Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Game images by RAWG

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Nintendo EPD

Nintendo Switchpremium + optional DLC

Health Score

DECENT

Official Website Watch Gameplay

About This Game

Super Review

Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers a gentle, creative escape where children build and manage their own island paradise. It fosters imagination and responsibility through decorating, crafting, and interacting with friendly animal villagers. While highly wholesome, its real-time clock can introduce a sense of urgency, and online features require parental oversight for text chat and visitor management.

Super Review

Parent verdict

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a decent choice for families seeking a low-stress, highly creative experience. Its gentle pacing and focus on customization make it a welcoming digital space. The real-time nature, however, means progress can be slow, which some children might find frustrating, or lead to a desire to 'time travel' by changing the console clock. Online interactions are optional but need clear family rules for younger players, especially concerning text chat with friends and visits from others.

What kids actually do

Players collect bugs, fish, and natural resources like wood and stone, exercising patience and observation skills as different items appear at various times and seasons.
Players craft furniture, tools, and decorations using collected materials and DIY recipes, fostering creativity and basic resource management.
Players design and decorate their homes and entire island, arranging items, landscaping, and customizing characters, promoting artistic expression and spatial reasoning.
Players interact with adorable animal villagers, building relationships through conversations and tasks, which can encourage empathy and social understanding.

Where it shines

The game strongly encourages creativity through extensive customization options for the island, home, and character, allowing children to express their unique style without pressure.
Its peaceful, non-violent gameplay provides a relaxing and calming experience, serving as a positive outlet for stress and promoting a gentle pace of play.
The real-time clock and seasonal events connect the game to the real world, providing a sense of routine and the anticipation of new discoveries daily.

Parent watch-outs

The real-time gameplay means significant progress often requires waiting until the next real-world day for construction or events to complete, which may challenge a child's patience.
Online multiplayer allows visits to other players' islands and text chat with friends, necessitating parental guidance to manage interactions and privacy settings.
While not required, an optional paid DLC and 'amiibo cards' exist, which could introduce discussions around additional purchases for specific in-game content.

Family rules worth setting

Establish clear rules for online play: whether online visits are allowed, whom children can visit or invite, and guidelines for text chat if enabled.
Discuss and agree upon daily playtimes, acknowledging that the game's real-time elements mean not all content is available at once, to manage expectations and reduce the urge to 'time travel'.
If sharing a console, clarify how island progress and customization will be managed, as only one island can be saved per Nintendo Switch console.

Talk about this

Discuss the concept of delayed gratification: how waiting for things to happen in the game, like buildings to complete or new items to appear, relates to patience in real life.
Explore online safety: who they interact with online, what kind of information is safe to share, and the importance of reporting uncomfortable interactions.
Chat about money management: how they earn Bells and Nook Miles, save for larger purchases like house upgrades, and make choices about what to buy or sell.

Play style

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a low-pressure, open-ended game designed for relaxed, daily sessions. It runs in real-time, meaning shops open and close and events happen with the actual clock, encouraging short, regular check-ins over intense, long play sessions. Difficulty is minimal, focusing on exploration and creative expression rather than challenges or combat. While primarily a solo experience, local and online co-op options allow children to visit friends' islands, share resources, and collaborate, though online interactions require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Score Breakdown

Positive Aspects

Educational Value

2/5

Creativity

3/5

Pro-Social

2/5

Risk Factors

Addictive Monetization

1/5

Time Pressure / FOMO

2/5

Social Risk

1/5

Content Intensity

0/5

Why this rating

Educational Value

2/5

The game offers some educational value, particularly in fostering basic economic principles through earning and spending in-game currency, managing loans, and understanding supply and demand. It also subtly teaches responsibility through daily chores and planning for island development.

Addictive Monetization

1/5

Addictive monetization is minimal with a score of 1, as the core game is premium and lacks loot boxes or pay-to-win mechanics. While optional paid DLC and amiibo cards exist, they are clearly priced and not essential for enjoying the full experience.

Creativity

3/5

Creativity scores high at 3 because the game's core loop revolves around extensive customization of the island, player character, and home. Players have vast freedom to design, craft, and terraform their environment, which strongly encourages imaginative expression.

Time Pressure / FOMO

2/5

Time pressure is present with a score of 2 due to the game's real-time clock, which means certain events, seasonal items, and building constructions require waiting until the next real-world day. This can create a 'fear of missing out' (FOMO) for some children, though there are no explicit penalties for missing content.