some thoughts about ACNH's reception

[Charcolor]

i've been thinking a lot recently about the reception ACNH has. opinions on it are extremely mixed. even people who were obsessed with the game at launch (for...obvious reasons) will say they hate it now.

i wanted to share my thoughts here and see what other people think. i'm not trying to start debates here, i'm genuinely curious about people's opinions and if they feel differently, especially if they're longtime animal crossing fans. (my first game was new leaf.)

i think new horizons is a very good game that was released at a bad time. and saying ACNH was released at a bad time might sound weird because everyone was playing it on launch. but i think that was the issue. it was right when lockdowns started and people spent so much of their energy on ACNH that they got burnt out on it and started getting annoyed by it. if ACNH was released at a time where the entire world didn't stop and fry it under a magnifying glass, i think it would've been better received. people would have taken it more slowly.

i know in the early days people complained about not all the content being in the game at once. but realistically, if it was, i think they would've exhausted the game and gotten bored faster. (one of my unpopular opinions is that i don't mind when games add more content after they're released but that's a whole other topic.)

people also seem to dislike new horizons for being too different from other games, being more creativity and aesthetic focused. like i said, my first game was new leaf, so i don't know what the consensus was when older games were released. but from what i can tell, city folk has similarly mixed reception, but for the opposite reason, that being it's too similar to wild world. i'm curious to know what other people think, especially if they remember the release of city folk.

i have always thought that new horizons is more creativity-focused because the recent reception from players was favoring that. of course, the animal crossing player base isn't a hivemind. but as someone who spent copious amounts of time on these forums in high school (i am currently 24), i feel like when you asked people what they wanted in the next animal crossing game back in 2016, they wanted to customize villager homes, choose where they lived, choose where all the buildings are, decorate outside town with whatever furniture they want, stop flowers from wilting forever, be rid of grass deterioration forever, etc. now i see people complain about how much new horizons focuses on decoration and customization. and obviously, a lot of people have new horizons as their first game and not everyone who plays new horizons had these opinions about the past games, but given what i've personally seen from my forum usage in tbe past, i think it's totally reasonable why nintendo would've wanted to go in this direction for animal crossing. and i don't think it's reasonable to act like they're stupid and cringe for it like some people seem to be.

not that nintendo is immune to criticism, of course. but the way i see it, they were giving people what they asked for. and unfortunately you can never please everyone.

sorry for the rambling, i hope this makes sense and i'm curious to know your thoughts. it's entirely possible i'm being too forgiving. i just try to be optimistic about games i buy and enjoy, you know? i don't want to be made to feel like i wasted my money just because the game didn't meet a stranger's expectations.

 

[floatingzoo]

Agree agree with a lot of your points!! My first game too was New Leaf, and I lurked about this forum in high school. I was obsessed. I remember people complaining about the lack of dialogue in that game too. I think that at a certain point, after playing a game for years, the dialogue is going to get repetitive. Personally, I really enjoy New Horizons because it lets me do the things I wanted to do in New Leaf but couldn't. Natural looking paths were difficult to maintain, you could only hold a small number of patterns, and oh how I wished to put stuff outside! I even played with the save editor to put weeds on my beach. I love both games, but they are different games. I think everyone would have been disappointed if all of the things from New Leaf returned to New Horizons because it would just have been a rehashing of the old game.
A switch port however...

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

Great post. To be honest, I think the views on New Leaf are quite revisionist at times. People were very critical of villagers and villager dialogue back then. I honestly really enjoy New Horizon's dialogue with villagers, but there are many people suddenly suggesting that NL's was way better (which I don't believe it is; but it's just a matter of preference). People were definitely asking for more decorative stuff on their islands. Heck, with NL, people used to include designs on the floors to avoid villagers moving in.

I actually did a post on Reddit not long ago, and would like to share it here as well (apologies for the length, but will add a TLDR.

