The weaker power of the 3DS made no difference here. Released for the 3DS, this was just the fourth game Nintendo put out in the series, and their first one on a handheld, yet it nailed everything fans wanted from this experience. Animal Crossing: New Leafīefore the Switch was even a far-off dream, Animal Crossing: New Leaf fulfilled our desires for an Animal Crossing experience on the go. If you enjoy customizing every aspect of your world, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will keep you engaged for months on end. Visiting new islands for materials you can’t find on your own island, or taking a trip over to a friend’s island to see how they’ve decorated their world, are all fantastic ways to make this game feel like the most social version of this series yet. The game is expertly designed to always give you something to strive toward, as well as smaller tasks to keep you wanting to come back every day. There’s a huge cast of new villagers that can join you, rotating bugs and fish to collect, new items to craft, fruit to harvest, and so much more. While not everything worked as smoothly, or was even included, when the game came out, playing it now feels almost like an entire second game was added.Īnimal Crossing: New Horizons shakes things up by making you the owner of your own island.

What pushes Animal Crossing: New Horizons to the top of the series is a bunch of quality-of-life improvements, new mechanics, and new ways to customize your village (or island in this case), all while keeping that magical charm the series captures so well.

Based on the sales numbers, this is probably not too controversial an opinion, but that doesn’t mean it was far and away the best. Now that the honeymoon period is over and we can look back at the entire series with as objective an eye as we can, we still have to give the top spot to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons beginner’s guide.

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