You guys! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is almost here! Can you believe it? It feels like we’ve been waiting for so long (just over 7 years, but who’s counting?). But now that we’re in the final stretch, I’ve been busy trying to get everything together so I’m ready for launch day. I have my AC:NH Switch, game cartridge, and AC:NH Pro Controller pre-ordered and great excuse ready for when my husband sees the credit card bill!
But what to call it?
Now its time to really take a deep dive into my island’s customization so I’m not wasting all morning on launch day staring at my screen, wracking my brain for the perfect name. In the past, I’ve always gone with Skittles, but this time around I wanted something more “islandy”. I spent a few hours on the Google-box looking up mythical island names, but they were all a little…”fierce” for me. Not at all the cute and laid-back style I was looking for. Wait, Hawaii! Hawaii is what I’m looking for! And what is more Hawaiian than the traditional lei the islands are known for! I started researching leis and the flowers that make them up and landed on “Okika”, which is Hawaiian for “orchid”. Perfect! Okika it is.
With the release of a dedicated Nintendo Direct for New Horizons, I can now set my sights on what I want my island layout to look like. In that past, this was another choice that always tripped me up. I’m thinking it won’t be as big of a deal this time around because of the terraforming abilities we will eventually have, but it would be nice to start with a good base. If the only 4 choices we get to start off are the ones shown in the video, then I’ll go with the bottom-left layout. The Resident Services tent is centrally located and there’s a pond that looks like a heart! I also like the layout of the cliffs on this map.
Further planning
You know what the most annoying thing about past games has been for me, besides “animal tracks” (don’t even get me started)? It was the fact that animals would plop their houses down wherever they pleased when they moved in. I would have a nice orchard planted and then BAM, here comes Portia with her dumb house. I’ve never forgiven her for that. I LOVE that we will be able to choose where our animal buddies will move in in New Horizons. My initial thought is that I will start a “neighborhood” of sorts, with the animal houses lined in rows with streets and benches. Then I can have the orchard I always wanted with no dalmatian interference!
Next on my list is to dust off my old games and document my favorite patterns. I won’t be able to do this until after launch, but I am so excited we’ll be able to use the NookLink app on our mobile devices to transfer over designs!
There are still things that I know I’ll be stuck on for hours the morning of launch. We still don’t know what character customization options will be available right off the bat or if we’ll still have a flag or town tune! However, I like that I can start to prepare a bit so I can really get into the game right away on March 20th.
What about you?
So what’s on your preparation list? Or are you just going to wing it on your first day? What new feature are you most looking forward to?
I’m pretty much thinking of winging it. Planned vacations tend to be annoying for everyone involved. Sometimes you just want to bake on the beach instead of stroll through a museum, or head for a historical landmark, or watch buskers on the boardwalk. Then again, sometimes you’d like to just do nothing. You just can’t relax and enjoy a vacation when you already have a rigid itinerary drawn up that some tightly wound parental unit wants to get done! Ugh!