After a week of confinement due to coronavirus, you are surely dreaming of nature, large areas and above all social interactions. All this is now possible without leaving your home thanks to a video game: Animal Crossing: New Horizons , available on Nintendo Switch. Colorful, fun and addictive: the fifth episode of this cute saga is the perfect game to get away from it all and relax for a few hours, far from the stress of our life between four walls.
>> Find all of Philippe Vandel's programs in replay and podcast here
Adventure is yours!
After a short introduction which consists in naming and creating your character, you embark on board the Dodo Airlines, direction your own deserted island. With a few travel companions, you will disembark to live the life of your dreams. Fruit trees, fluttering butterflies and sandy beaches are yours. You pitch your tent and off you go for adventure. But it's not Koh-Lanta, far from it: between the fishing trips, the moments spent beautifying your home and escapades on other islands, Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers a real moment of relaxation.
From there, New Horizons takes the successful recipe from previous Animal Crossing games: a life simulator, like the Sims, but a little more childish, with round and colorful graphics and benevolent characters. Here we live our lives quietly, without worry. The goal: to build buildings, flower gardens and attract residents to make his island a little paradise ... The game offers for this total freedom: you do what you want, when you want.
Capitalism with a too mimi face
So much for the postcard. But beware ! You are not there to sunbathe on the beach with your toes fan shaped. We will have to work. Many. Verry much. Behind its colorful graphics and its playful tone, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in reality the closest thing to a simulation of capitalism. No sooner arrived on the island than Tom Nook, the referent who organizes your arrival and serves as a guide, tells you that you owe him a pretty sum for the installation. Sum that will have to reimburse, in bells, the local currency, by developing the island. And that's just the beginning: in Animal Crossing , everything has a price, from tools to furniture to your home.
So be prepared to multiply credits at an attractive 0% rate and repayable at your own pace. Fortunately, Tom Nook and his henchmen, Méli and Mélo, buy everything you find: minerals, fruits, fish, insects, DIY furniture in your corner and even weeds. The fact remains that you have to work to benefit from the growing advantages offered by the game. The simplest being to adopt a small daily routine by going around your fruit trees, then indulge in fishing, cleaning the beach ...
A game that takes its time
The strength of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is its rhythm, set in real time: a day on the island lasts 24 hours, with a day / night cycle. We therefore advance minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Unlike classic video games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons cannot be "finished" in a few dozen hours. It's quite the opposite ! After an hour or two, there is not much left to do, until the next day (the houses are built overnight). You have to play a little but regularly to enjoy the game.
Not to tire, Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers an extremely rich content. The bestiary of your island (to which is added that of the islands which you can visit) is vast and you are regularly encouraged to find new species of fish or insects. Ditto for the development of the island and the decoration of your home: there is a plethora of collectible objects to thoroughly personalize your home. And if you do not find what you are looking for, you can create your own designs by drawing or using images. Enough to occupy the next weeks of confinement!
Socialization 2.0
The other specificity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is its social aspect. You can completely play solo on your island but you would miss out on the almost unlimited potential of the game. Indeed, you can also play online with your friends who have the game and this allows you to progress faster. You can visit their island, invite them to yours, exchange items, fruits, etc. This barter system is very useful for accumulating scarce resources and bells.
Beyond the material aspect, playing with friends is also a good way to socialize in these times of confinement. You can leave a note on the island bulletin board of your friends and even, with a little organization, get together with several on the same island and chat thanks to the chat. Some of them are imaginative and have even organized a surprise virtual wedding for their friends who canceled the real ceremony because of the coronavirus! In another genre, players created a "yellow vest" costume and gathered for a virtual demonstration with "anti-Macron" signs. In France, we are no longer allowed to go out, but we have ideas!