When the 3.0 update arrived for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in January, covering it for this here website returned me to a place I thought I’d left behind.
Playing for guide purposes brought me back to my island, Twin Peaks, to my half-finished house and haphazard landscaping. I tend to start Animal Crossings with grand designs but, lacking the items and patience to realise them, I move on to the next game once I’ve caught all the fish and bugs, and made a bunch of Star Trek uniforms.
However, my kids caught sight of the screen as I expanded my Hotel. They began badgering me to visit “K.K. Salsa” on Saturdays. That’s what they call Slider, after hearing that tune on a playlist and getting obsessed with AC’s resident hound dog and his funny voice.
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Before long, I’d created Switch profiles for them both and they had tents on the island. This was a big step up the gaming ladder from occasional dabbles with Wii Sports, some Rock Band drumming, and watching me roll up cats in Katamari Damacy. They quickly took to shaking Daddy’s 30k money trees to fund funny outfits.
Then we started using the drop-in ‘Call Resident’ multiplayer and goofing around as they spent multiple minutes just standing there cycling through reactions, howling with laughter. Then came the call to Nanny, who lives overseas and whose ACNH playtime dwarfs my ‘370 hours or more’ by orders of magnitude. Soon they were running around her island, seeing all the weird and wonderful items she’d accrued over six years of regular play, telling me that Nanny still wants the Golden Statue, and explaining what we should buy to decorate Twin Peaks.
As the kids jumped around, pointing at things and only occasionally arguing over who should be leader, I realised I was essentially living one of those wholesome Nintendo ads they’ve been putting out since the Wii era. It was sometime between Whatsapping my mum to organise an island trip and then farting about with a loudspeaker FaceTime call for 45 minutes that I uttered the words, “You know, you really need to get a Switch 2, Mum. This could be so much easier!”
I caught myself saying it and felt…odd. At launch, I’d recommended she sit tight (she rarely plays handheld and isn’t the world’s biggest Mario Kart fan), but now was suddenly the time to get one? While playing a Switch 2 Edition I felt was barely worth the modest upgrade fee? Remember, it was the 3.0 update for both versions that pulled me back in, not the NS2 Edition. What had changed?
As the battery symbol on my phone hit 5% and I dashed out to find a charger, it struck me that it was all about convenience. Among other things, parental exhaustion and the state of the world these days contribute to me just noping out of things — video games and otherwise — given the tiniest inconvenience. I cannot be bothered with another device, another app, another free trial to remember to cancel, another subscription, another…
Remember that Splatoon 2 headset spaghetti diagram from years ago? Life feels like that x1000 these days, and I can’t be doing with it. I’m on a quest to simplify things. On firing up my Switch OLED the other day, even having to press the button and slide the Joy-Con off the rails felt laborious after the ease of magnets. Having lived with Switch 2 for 10 months now, it’s little things like this which I’ve come to appreciate most, I think.
GameChat is another example; not a revolution, not massively exciting, but it just works. No headaches, no headsets, no separate app. Hardly a ringing endorsement to splurge 400 notes on a new console (especially now that GameChat is locked behind NSO), but given the state of RAM, rising prices on other systems, and rumours that Nintendo will follow suit, Switch 2 isn’t going to get any cheaper, is it?
It’s an odd state of affairs when you look at the gaming landscape and the wider economy, with Sony leaving its “$599” days in the dust as it hikes the price on its entire console lineup. ‘Fear Of Price Increase’ now trumps FOMO as a major factor in justifying a console purchase. Last week, workmates were pulling the trigger on PS5 Pros before the price shot up to a stomach-churning £790. It’s crazy out there.
Right now, my mum is still on the fence about Switch 2. She’s waiting for a new colour or an OLED version. As someone who primarily plays docked, an OLED screen isn’t a dealbreaker, but she doesn’t want to be caught out by some new colourway dropping after buying the boring black one. What if they do a snazzy new SKU? Does that have a name? ‘Fear Of Missing The Animal Crossing One’?
Speaking of Animal Crossing, I’m still going back in regularly, making new custom textures for my Enterprise D-themed house. Maybe, just maybe I’ll finish it. My Ten Forward has come so far since I got the game-changing Glow-in-the-dark stickers, plus I played the DLC long enough to unlock lighting tweaks and a polish effect to make my star field windows twinkle. And I’m on the verge of a Blue Rose breakthrough after managing to cultivate, finally, hybrid Red Roses. It’s calming, and we all need a bit of calm.
The kids have been playing on and off since January, too. They’re steadily learning the controls, organising their houses (constructed after a little help from Dad to complete Nook Miles goals and pay off their loans), and pottering around the island picking up shells and talking to visitors, all sporting Starfleet uniforms I make them wear. The visitors, not the kids.
It’s intriguing to watch how they play differently to me. No choice paralysis, no OCD-style hording of items, no frustration with Blathers’ blathering. Just the joys of slow-life play and interacting.
It’s also fascinating how we’re transitioning into this proper family gaming ‘unit’ after living the solo Nintendo life for so many years. Here I am, paying off my kids’ mortgages with my own Bells, asking my mum if she’d kindly get a Switch 2 so we can play online more easily.
Let’s not kid ourselves that that’s the sole reason I’ve changed my recommendation to ‘Buy now’, though. Prices are ballooning, there’s no end in sight, and levity is in short supply. I’d suggest anybody who’s interested and who has the means to jump on the Switch 2 train sooner than later.
Regardless, I am become one of those wholesome Switch gamers from the ads. Just, you know, with a less enviable complexion and living room arrangement.