TLDR; New Leaf has always been the "odd one out" of the Animal Crossing series. From the start, the premise has always been a little different (you're the mayor, as opposed as just someone living in this town ; even in NH you're just the "Island Representative", but Nook is always in charge) or the fact that there's quite a distinction between "your town" and "city life" (prior to NL, Able's, the Museum and Nooks were always part of your town). This is not to say that NL is a bad game, not at all! I really like New Leaf. The point is that the ethos of Animal Crossing has always been a part of NH. Progression systems (excluding Nooks), part time jobs at the café, online mini games, have all been very unique features of New Leaf. Most of the criticism (imo), come from the fact that people compare it directly to NL. This is fair, since it's the successor in the series. And while NH does feel regressive in some ways (removing some things introduced in NL), it also introduced a bunch of new features exclusive to NH. Also successors being a bit regressive on features present in their predecessors, isn't something new: WW did it when it removed traditional holidays from the game ; NL did it when it removed constellations and the observatory, all together. Excluding some gameplay feature exclusive to NL (like the part time job or the mini games), NH plays exactly the same as NL -- so I often don't agree when people claim that NH is purely decorative. It's a big aspect, sure. But, for example, I've never terraformed my island (been playing since launch) nor have I reset my island, either.

New Horizons is more alike Animal Crossing than people care to admit. NL has always been the odd one of the group.​

Since the announcement of the 3.0 Update (but even before that, I've noticed more and more people pushing claims that New Horizons is less sim-like or its gameplay is less "Animal Crossing" than before. My view is that New Horizons is actually more like Animal Crossing than people care to admit, while New Leaf was kind of the exception (and a justified one, as well).)

I'll start of by saying that I do agree with many of the criticisms and points made over New Horizons: I do agree that design/decorating are at the core of this game ; that it's shameful that we don't have as many returning special NPCs like we would like (especially those that make little sense for them not to add, like Gracie or Blanca ; I absolutely think that not having multiplayer mini-games is a missed opportunity (and a missed business opportunity for them, as well) and I do terribly miss the Nook's upgrades.)

Having said all of that, I do think that many of the criticism I see thrown around is pretty unfair:

Sense/element of progression
This is perhaps one of the biggest points I see thrown around. Unlike what people say, New Horizons does have a sense of progression: quite literally you start off in a deserted island and build off from there (with a few "tasks" handed to you by Tom Nook himself. Slowly, your island will start developing, opening itself for more buildings and stores. Timmy and Tommy will leave the tent and start off with Nook's Cranny ; Mabel will visit and propose starting the Able's Sisters Shop ; You will eventually find Blather's tent and he'll start off the museum (the first part) ; eventually you'll also find Brewster on an island and he'll open The Roost ; Isabelle will arrive soon with the renewal of the Resident Services building ; you will eventually meet Harvey on your island to invite you to his ; and this will all (eventually) wrap up with K.K.'s concert. In addition to this, the game does unlock quite a few features as you progress: the island builder, the online catalogue, customizing your home (exterior), and if you have the DLC -- you will eventually also unlock more features for your house. There's also "smaller" things you unlock, like the specific items you can get through the aerobics, for example. In addition, NH introduced the whole "Nooks Miles" thing, which can actually push players to accomplish certain tasks. I think the biggest issue of the game is, perhaps, that "progression" seems more predominant on the early stages of the game. Whereas in New Leaf, progression actually takes more time.)

However, if you look at past games (prior to NL, you'd know that) there really isn't anything you can progress there (with the exception of Nook's stores. Otherwise, the game is pretty much the same forever.)

Online multiplayer
Online multiplayer is also a point that I see brought up very often here. I also really liked the mini-games on Tortimer Island in New Leaf and, as I said, I think it's a missed opportunity that they didn't bring them back here. However, online multiplayer in NH is nothing different to previous (online installments.) Back then in WW and CF, there really wasn't much else to do (other than play hide and seek in the museum, lol. If anything, I think NH has allowed for players to create more games of their own. I also think that, the fact that islands are very different to each other, actually encourages more people to visit each other than if they were to do so now a days with WW or CF.)

