Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct Details New Features to the Series - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 February 2020 / 2,993 Views

Nintendo has released new information for Animal Crossing: New Horizons during a Nintendo Direct today.

There was new information on the new features to the series that will be in the game. This includes the island life, DIYM NookPhone, Nook Miles, island tours, party play, land development, and the NookLink.

You will be able to choose your island from a "range of options." This includes the ability to live in the Northern or Southern hemisphere. This will affect the timing of the seasons. Resident Services will be available 24/7.

View the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Direct below:

Read the information below:

Features New to the Series!

Life on the Island: Nook Inc. confidently recommends a trip to a remote deserted island. And that’s not just because it’s the only company that offers this type of package! On the island, life is as peaceful and relaxing as it gets. Since the island is deserted, you can create your new life from the very beginning – just like a pioneer! Time flows as naturally as in the real world, including seasons and day and night cycles that mirror real time.
DIY: By collecting specific materials around the island, you can craft a wide variety of things, including tools and furniture. DIY workshops teach you how to enrich your life by crafting DIY recipes. As you become more familiar with DIY, you can even learn special skills like changing the color of your DIY furniture or decorating them with custom designs.
NookPhone: Nook Inc. will provide some basic necessities and services, including your very own NookPhone. It has standard apps, like a camera and map, but over time, new applications will be added to support your island needs. The camera can be used to take in-game photos all over the island – you can even add fancy filters like all the cool kids are doing!
Nook Miles: For players looking for more concrete goals, and to help offer guidance and inspiration on the island, you can take advantage of the Nook Mileage program. As you fulfill certain challenges and experiences, you will earn miles to pay off the cost of the getaway package or, eventually, to exchange for in-game rewards. Rewards range from in-game Nook Inc. merchandise and helpful items that can enrich your time on the island, to tickets that you can use to visit distant islands.
Island Tours: These “mystery island tours” are at the whim of the pilot, so you never know where you will end up! Once on these smaller islands, feel free to gather as many items as you want – like DIY materials and creatures – and take them back with you to your island.
Party Play: With the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway package, up to eight people can live on one island.* In Party Play, you can call up to three other players to explore the island at the same time. Whoever calls the others will be the Leader, making the others the Followers. It’s easy to change out the Leader, letting others quickly take charge. Any creatures or items found by Followers will be stored in a recycle box at the Resident Services building!
Land Development: While you can cross rivers on your island by pole-vaulting and climb elevated land using ladders, you can also change the landscape by adding bridges and slopes. Once your island is fully decked out, you’ll receive a permit to freely pave your own paths, as well as perform major construction like changing the paths of rivers or building and demolishing cliffs. With your own maintenance and construction permits, you can flex your creative muscles on the land itself, not just the stuff on it.
NookLink: Yes, Tom Nook likes to put his name on everything. But when it’s a Nook product or service, you know you are getting something that’s high quality. With NookLink, which is part of the Nintendo Switch Online app, you can scan a Custom Design QR Code pattern from previous games Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer with your real-life smartphone and then download them to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When connected online, you can talk with friends who also have the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game with the Nintendo Switch Online smartphone app using your smartphone as a keyboard or for voice chat. NookLink will launch in March, soon after the selected departure included in your Deserted Island Getaway Package.

A Detailed Breakdown of the Getaway Package Experience!

Choose Your Island: Before boarding your flight to the island, you will choose the island from a range of options. Choosing to live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, for example, will affect the timing of the seasons, so select the location that suits you best. When the seasons change on the island, so do the activities. For Northern Hemisphere residents, spring will just be starting when the game launches on March 20, so expect blooming cherry blossoms to show up soon!
Orientation: After landing on the island, you will receive a helpful orientation session from the Nook Inc. staff. At this time, you’ll be provided with the tent that’s included with your getaway package. You can chat with other island residents about where you want to set up your new home, and help them choose their home locations as well.
Resident Services: The Resident Services facility is available to support your daily needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They provide you with services such as the sale of everyday goods, the purchase of unwanted items and helpful advice.
Become a Home Owner: The tent provided to you by Nook Inc. is great, but have you considered a house? Home loans have no deadlines, interest or assessment, and you can pay your loan back at your own pace. A house offers much more space than a tent and also includes storage space for any extra furniture and baggage. Once you own a home, you can channel your inner interior designer, setting up the walls, flooring and furniture however you like. You can also use extension and remodeling services to expand and customize your home even more.
Customization Deluxe: Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers more customization options than ever before, from personalizing the look of your character all the way down to skin tone, hairstyle and clothing, to placing buildings and items wherever you want on the island. You can even decorate the inside and outside of your home! Turn that island into a MY land!
Airport: This is the first place you will land on the island. (It is an airport, after all.) It’s also available to use 24 hours a day, beginning on the day after your arrival. At the airport, you can invite residents of other islands to your own island via the internet or local wireless. You can also travel and visit other islands yourself! Up to eight people can play on a given island at one time**, so feel free to get a good group together and make some fantastic memories.
Island-wide Broadcasts: At the start of each day, Mr. Nook, CEO of Nook Inc., will make a broadcast to all residents, updating them with the latest on important island events and advice about how to best enjoy island living.

