On Oct. 15, Nintendo held an Animal Crossing Direct where the developers for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” shared content changes coming to the game. The announcement consisted of two trailers showcasing the new content added to the games spanning over the course of twenty minutes. The game is now over a year old, and while it was largely popular upon release, there are few people who still play the game regularly citing a lack of new content. The Animal Crossing Direct took people by surprise and announced a ton of free content updates coming to the game in early November, as well as an additional paid downloadable content expansion. There is so much new content being added, but there are several big elements that stand out to franchise fans. As the Animal Crossing team says; what do you think?
Characters from previous games are returning
Reoccurring characters from previous games that were originally missing from “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” are making a return. Kapp’n is a turtle-like creature that will ferry you to new types of exploration islands, and if you visit Harv’s island you can work with Harriet to build a shopping plaza at the back of the island. Gyroids, little clay creatures that can help build and make music, are making a return. Even the fan-favorite froggy chair will be added into the game. Finally, Brewster is making his long-awaited return and opening his classic coffee shop, The Roost, where your character can enjoy specialty drinks with other villagers.
Farm new crops to make your favorite recipes
You can now live out your farming dreams by growing and harvesting five new crops in addition to the pumpkins that were introduced last year during the Halloween update. After you collect the crops, you can use them to make a plethora of recipes that you can display in your home to make it feel a little more home-y. It’s unclear whether you can eat or share these recipes from the video provided.
Quality of life updates
The game developers are introducing a plethora of small content updates that will make the game a little bit more accessible. These include things like new hairstyles, new music, new customization options, expanded storage, more bridges and new island interactions. You can also enact island ordinances as the island representative, essentially introducing laws to your villagers that will make sure everyone is doing their part in the island community. The Animal Crossing development team also announced the latest series of Amiibo cards, which are collectible character cards that allow you to bring the character featured on the card into your game automatically. The cards will include all of the current “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” characters as well as some never-before-seen characters.
Happy Home Paradise DLC
During the Nintendo Animal Crossing Direct, the development team also announced the first paid downloadable content expansion for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” titled Happy Home Paradise. In Happy Home Paradise, you work as a resort developer helping various villagers build vacation homes that fit their aesthetic. This expansion includes exciting new abilities, like the ability to change the season, room lighting, indoor sound and the time of day to fit the vibe of the vacation home you’re working on. In addition to these general new abilities, when designing vacation homes, you can also include new elements such as partition walls, pillars and accent walls. When you’ve finished a vacation home, you’ll be paid in Poki, a currency used to buy things from a special shop on the resort island. In addition to designing vacation homes for villagers, you can develop empty buildings on the resort island into a number of community buildings such as a school, restaurant or hospital.