I also think that Slumber Party (introduced in 3.0 is a step in the right direction. It really look fun but not just from a decorative perspective -- I can only imagine the types of mini games and courses people will create from there.)

Special NPCs and events
As I've said, it's quite shameful that Nintendo didn't bring back all of the special NPCs from previous games. I think quite a few of them would've made sense if they had been brought back (Blanca for April's Fools or Gracie. However, I think people don't realize that New Horizons currently has more special NPC's than GCN, WW and CF.)

- Gamecube Animal crossing had 33 special NPCs.
- Animal Crossing: Wild World had 34 special NPCs.
- Animal Crossing: City Folk had 48 special NPCs.
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf had 61 special NPCs.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons has 50 special NPCs (currently with 3.0 ; prior to 3.0 it had 47 - DLC included in both counts, without DLC it has 44.)

So yes, I'm also sad about the lack of returning special NPCs (and I can totally understand people being upset as well by this ; especially when I feel like some NPCs were unfairly replaced by items: like the postcard stand or the QR Design Code stand. However, it literally has the most special NPCs compared to the older series. I think there's also quite a few positives from the way these new NPCs have been approached: I absolutely loved learning more about Cyrus and Reese through their wedding anniversary event ; Unlike New Leaf, Blathers will actually tell you more about insects/fish/critters (and his fear of insects is back) ; I thought it was pretty sweet that Brewster shows interest in Gyroids again (though I find it a shame that we can't give him gyroids, like in WW and CF). I also really like that Celeste's, unlike NL, is once again linked to stars and the sky (having falling stars while Celeste is on your island ; her giving your recipes for constellation-based furniture or space related, too, and wands!). C.J. and Flick being there not just for tournaments but also to give you models of insects and fish! Joan being in the hospital (lol) and giving you turnips every Monday! D.J. K.K. holding big raves at the HHP island every Sunday!)

This is also not to mention that we can bring in and have coffee with all special NPCs and decorate their homes at HHP.

While it's definitely a matter of taste and preference, I definitely like the way New Horizons approaches events and festivities. I love seeing how our villagers are more involved in them than in previous games. I also found that in New Leaf, we had lots of festivities that were celebrated with a cardboard for pics. I love the way NH has introduced more "simple" but sweet events, like May Day, the Wedding Anniversary Event, Earth Day with Leif (shrubs and the Nook Mile events and International Museum Day with the stamps!)

As a reminder, Wild World had no "traditional" holiday events like in most games. There was no Bunny Day, Halloween, Turkey Day or Toy Day. I absolutely know that, if Wild World were to be released at that state now a days, it would've been torn to pieces. Anyone saying otherwise, is absolutely lying.

As a point of comparison, here are the number of holidays celebrated per game in the series (not necessarily linked to an event

- Animal Crossing GCN had 27 holidays.
- Animal Crossing WW had 14 holidays.
- Animal Crossing CF had 23 holidays.
- Animal Crossing New Leaf had 21 holidays.
- Animal Crossing New Horizons: 19 holidays (this is not considering the celebratory international event items you get through Nook's Shopping Catalogue, which are much more. I also didn't consider "seasonal events" like cherry blossoms/mushroom season, etc.)

Returning features (and return to form)
I feel like these aren't talked to enough, but New Horizons actually brought back so many features from the older games in the series. New Horizons was able to bring back:

- The "up" camera view like in Animal Crossing Gamecube.
- The "dream like" sequence of K.K. is similar to Animal Crossing Gamecube.
- K.K. playing outside and the sequence is very similar to Animal Crossing Gamecube.
- Wisp and Gulliver have roles very similar to Gamecube Animal Crossing.
- Message in a bottle from Wild World (though not quite exactly the same.)
- Morning Aerobics from Gamecube Animal Crossing.
- (Currently, with the 3.0 update Being able to play with older Nintendo consoles (though you do need an NSO account to do so).)
- Tiers on the map (like having up to three levels.)
- "Islander" villagers from Gamecube Animal Crossing.
- Cornimer from Wild World.
- EDIT: Glowing money spot back from GCN.

