Animal Crossing grew in popularity again over early spring and summer of 2020 after the fifth game of the series was released on Switch. Many people were hooked on the new game and taking care of their island resident friends. I, like others, spent many hours on the game because I just couldn’t put it down. However, that fun didn’t last too long. After a few months people got bored of doing the same things over and over again. They hoped Nintendo would add some new things, but most of the updates just consisted of glitch fixes or limited seasonal events. A few months ago however, Nintendo finally came out with Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ big and final update.

The update came out November 5th of last year and it had a lot of new things to offer players. Major changes were made to the game, and long-awaited characters finally joined New Horizons! Characters like Kapp’n, Brewster, Harriet, Cyrus, Reese, and a handful of others returned! You can find most of these new characters at Harv’s Island, which also was added in the update.

Kapp’n offers players boat tours to brand new types of islands. Unlike the islands that Nook Airlines would take you to, Kapp’n takes you to islands that might be nighttime, morning, or have a completely different season. This helps players get their hands on exclusive seasonal items like snowflakes, cherry blossoms, and mushrooms that only come around once a year for a few months.

You can also stop by and see Brewster’s new cafe inside of Blathers Museum. He has a cafe open 24/7 called The Roost. At his cafe, you can enjoy a coffee for only 200 bells, and you can even invite your friends over to your island to chill at his cafe.

Another new addition to Animal Crossing: New Horizons is Hav’s shopping plaza, which serves as a one-stop shopping center for almost everything you might need! At the shopping plaza you’ll find returning characters like Cryrus and Reese, as well as many others. The plaza has eight shops in total, which consist of Harriet’s hairstyle shop, Katrina’s fortune teller shop, Sahara’s wallpaper/flooring shop, Tortimer’s storage, Reese’s and Cyrus’ customization shop, and a few others. The shopping plaza has so many new things to explore, and you should definitely check it out!

Finally, the update also brought cooking to Animal Crossing. Many players were extremely excited about this. The update added five new crops: carrots, potatoes, sugarcane, tomatoes, and wheat. To get these new crops, you can buy them with Leif and get to cooking. To actually start cooking though, you first need to purchase ‘Be a Chef! DIY Recipes+’ at the Nook Stop for 2,000 nook miles. This will unlock eight cooking recipes and over time you can collect and learn even more recipes by talking to villagers, picking up washed up shore bottles, and buying more recipe packs at Nook’s Cranny.

Overall, I think the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons update is great. It gave players a lot more things to do and I’m sure the game will be less repetitive and boring now. Here’s what Gaby Rubio had to say about it as well: “I loved the new added activities and it’s definitely one of my favorite games!” she said. 

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Arely Tapia

Trying Brewster's Coffee!