Many of us are isolated indoors and we crave the usual outdoor activities that we did participate in before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Nintendo released Animal Crossing: New Horizon and it has become very popular where many individuals have been able to escape from reality while playing the game.
The worldwide phenomenon of Animal Crossing started in Japan on April 14, 2001, but this latest release allows its players to build-from-ground-up. Players are able to take on the role of a new resident on a deserted island, and are tasked to build a thriving society by building stores, homes and paying debt off by doing small tasks around their island.
The game has some of the cutest anthropomorphic characters and observes real-time clocks and calendars, there are no levels or big bosses, and is easy going, self paced and has no ending which means it can be played for hours. Each day there are new changes to the game whether it’s new fishes, bugs, tasks, residents and various surprises.
Animal Crossing creates a harmonious and picture perfect society that the larger audience, specifically the millennials, all dream of. It is also uniquely customized for each player, and aids the struggle of isolation especially during quarantine. Players are allowed to connect and communicate with each other while practicing social distancing by visiting each other on their very own island, giving each other items as well as uploading screenshots on social media.
Since its latest release on March 20, 2020 sales has surpassed it’s previous versions selling 1.88 million physical copies within its first three day upon its debut and it continues to grow. (sales figures released by Famitsu /https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/26/21195022/animal-crossing-switch-sales-japan-fam)
The game has been the talk of the town by invading every single social media outlet and has taken the crown away from games such as Fortnite and Minecraft that have been well-known and played for several years.
Hopefully after the pandemic, we can learn from Animal Crossing: New Horizon to live life day by day, and see the progress we’ve made by treating each other kindly, thrive in the growing society that we created, and in the times that we do log back on we’ll be able to see that our community and residents are still doing alright.