
If you’re content with your Switch 1 version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and aren’t ready to dish out a few bucks for the upgrade pack, that is very reasonable, as there’s not that much new content that’s added to the base experience. If you are still a very active player and wouldn’t mind a few QoL upgrades, then the upgrade pack will be ideal for you. All in all, the game itself is still the same fun, cozy, relaxing experience as it was back in 2020, albeit with those few aforementioned upgrades. If you’re a new player, we advise going for the Switch 2 version immediately, as it’s still very much the definitive edition. For now, we’ll probably be revisiting our island a lot in the near future to check out the new content that came from the 3.0 update, which is available to both Switch 1 and 2 players.
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