Villagers personality and dialogue
Probably one of the most repeated points I see around here. Again, it's definitely a matter of taste and preference. I think NH's dialogue is actually pretty good, personally. I find that it can be pretty witty and I really enjoy going around talking to my villagers. NL's dialogue was very much centered on "tasks" (bring me this, do that, etc. There's a chunk of dialogue also related to "did you know if you press the X button... did you know there are lockers in the station...". You can check some of the differences (though it's not complete) in the transcripts) here (NH and) here (NL.)

Gamecube and Wild World had very great dialogue, too. Of course, there's the mean villagers part (which I adored, and the sense that they were progressively more friendly to you as they started to know more about you. But I also think that GCN dialogue was flawed at times. I think people may misremember, but it was very repetitive (so it cycled a lot) and a lot of it was also "press this button to X... ; go here if you want to buy ...".)

EDIT 2 (as of 05/11/2025):

Town decoration has (mostly) always been a feature in Animal Crossing games. It's coherent with the "ethos" of Animal Crossing.

New Horizons wasn't the first game to introduce exterior or outdoor decoration. This has been a thing in (most) Animal Crossing games, except for Wild World (if I'm not mistaken). In Dobutsu No Mori e+ you could decorate your town with a series of objects through Tom Nook. Some of these items included the Giant Yoshi Egg, the Park Clock, the Flower Clock, Heliport, etc. In City Folk, you could include the Wind Mill or Lighthouse and you could also add the Fountain. New Leaf probably was built on these previous ideas when they introduced the Public Work Projects.

Concluding thoughts
I see lots of people argue that Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn't feel like Animal Crossing, but I think it would be more fair if people were to frame those comparisons with New Leaf (because they truly mean New Leaf when they compare it to Animal Crossing as a series as a whole. Additionally, I think you are still pretty much free to play NH however you want, but I do see that people generally rush through the game when the game's philosophy and ethos has always been about taking things slowly and one thing at a time. Even then, there's tons of people doing time travel, treasure islands, etc. There's nothing wrong with that. I go to islands from other hemispheres, too. But I think people should also think about what they are doing and how they are approaching the game as part of their criticisms.)

I also think the game needed to re-invent itself. I think there's a very little, niche community of players that still play older Animal Crossing games (myself included. But I'm 100% sure that the big majority of people would not have enjoyed Animal Crossing as much as they do now, because there was just not much to do on the older games. You did your dailys (which were a lot less back then) and that was pretty much it. GCN AC was pretty much a single-player game and it had lots of problems/hassles (like sending your fossils to the museum by mail, lol). I know lots of people would hate on those things today -- and villager interaction alone would not save them (because, as I said, while super creative and fun, they were also quite repetitive).)

City Folk is probably proof of this. It was a carbon-copy of Wild World (with exception of the "city" feature, which was pretty lackluster, in general. The game reviewed and sold horribly (to this day, it's the worst-rated game of the series and it's one of the games with the lowest sales, as well ; Happy Home Designer almost sold just as much as CF, lol). So I'm sure that the AC team needed to innovate -- and they did with New Leaf. New Leaf brought a much needed innovative approach to the franchise (which was on the verge of dying). It literally turned Animal Crossing from a niche series into a Nintendo top 5.)

I think New Horizons needed this new approach as well. I don't think the game would've survived as much with a carbon copy design of New Leaf. And the thing is, the game did bring a wave of new players (pandemic aside that has helped the series grow even more.)

EDIT (as of the 3/11/2025)

Thank you all for your comments and discussion. Something I've seen around on the comments is the idea that New Horizons was centered strictly on decoration or that all features are tailored to this form of gameplay. I think that undermines the game a bit and undermines many of the other lovely features the game has. As a reminder these are all the new features that New Horizons introduced (going up to the 3.0 update). I will also but in parenthesis returning features from the first three Animal Crossing:

Villagers

• Villagers will have more interactions: they will sing, run around, hangout by the plaza, clean, exercise, do yoga, gather sticks, sit around, fall asleep and more.
• New "interactions" when your villager is trying to fish/catch bugs.

