By now it's safe to say that everyone has heard all about the hit game Animal Crossing New Horizons. I was new to Animal Crossing and it didn't take long for me to fall in love with the franchise. Even if Tom Nook is a massive crook. With nearly everyone self isolating and stuck inside the ability to build your own island, completely personalise it and even visit each others islands provides a happy distraction and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Museum

There are 4 types of collectables for your Museum, bugs, fish, fossils and most recently art. The aim is simple, catch and find as many of the collectables in order to fill up your museum. Once you've built the Museum the curator Blathers is available 24/7 to take in your donations. Some animals are only available in certain months and some are rarer than others. Once you donate them to Blathers he will display them in the Museum and you can walk around marvelling at your hard work.Once you've accomplished the "story" of the game the task of filling up your Museum takes up a significant amount of your time. If you're not taking advantage of the time travel hack that is.

Customisation

Customisation is a huge aspect of Animal Crossing. Whether it's your character, furniture or the entire island there's almost endless options to make your island unique. The more you play the game the more options you unlock, the biggest game changer (in my opinion) is the ability to lay down paths, taking the look of your island from deserted to bustling.Another big addition to the game in terms of customisation is the custom design machine in the Able Sisters Tailor Shop. However this can only be used if you have a Nintendo Online Subscription so not everyone can utilise this feature. It will allow you to either upload your own designs or download custom designs from other players - the imagination of some people is unbelievable and is a great way to ramp up your island without sitting for hours making your own designs. Whether it's custom clothes you're after or alternative patterns for making paths you'll be able to find it with this system. In order to search for some custom designs all you need to do is head over to the Animal Crossing Website find the pattern you want and input either the design code or maker code.You can buy customisation kits from Nooks Cranny and use any DIY bench to customise your furniture. These are slightly more limited but if you have the Able Sisters Tailor Shop you can unlock more patterns by talking to Sable each day she'll give you a nice surprise.

Flowers and Hedges

A recent Earth Day celebration update bought music to many players ears with the introduction of hedges. They are the perfect addition to when you want to up the nature level on your island but don't want to plant an endless amount of flowers. They're perfect for bordering in lieu of fences as well and all you need to craft them once Tom Nook has given you the DIY recipe are 10 clumps of weed, 5 tree branches and 2 stones - all of which are available in abundance on your island.Each island has a native fruit and flower but that doesn't mean they're all you'll ever have. If you're lucky you'll stumble upon some on another island when you use your Nook Miles Tickets. Other ways of getting seeds to grow the other flowers is by checking Nooks Cranny each day and taking advantage when Leif comes to visit your island and sets up shop outside the Resident Building.

Hybrid Colours

You get an option of 3 colours when purchasing seeds, these are red, yellow and white. Hybrid flowers can be achieved by arranging your flowers in a certain pattern and watering them each day - if you invite people to visit your island and get them to water your flowers too it will up your chance of having a hybrid pop up the next day.

Other Exciting Animal Crossing New Horizons Features

Calming and Relaxing Games

Making Bells

One of the two currencies in the game are Bells, you can use these to purchase upgrades to your home and island along with purchasing furniture. There's a bunch of ways players have discovered to to make it rain with bells, some easier than others.So far my favourite method of getting Bells is the hack to make any deserted island into Tarantula/Scorpion Island. One Tarantula/Scorpion is worth 8,000 Bells when you sell them at Nooks Cranny it's definitely worth your time. Alternatively you can store them and wait for Flick to visit who will buy them at a higher price. Some deserted islands are easier to to do this with than others, ideally you need one without a river (the bamboo island is perfect for this) or at least an island with no more than 2 levels.It's a bit of a grind but all you need to do is remove everything from the island, chop down all the trees, pick the flowers and weeds and remove anything that other bugs can be spawned on and drop them on the beach. The removal of everything will then force spawn a higher level of Tarantulas and boom, you're good to go. A full inventory of these animals can generate upwards of 200,000 bells.[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://blog.venomuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tarantula-Video.mp4"][/video]

Villagers

If you're a veteran Animal Crossing player or a complete newbie the process of perfecting your island is highly enjoyable and the last thing you want is to ruin the aesthetic of your island with a bunch of ugly or annoying villagers. There are currently jut under 400 different villagers to choose from made up of 35 different animal species. Not only can you have different looking villagers they also have different personalities.Male personalities consist of; Cranky, Lazy, Jock or Smug, whereas female personalities can be Normal, Peppy, Sisterly or Snooty.When you first move to the island you get two villagers you don't get to choose. As the game progresses Tom Nook tasks you with setting aside land for more plots for houses to built upon. You can then invite villagers to live on your island, either by finding them on deserted islands using your Nook Miles Tickets, or wait until one comes to pay a visit at your campsite.Don't despair though, if you get sick of your villagers you can still get rid of them and replace them with better suited villagers.Check out the video below for how it all works

Whilst Animal Crossing is a beautiful game and I will be recommending it to anybody who will listen there are some small changes I'd love to see. Recently a fake Nintendo Direct was released highlighting new aspects would take the game from amazing to perfect. It seems that Nintendo have removed it from the internet but some of the "updates" included crafting multiple items at once, a pointer for perfectly placing items and accessing your tool wheel whilst on the move without having to stop - making light work of those damn wasps. Here's hoping Nintendo are paying attention and we can see these in an update sometime soon!

Score 4.5/5

If not for the fake Nintendo Direct showing features would surely enhance the game play I would have given this a 5/5. The game is perfect for short or long sessions and has truly captured the hearts of many self isolating individuals. With rumours of other updates coming to Animal Crossing a 5/5 rating may be on the (New) Horizon.