Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSP, XCI) ROM + v2.0.6 Update + All DLCs

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Discover your island paradise in this game. Craft, customize, and explore to create your dream getaway. From dawn insect hunting to day-time paradise decoration and ocean-side sunset fishing, your island adventure matches real life, offering year-round surprises. This is a social simulation game developed and published by Nintendo in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch; it is the fifth main entry in the Animal Crossing series. In New Horizons, the player controls a character who moves to a deserted island after purchasing a getaway package from Tom Nook, accomplishes assigned tasks, and develops the island as they choose. They can gather and craft items, customize the island, and develop it into a community of anthropomorphic animals.

GAMEPLAY

As in previous Animal Crossing games, New Horizons is a life simulation game played in real-time. Weather also adjusts to the seasons of the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, depending on the player’s real-world location, a first for the Animal Crossing series. The game follows a villager customized by the player, who, after purchasing a getaway package from Tom Nook, moves into a deserted island. After Tom Nook gives the player essentials, such as a tent, the game proceeds in a non-linear fashion, allowing the player to play the game as they choose with only a small amount of limitations which lessen as the player progresses.

The player is given open access to natural resources such as fruit and wood, which can be collected and crafted into a variety of items and furniture known as D.I.Y. crafting. Alongside this, they can catch bugs and fish, plant and grow trees and flowers, extract natural resources such as rocks, and swim in the ocean. The island gives open space for placing items and decorating as the player chooses. Certain content available, such as organisms, are season-dependent and only appear for a limited time of the year. Doing simple tasks rewards the player with “Nook Miles”, which in return can purchase premium rewards in Resident Services.

The other currency “Bells”, a staple in the Animal Crossing franchise, can be used to purchase other goods and services. Another feature offered early on is the “Dodo Airlines”, an airport; through Dodo Airlines, and tickets purchased through Nook Miles, the player can visit other vacant islands to harvest resources and meet other villagers. The player can invite other villagers they meet to their island if they choose. The player starts with two other random anthropomorphic villagers who also purchase the getaway package. These villagers will live alongside the player and can be interacted with, building relationships. When the player has made sufficient progress in the game, Tom Nook gives more freedom to expand as a village.

Other shop owners will visit and settle on the island; museum-owner Blathers, who will display fish, bugs, sea creatures, fossils, and art captured by the player; sisters Mabel and Sable, who sell clothing and other player-created accessories; and Timmy and Tommy, who run a store that specializes in selling furniture and other quality-of-life items, eventually expanding to sell more items per day. That store is named Nook’s Cranny. Eventually, the main area will expand to a Town Hall, run by Tom Nook with the help of Isabelle; other buildings and villagers will populate the community, and old tents and shops will grow into a more permanent structure that can still be moved if the player chooses.

From there, the island will be given a star rating out of five, usually starting at a one-star rating. As the island is further developed, the island’s star rating will increase. When a three-star rating is achieved, K.K. Slider, a popular musician, will visit and perform a concert on the island, marking the “end” of the game as the credits roll. However, more options for island customization are given to the player for further community growth, such as the ability to construct and destroy cliffs, bodies of water, and paths, colloquially referred to as terraforming. The game supports one island per Switch system.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports both local and online co-op gameplay, with up to four players locally and eight players online able to occupy an island at any given time, an option available through Dodo Airlines. The game supports amiibo cards and figures from the Animal Crossing series, which can be used to invite a villager to the island temporarily who can be convinced to join the island. Nintendo Switch Online cloud saving was added during a late July 2020 update, allowing users to recover game data if their Switch is broken or lost. Additional free content was added every few months, added on every update by downloading the latest update from Nintendo, but major updates ceased with the release of the version 2.0 update on November 3, 2021.

UPDATES

Since the game depends on seasonal changes, New Horizons receives frequent updates, adding new seasonal items, events, and sometimes new gameplay features. Most updates are loosely based around national holidays, with the first update being themed around “Bunny Day” in April 2020 and based on Easter. Other seasonal updates followed, being “Nature Day” (Earth Day), May Day, Halloween, “Turkey Day” (Thanksgiving), and “Toy Day” (Christmas).

Other popular seasonal events, such as summer, also came with new items. Each respective update also featured popular characters from past Animal Crossing games. With each update, the island changes in look, and the player’s island is often decorated for the occasion. Alongside seasonal changes, Nintendo has also released themed items from other popular media, such as Mario outfits and decor in celebration of the franchise’s 35th anniversary.

In an October 2021 New Horizons-focused Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced the version 2.0 update would be released the following month and would be the final major free content update for the game. The update added returning characters Kapp’n and Brewster, both bringing new activities and locations to the game, as well as the ability to fund permanent locations for the game’s random visiting vendors. Alongside other quality-of-life improvements, it also included new purchasable items, such as furniture and music, new villagers, and the ability to cook food via farmed crops.

Announced alongside the update was paid downloadable content, entitled Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise; similar to the 2015 spinoff Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, the expansion allows players to visit a distant island and design vacation homes for villagers and adds new customization options that can also be used on players’ islands once learned. The version 2.0 update was released on November 3, 2021, and the Happy Home Paradise add-on was released on November 5, 2021.