Hi everyone, and welcome to my new Animal Crossing: New Horizons blog! The game came out today, and I’m excited to start my new life on a (previously) deserted island! Before setting off, Timmy and Tommy gave me four islands to choose from.
I had a hard time choosing, especially between the top two, which are more symmetrical. I ultimately chose #2 (top-right), because both river sources were up on the highest levels. So I should have some nice waterfalls, or at least, that’s what I’m hoping for.
When my plane arrived, I saw that I had apple trees! 🍎 This is the first version of Forest that has apples as the town fruit! My GameCube and Wild World towns have oranges, and my City Folk and New Leaf towns have peaches. But I’m just glad that I didn’t get pears. 😀
I came out of the airport to find a gorilla and a monkey…definitely not what I was hoping for! The gorilla turned out to be Louie; he’s the gorilla that looks like Donkey Kong. (Even though Al plays the role of D.K. in my Mario Plays ACCF series, Louie clearly makes the better Donkey Kong). So he has, by default, become my new friend.
I’m generally not a fan of the monkey villagers (other than Champ), but my new neighbor isn’t even a typical monkey: It’s Shari, the CLOWN monkey! Ugh! And in this moment, I also realized that Louie walks around with his bare butt cheeks hanging out. What a lovely image.
Well, that’s how this game works. You work your way up, improving your town, after starting at the bottom. The bare bottom.
After a brief introduction at the plaza, it was time to find a spot for my tent. I picked a spot just south of the plaza, and near the beach. This way, I won’t have far to go when catching and selling fish.
Louie and Shari had spots picked out, but they wait for you to confirm (or change) their choices. Louie had a spot picked out pretty close to mine, and I just let him go with that. I didn’t want to get involved with him pitching his tent.
But for Shari, I wanted her to be as far away as possible. So I put her in near the river to the northeast.
Next, Tom Nook wanted me to gather 10 tree branches for a campfire and six apples for a snack. As night fell (the tutorial isn’t in real-time), we gathered near the campfire and suggested names for our new island.
We decided to vote, and everyone liked my suggestion of Forest (as if they had a choice). I know a lot of people think Forest is a boring or uncreative name, but it’s become a tradition for me. I’ve been naming my first (and main) town in each game Forest, going all the way back to the GameCube game in 2002. It wouldn’t feel right to me any other way.
Since my suggestion was the unanimous choice, Tom Nook declared me to be the “resident representative” of Forest. I believe this is basically like being the mayor in New Leaf, just without the title and phony elections. 🗳️
Tom Nook gave a toast to our new island and we enjoyed our glasses of apple juice. 🥂
Afterwards, Tom Nook gave me a camping cot, which I took back to my tent. There was also a portable radio and a lantern inside my tent. I went to sleep, and dreamed of K.K. Slider! This was a nice throwback to the GameCube game, where a similar scene of K.K. under a spotlight started the game. 🎸
When I woke up, the clock was set to real-time. Tom Nook gave me my NookPhone so that he can spy on me. Since I didn’t have any bells on me, he told me that I can pay him back in Nook Miles. That’s a type of currency you get for completing different tasks, much like the MEOW Coupons in New Leaf.
I browsed through the features of the NookPhone, and I earned some miles by taking a picture with the camera app and adding a note to my profile. I had two letters in my mailbox, both from Nintendo. One thanked me for downloading the game update, and it contained a Nintendo Switch. The other letter was just a generic letter for getting started, and it had a simple DIY workbench included.
Shari shared a recipe for a leaf umbrella, and Louie gave me an outdoor hat. It was ugly, so I did not leave it on.
Tom Nook offered me a free DIY workshop to show me how to use the workbench for crafting. I crafted a flimsy fishing rod, and that allowed me to start fishing!
I thought the fishing felt a little different (stiffer?) in this game, like maybe the bobber doesn’t move as freely? It kinda just sits there. I mean, it still flows with the water, but maybe not as swiftly as in the other games. It’s not a big deal though, and I’m sure I’ll get it used to it in no time. And still, I had no trouble catching fish. This bitterling was my first catch.
I also caught a horse mackerel, yellow perch, sea bass, a black bass…and an empty can. The can gave me an idea for a DIY recipe: a succulent plant.
When I showed the bitterling to Tom Nook, he wanted to send it to his friend (Blathers) for a closer look. Tom gave me a new app, the Critterpedia! It shows the times of day (and months of the year) that each critter you’ve caught can be found. Very helpful!
I then collected more tree branches to craft a flimsy net. I immediately tested it out on Tommy’s head.
After giving him a few whacks on the head, I spoke to him and he was happy to see me. I guess NPCs still don’t get angry over things like that. But with that bit of fun over with, I decided to use my net for its real purpose: Hitting Shari.
Unlike Tommy, she got mad after a few hits. Hey, someone had to test this out and make sure it still worked, right? 😉
I tried using the NookPhone camera app to take a picture of Shari while she was mad. But unlike the camera feature in Super Mario Odyssey, time doesn’t stop. So it’s hard to capture a moving target, and she kept walking off-screen. I suppose it’ll be easier once I get used to the camera controls, but I’ll need more practice.
Anyway, I also used the net to catch some bugs. A yellow butterfly was my first insect, and then I also caught a tiger butterfly and common butterfly.
I spotted a balloon present, but there was no way to shoot it down. Out of desperation, I tried shaking it when it was near a tree, but that didn’t work. 😛
After playing a bit more, I felt like I basically reached the limit of what could be accomplished today. A dodo told me the airport won’t open until tomorrow, so I can’t play online yet. And I don’t have a vaulting pole, so I can’t even cross the river to explore the rest of my town!
But before I ended my day, I wanted to test out some messaging aspects of the game. The good news is that USB keyboards work with the game. Unfortunately, you have to press the R button first to activate the keyboard, for every line you type. So you can’t set the controller down and just type. In City Folk, you could just type on the keyboard at any time, as long as you weren’t in a menu.
Not only that, but chat messages only stay on-screen for about five seconds, just like in New Leaf. And they still disappear when you go through a doorway! This could make communication difficult again, and that’s the main reason I didn’t enjoy playing New Leaf online as much as City Folk. It’s a curious decision, but hopefully this can be addressed in a future update?
Overall, I’m definitely enjoying my new island adventure in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There is so much to look forward to, and so many things yet to unlock. It’s going to be a great time, and I hope you’ll follow along! I’ll be posting a new entry just about every day, and there will be frequent videos as well. Here is the video of Day 1:
How are your towns going? Get some good villagers? Leave a comment below! I’ll see you all next time! Never Stop Crossing!
Buy ACNH Guide at Amazon – Buy ACNHUpdate: I just want to share a tip I got from Megan: Instead of selling weeds directly, use them to make leaf umbrellas and earn more money!