Animal Crossing is a well-known franchise, and all Nintendo fans love its adorable characters and simple-yet-addictive mechanics. In this case, New Horizons is the first entry in the Switch era, so it comes with beautiful graphics and a few new features.

Although you need to invest a lot of time if you want to get the best items to decorate your house, this is the perfect game for a laid back session, especially when you just want to chill out after playing an action-packed game. In fact, you can play it with some friends either online or locally if you have enough joy-cons, so it's also an ideal plan for a bonding moment between parents and children. The only problem with Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that it becomes addictive and time-consuming... or repetitive and boring if social simulators are not your cup of tea.

Just like every other Animal Crossing game, New Horizons is pretty simple. You start with a small tent on a deserted island, and the objective is to build and decorate your house, doing a lot of achievements to earn enough money to make your dreams come true. You can invite some NPC or other human players (other user profiles in your Nintendo Switch), just like you can visit your friend's islands (other online people) or some mysterious destinations to shake things up.

In this game, it's all about interacting with your neighbors... and taking the time to help them while you also dedicate some time to your new town. Are you ready to start a new life?

It's no surprise that all Nintendo games look amazing in the Switch. Some AAA games look better on PC or the more powerful consoles, but when it comes to exclusives, they all are perfectly optimized; Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no exception. The art-style is super cute, and all 3D models were carefully designed. That helps to reinforce the concept of customization since there are dozens of items to choose from, but it also helps to round up the idea of dedicating most of your time to this beautiful game.

The game has a catchy soundtrack, and that's one of the keys when you're creating a game that invites you to spend hours upon hours doing the same things for weeks, months, and even years. You'll spend a lot of time hearing the roar of the ocean, the cicadas in summer, or the relaxing music of your island, and there's no escape to that.

There are a lot of songs in a wide range of genres, from pop to light rock or bossa nova. You can buy songs to later play on the radio, for example, but even if you're not spending any money—Bells, actually—in these records, a new song plays every hour, so even if you play 12 hours straight, you won't be hearing the same song over and over again; in fact, all events have their own music, and the same goes for every menu or building you visit. Both the OST and the SFX are on point, and so are the classic gibberish dialogues!

The first thing you need to know about New Horizons is that all users will be playing on the same island, so it's really important for the owner of the console—or whoever wants to be the one in charge of everything—to be the first one to launch the game. You need to create your character with some basic presets, and then you'll be offered 4 different island layouts; your new island could be in either the northern or southern hemisphere, and that will directly affect the seasons as Animal Crossing: New Horizons plays on real-time when it comes to the day/night cycle or the actual dates and events. Another reason for you to be the first visitor? You'll get to name the island!

One of the additions to this game is the Nook Miles system, a list of achievements to keep you busy and always looking forward to some rewards. These Nook Miles are your second currency as they allow you to buy tickets to other islands, but also some much-needed upgrades like more inventory space or better haircuts. At first, Tom Nook will ask you to pay 5000 Nook Miles to get even—because moving to a desert island is never cheap!—but as soon as you pay for that, you unlock the daily quests for unlimited new goals. The Nook Miles+ program is one of the best new features because you get extra points for the first 5 tasks of your day, but you also have something to do at any moment, financing your trips to random islands when you're short of resources or just want to meet new friends and invite them to your island.

You start with a tent and 2 random neighbors from the 400+ available NPC, and another nice touch is that you can actually decide where these people will build their houses. Once you pay the initial 5000 Nook Miles, all your future upgrades require Bells, the traditional Animal Crossing currency. To earn those Bells you need to gather resources using your tools, sell everything you can... or just grow a money tree because that actually exists.

Another interesting addition is crafting, and we know how addictive a game can be when it combines crafting and housing. At first, all your tools will break after using them a few times, but later on, you can upgrade them to make more durable fishing rods, axes, and shovels. If you want more DIY blueprints you can just buy them at the store, but some of them cannot be bought; that's why you need to become best friends with your neighbors, but also look for messages in a bottle you'll find every other day, or gift boxes tied to balloons floating in the air.

Other than regular villagers, some notable characters are back to help you give life to your island. K.K. Slider, Mabel, Blathers, Saharah, Isabelle... they're all here! That means you can help to build several stores, but supporting Blathers' museum is also vital if you want to gain access to new zones of your island, thanks to the vaulting pole.

Another interesting addition is crafting, and we know how addictive a game can be when it combines crafting and housing. At first, all your tools will break after using them a few times, but later on, you can upgrade them to make more durable fishing rods, axes, and shovels. If you want more DIY blueprints you can just buy them at the store, but some of them cannot be bought; that's why you need to become best friends with your neighbors, but also look for messages in a bottle you'll find every other day, or gift boxes tied to balloons floating in the air.

Other than regular villagers, some notable characters are back to help you give life to your island. K.K. Slider, Mabel, Blathers, Saharah, Isabelle... they're all here! That means you can help to build several stores, but supporting Blathers' museum is also vital if you want to gain access to new zones of your island, thanks to the vaulting pole and ladder.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is definitely one of the games we'll be religiously playing for months—years?—to come, and we certainly look forward to Nintendo offering us regular updates and events. We're truly big fans of the couch co-op mode!

And now this review is done, let us go back to our not-so-deserted island. Those rooms are not going to decorate themselves!