Features and Updates to Further Your Island Enjoyment!

New Residents: When you first land on the island you will only have a few animal residents living there with you. But as you develop your island from the ground up, more neighbors will visit and choose to move in. You can even invite some of the new residents to live there yourself! There’s nothing better than a welcoming neighbor.
Free Updates: Free updates will be added after the game launches, with seasonal events continually added throughout the year. The first free update will be on launch day, March 20. By installing this update, you can celebrate Bunny Day with a special event in April. If you own both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile devices and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll receive special items in each game. Details will be announced at a later date on the official Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Twitter account.
Additional Facilities: As you grow your island, more facilities will be built. This includes a museum showcasing the rich ecosystem of the island, a shop full of ready-made furniture and goods you can’t craft yourself, a tailor offering clothing and fashion items, and a campsite where you can invite guests for recreational purposes.
Tourists & Events: Your island will not only be home to new residents, but also tourists as well! These temporary visitors are always welcome and can offer up items that cannot be crafted on the island. Visitors can also participate in fun events like Fishing Tourneys and Bug-Offs, which will pop up throughout the year. Through free updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, new special events and seasonal guests will be introduced.
amiibo Support: Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports amiibo figures and amiibo cards from the Animal Crossing series. You can also invite these familiar faces to Photopia, an island that exists in the game, where you can place models in creative photo shoots.
Twitter Takeover: Keep an eye out for social media savvy Tom Nook, who is rumored to take over the @AnimalCrossing Twitter account right after today’s video presentation.

Here is an overview of the game:

If the hustle and bustle of modern life’s got you down, Tom Nook has a business venture up his sleeve that he knows you’ll adore: his brand-new, ultra-exclusive Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package!

Sure, you’ve crossed paths with colourful characters near and far. Had a grand old time as one of the city folk. May’ve even turned over a new leaf and dedicated yourself to public service! But deep down, isn’t there a part of you that just longs for…freedom? A chance to do what you want, when you want? Then perhaps a long walk on the beach of a deserted island, where a rich wealth of untouched nature awaits, is just what the doctor ordered!

Peaceful creativity and charm await as you roll up your sleeves and make your new life whatever you want it to be.

Collect resources and craft everything from creature comforts to handy tools. Embrace your green thumb as you interact with flowers and trees in new ways. Set up a homestead where the rules of what goes indoors and out no longer apply.

Make friends with new arrivals, enjoy the seasons, pole-vault across rivers as you explore, and more!

Key Features:

Customise your character and home, and decorate the landscape (with furniture, if you like!), as you create your very own island paradise.
Experience a robust new crafting system – collect materials to construct everything from furniture to tools!
Enjoy a variety of relaxing activities like gardening, fishing, decorating, interacting with charming NPCs, and more, as classic Animal Crossing experiences come to life in fun new ways within the deserted-island setting.
Up to eight players can reside on an island; four residents of the same island can play together simultaneously on a single system.
Eight players can play together on one player’s island via online multiplayer or local wireless.

Your new home is still being prepared – why not check out these other Animal Crossing games until it's time to move in?!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will launch for the Nintendo Switch on March 20, 2020.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

7 Comments

Jumpin (on 20 February 2020)

"Up to eight players can reside on an island; four residents of the same island can play together simultaneously on a single system." It sounds like, once again, players won't be able to live on the same island if they own different consoles. Looks like Stardew Valley remains the only game in this genre with this feature. You would think Nintendo would make local multiplayer as advanced as other games on their console.

Perhaps in a future update?

Chazore Jumpin (on 20 February 2020)

What really gets me, is that this game was in dev since and likely before SDV was out, back in 2016, but for some reason, Nintendo didn't bother to look at what new trends/expectations that indie game was making.

Is Ninty full of snob or something, that they cannot, nor want to learn from what an indie dev brings to the table?. I mean, all those features SDV brought is what I was expecting in AC, and hell, even that PC style AC game is getting features that the new AC doesn't entirely have, like actual fully customisation furniture, and not just mere colour pallet swaps.

anzboy357 Jumpin (on 21 February 2020)

@Chazore
Well that would be logistics we are talking a 3d game vs pixel art game here and AC already was delayed once. It is a lot easier to complain about differences when comparing apples to oranges. The amount of work required to program and model in pixel games vs 3d games is massive this is why the pokemon games lost lots of content during their switch from sprite to 3d they have to make a 3d game in the same period as a pixel game, the only reason they can barely keep up is by cutting content and reusing a large portion models/animations and I think we all know how that turned out.