Cooking

• Cooking recipes (including: fish, island fruit and mushrooms).
• You can plant and harvest vegetables
• Vegetables/harvest seeds are sold by Leif now
• Villagers can cook.
• Eating full recipes increases your number of strength (to lift trees or break rocks).
• You can dispose of the "energy/strength" by using the toilet.

Nook Miles and Nook Miles Tickets

• You get Nook Miles points by completing different tasks
• You can exchange your Nook Miles points for items or Nook Miles Tickets
• You can use Nook Miles tickets to travel to other islands (and sometimes encounter villagers, if you have room in your island).

Crafting and customization

• Crafting items
• Customizing items
• DIY recipes
• Introduction to "resources": sticks, ores, stones, clay, etc (gold nuggets are a returning feature from NL).

The museum

• Blathers babbling about donations (returning from past games)
• Blathers afraid of insects (returning from past games)
• Museum posters after completing a room

The Roost

• Special NPC's will go to The Roost to take Roost 2 Go.
• You can have a coffee with any of your villagers/special NPCs (Amiibo card required)
• Up to 12 players can drink coffee together (as of Update 3.0)

Abels Sisters

• Besides what you were already able to do at Ables, there is a changing room to try on clothes.

Your Birthday

• Players can now play piñata during your birthday
• Players get "birthday cupcakes" (the amount depends on how much you strike the piñata) and by giving them to your villagers, you will get birthday-themed items in return.

Redd

• Ability to "inspect" the paintings/pieces of art
• Redd is now available in Harvey's island community.

Luna

• New introduced mode "Slumber party" (as of 3.0 Update)

Nook Phone and camera

• You can use your phone for a number of ways including: accessing catalogue, your passport, QR designs, island design feature, critterpedia (which now will tell you if you have donated it or not to the museum), friends list, a designing app (to edit a room), HHP app (to share creations in your HHP island), Resetti rescue team, chat history, etc.
• Camera (feature introduced in NL) is expanded in New Horizons with: handheld mode, tripod mode, "airplane view" mode, camera filters.

Flick and C.J.

• You can give them bugs/fish/critters and get models from them!

Island design

• Terraforming your island (ground / water).
• Creating paths.
• Island infrastructure (inclines/staircases/ramps)
• Move around your house / villager homes / other buildings (except Resident Services).
• Customize your villager's homes (interiors and exteriors).
• Setting up items outside your home (this is partly a returning feature from GCN/CF/NL, in the sense that there were major projects set up on your towns; NH extends this to all items).

Fences

• Fences and shrubs

Tools

• Tools (including golden tools) will break after a series of use ( (truly, the "grass degradation" feature of this era)
• You can customize your tools.
• You can gift tools to your villagers (and they will start using those).

New tools

• You can use the pole to cross rivers without a bridge (also known as pole vaulting).
• There's a ladder which you can use to climb cliffs.
• Similarly, there are vines and ladders you can leave on hedges permanently to use to climb (DLC required).

New flora

• New flowers introduced in the game.
• Glowing moss.

Kapp'n

• Kapp'n will take you to mysterious islands (seasonal islands, glowing moss/vines island, money islands, falling stars islands, etc).
• Kapp'n can take items you've crafted to other islands (as of update 3.0).

Saharah

• Saharah now sells rugs (note: this was a feature first introduced in HHD, but it was never present in any mainline AC game).
• Saharah gives you Saharah tickets after purchasing items.

Aerobics

• Players can now carry out aerobics exercises in the plaza (this is a returning feature, to an extent, as in GCN it was limited to the Sport's Fair event).

