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Today’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct broadcast just wrapped and boy, was there a lot to see. First off, go ahead and view the Direct itself below, if you haven’t already (or need a refresh):
If you’d prefer to jump straight into the details, we’ve parsed out the most pertinent and fascinating tidbits:
- Choosing an Island: New residents get to pick whichever island layout they would like from the start of the game. This time around, players can choose which hemisphere they would like to reside in, with corresponding seasons, as a result. It’s a nice touch for those who’d like the world in the game be a touch more reflective of the one outside their window.
- Special Services: There are three “Special Services” offered by Nook Inc. in New Horizons. The first is basic furnishings inside the player’s tent (radio, lamp, and cot). The second is Nook’s morning announcements where he lets players know what’s happening on the island for that day. Finally, the third is the Nook Mileage Program. This is perhaps the most important of the three because it appears that Bells have been replaced with Miles as the game’s primary currency. Engaging in assigned tasks and activities allows the player to accumulate miles and exchange them for goods or pay off what they owe to Nook.
- Eight Players Per Island: A single island can be saved per Switch, with up to eight people allowed to live on the island.
- Optional Extras: There are four of these. First, players as ever can elect to build and upgrade a home. Nook Miles Tickets are number two— at the new airport location (more on that in a second), players can fly to a variety of randomly generated islands where they can discover new fruits, items, and animals, all of which can be transferred back to their own home island. Option three is Party Play, where a player can lead up to three others around the island with them and explore.
- NookLink: Found inside of the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app, NookLink will be available in March following the launch of New Horizons. It enables voice and text chat in-game, and will also connect to previous Animal Crossing games like Happy Home Designer so that players can exchange designs/patterns via QR codes.
- Amiibo Functionality: All previously released Animal Crossing Amiibo (including Amiibo Cards!) will work with New Horizons. They allow players to call in animal neighbors to live on their island. What’s more, players can also send these neighbors to a place called Photopia where they can be arranged in photoshoots. Not all Amiibo will be available at launch, but they’ll be added at a later date.
- Deep Customization: The island can be terraformed to a certain extent by players as they progress through the game. Pave new paths, add new patches of land, and extend rivers as the player sees fit. Ramps, bridges, and more can also be added to the island in order to maximize accessibility, too!
- The Airport: Players can visit other islands or bring people to come visit theirs using the new Dodo Airlines feature. While visiting other people’s islands, it will not be possible to use shovels and axes unless the players are registered as Best Friends.
- Free Updates: Seasonal updates and activities will come via updates. The first is on launch day and gets the game ready for Bunny Day festivities!
- No Cloud Support… Kinda: This bit is slightly confusing. There is no official cloud support for saves. However, if a player somehow loses their data due to some kind of extreme circumstance (their Switch is lost or broken, for instance), Nintendo will eventually allow players to recover their save file… via the cloud. The broadcast didn’t make the complete nature of this service clear, although hopefully when it becomes available down the road, it will make more sense.
One last thing: New Horizons and mobile title Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will be able to interact with each other. An item exchange of sorts will be possible, and during the broadcast players were told to keep an eye on the official Pocket Camp Twitter page. That’s everything! What a lot of info. Did today’s Direct get you even more pumped for the game? Let us know in the comments and on social media!
Source: Animal Crossing Direct 02.20.20
