Nintendo showcases new Animal Crossing gameplay, customization features, more

With just a single month until the newest Animal Crossing’s release, this morning Nintendo celebrated the occasion by taking the wraps off so many highly-anticipated details from the upcoming New Horizons title. In its latest Direct, Nintendo offers up nearly half an hour of new content ranging from first-looks at upcoming mechanics to never before seen locations and more. Head below for a closer look at today’s Animal Crossing Nintendo Direct and to see what’s in store for New Horizons.

Nintendo showcases a boatload of new Animal Crossing features

With Animal Crossing: New Horizons being the first flagship title for Nintendo this year, there’s unsurprisingly been a lot of hype surrounding the title. Up until today, fans haven’t had too much new information to sink their teeth into. Following its unboxing video of the themed Animal Crossing Switch, Nintendo is finally ready to give anxious players a heavy dosage of unseen content.

This morning Nintendo kicked off the day by showcasing a 27-minutes of new gameplay footage, features, and other details to expect from the title. If there’s one take away from the Direct, it’s that customization continues to be king in the Animal Crossing series. That’s always been a staple of the franchise, but now it’s going to new heights for its debut on Switch.

Customization remains king in New Horizons

New Horizons sends players on a Deserted Island Getaway Package, exploring various islands while meeting friendly characters along the way. You’ll call one of those islands home, and it’s here that the most interesting new features in the Animal Crossing series enter. By far the biggest expression of customization is you’ll now be able to terraform the entire main island. That includes creating new paths, extending or removing rivers, and more.

That’s on top of the usual home customization features, which have been overhauled with the overhead perspective introduced in Happy Home Designer. In the same vein as the landscape alteration, players will also be able to choose which hemisphere their island is in, yielding different in-game seasons throughout the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcsiD3nNzA4

Nintendo also confirmed that up to eight people will be able to play together at once by visiting each other’s islands. Continuing with the Island Getaway theming, an in-game service called Dodo Airlines will be able to have you link up with friends unlike any past implementations in the series. Local multiplayer allows similar gameplay but with only four players at once.

Nintendo might be bringing back a fan-favorite character

Another fun inclusion to look out for is a new rescue service that will bring players back to their home if lost while out and about, which has us thinking that there is going to be plenty of room for exploration. Though it’s not confirmed, the music playing while introducing this feature hints that Mr. Resetti might be back and with a new job to boot.

For all of the details on what to expect from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, be sure to check out the Nintendo Direct for yourself. With the game launching in just a month, there’s still plenty of time to lock-in your pre-order on the game.

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