Hotel (based on the information provided by Nintendo)

• You can now host up to 8 more villagers in a hotel on your island. The hotel is a brand new build introduced in NH.
• You can decorate the hotel rooms for villagers staying at the hotel.
• Villagers staying at your hotel can visit and stroll your island as tourists.
• You can set up mannequin clothes for your tourist villagers to use (other players can use them as well, when visiting your island).

Label

• Label will task you to dress a

Wisp

• You need to catch Wisps's spirit parts for an item (returning feature from Gamecube).

Gulliver and Guillivarr

• You need to dig up the chips for Gulliver (you get a "world's wonders" item).
• You need to dive into the ocean to find the phone for Gullivarr (you get pirate items).

Old consoles

• You are able to play old Nintendo consoles (Gameboy, SNES, NES, Famicom) (Returning feature from GCN, though it was limited to NES). (You need NSO).

Happy Home Paradise (DLC)

• You have a job working at the HHP island.
• You have work breaks with your colleagues to celebrate milestones.
• D.J. K.K.'s beach party raves (every Sunday).
• You can customize the homes, gardens, of all villagers and special NPCs (using amiibos)
• You can set up villagers with roomies.
• Introduction of wall partitions, counters.
• In-door noises.
• In-door changes in lights.
• Ceiling items
• Polishing effects (indoors only).

 

[daffodilcrossing]

You literally said everything that I and my friends have spoken about lol. I know some of my friends were super burnt out on New Horizons for exactly the reason you described - it came out during lockdown. And of course no one could have predicted the massive affect that would have on player times and increase of the fan base. I know some of my friends had honestly planned to never really play again (until news of the new update). And I get it, I myself have gone through long stretches of times where I don’t play. I think for me the nostalgia factor will always play in to how I feel about the game. My first game was also New Leaf, and although I have my own criticisms of some of the New Horizons aspects, I think it is a good game. I think you’re right that it was put under a microscope because of how many hours people were able to put into it at the start. I disagree slightly with the releasing content part though - I think it’s silly to give fans the exact same features as old games and be like “omg new update so exciting!”. I think it’s okay to release features we’ve had in the past slowly like they did, but I wasn’t a fan about how it was framed as something we should be so hype about. I’m sure the release of old features into the game was about longevity, and it probably would have come across better if we weren’t in a lockdown with too much time on our hands. I am glad that they added and are still adding new features to the game. I think THAT’S what will really cement longevity for this game - now that there will be so much to do. All in all though, good post! I like your thoughts.

 

[Mayor Jack]

I just came back to New Horizons after a long time not playing it, and now have a more positive opinion of it than I did before. I still prefer New Leaf, as I think it was a bit more even in doing all aspects of animal crossing well, but can appreciate the different direction ACNH took.

I'm personally not a fan of the drip-feeding of content through updates and feel like the game in 2020 was much emptier with less to do compared to New Leaf. Now, many of the features missing at the beginning (diving, Redd's art, dream suite, café, Kapp'n etc.) have been added, so it feels more complete and finished now. There's still nothing like the island tours to do with other players though, which feels like a huge blank spot.

Some of the changes from NL were amazing, like the island designer app (finally being able to not have items disappear the second they touch a path!), moving rocks and houses, and other general quality of life things that were needed. Others I don't understand at all, like breaking tools?? (At least there is a bigger inventory so you can carry a back-up of every tool).

While the graphics are beautiful and island customisation is almost unlimited, I do feel like this was prioritised over other aspects. The villager dialogue feels much more robotic and stale to me, even going from New Leaf. In all past games, I feel like you could definitely get attached to specific villagers, which I haven't really felt at all in New Horizons.

New Leaf is still my favourite (only partly due to nostalgia, being my first AC game), but I can see why some people prefer New Horizons. It just comes down to what is most important to you in animal crossing. I'm personally hoping that in the next game, there's a bit less focus on aesthetics.

I also definitely agree with you about Nintendo giving us what the players seemed to be asking for in NL, in the form of more customisation. Back then, that was definitely what I wanted too, and I can't really blame Nintendo for shifting the main aspect of the game.