GAMING

CO-EDITOR LOUISA SADLER

THE NEW ANIMAL CROSSING UPDATEBY LOUISA SADLER

As a fan of Animal Crossing, I was looking forward to playing the new major update that was released EARLY on 4th November as opposed to releasing on 5th November. I thought I would share some of my thoughts and experiences whilst playing the new update.

COOKING AND FARMING

The cooking and farming aspect of the new update is really cool. Instead of only planting flowers and pumpkins, you can now grow your own carrots, tomatoes, wheat, sugarcane and potatoes to help craft recipes that you find either in Nooks Cranny, bottles from the beach and on mystery islands and from villagers themselves. It evens allows you to use the fruit from your fruit trees and create and cook recipes from fish that you catch; finally giving the dreaded Sea Bass a reason to be caught! So far, I’ve managed to grow everything apart from potatoes and have managed to obtain around 30ish recipes. Some of my recipes are sitting on my kitchen table which include organic bread and a cherry smoothie. I’m looking forward to seeing what new recipes I will be cooking up in the future!

BREWSTER

Back when Animal Crossing was on the DS, I remember visiting Brewster in the museum for this Coffee and I’m so glad I get to do it again with New Horizons thanks to this update. I like that Brewster

is upstairs in the museum this time round and I love the little sign next to the café. I also like that you get to see people like Isabelle actually get out of the office, even if it is just a little cutscene moment. I like that if you buy one coffee every day, you will get rewards from Brewster. My first reward was a Brewster shaped cookie recipe that you can cook, and this came after buying a cup of coffee 5 days in a row. Be warned, it is limited to one cup of coffee per day and not multiple cups of coffee per day. If you have amiibo cards, then you can invite them to the café to have coffee with you there.

KAPP’N

I think Kapp’n Island tours has to be my favourite part of the update so far. I love that Kapp’n can take us to islands that we cannot experience with Dodo airlines. These islands can have new bushes, new DIY recipes and Gyroid fragments to find. These islands can even be a different time of day or season! One island I visited had vines growing off the cliffs that you can climb up and down from, saving you from having to get your ladder out every time you wanted to climb a cliff. You could take these vines off the cliffs on the mystery island and take them to your own island and place them on your own cliffs. Another island had these cliffs along with glowing moss that you could take home to your island and craft DIYs out of them (if you had the recipes of course). My favourite island I went to was the shooting star island. I went during the day and whilst listening to the song Kapp’n sings, I saw the sky change from day to night which I thought was really cool. As soon as I was on the island, I heard the sound of the shooting stars and spent most of my time looking up at the sky and waiting for them so I could wish on them for their star fragments. What made shooting star island that little bit extra special was that the rocks, which you normally get stone, clay and iron nuggets or gold, had star fragments in them instead! Some of these fragments were normal ones but most of them were star sign fragments. I collected Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, and Leo star fragments so I can now craft more star sign DIYs now as I have the fragments that I didn’t have before.

HARV’S ISLAND

The final feature of this update which I will talk about is the upgrade to Harv’s Island. Rather than being just a place for photography, Harv’s island has now expanded to create a mini marketplace for our visiting shops. Harv’s island allows us to have Redd, Leif, Saharah and other mobile shops to have a permanent residence on Harv’s island so you can never miss out on a piece of art, rug or flower again! They also have new shops we can use as well. We can also obtain a fortune teller, people who refresh furniture and one that allows you to access home storage while out and about on your island! I’ve got Redd, Leif and Rhys and Cyrus on Harv’s island so far and am looking to get Saharah next.

Overall, I am really enjoying this new update to Animal Crossing and love the new features that have been added. It has made Animal Crossing even more enjoyable to play and I look forward to spending a further 500 hours playing this game.

ANIMAL CROSSING

NEW HORIZONS: UPDATE 2.0

BY KAY SABERTON

I’ve been playing Animal Crossing in some form or another since I was eight years old. It’s a game franchise that I hold close to my heart, so when the announcement came that a huge update was dropping for Animal Crossing New Horizons, I was beyond excited. The update includes new hairstyles, DIYS, a brand-new cooking feature and recipes, and much much more. It also promises the return of previous NPCs such as Brewster, Harriet, and Leif to name a few. The game brings both new and old players together in a way that continues to evolve and expand its gameplay. So, if you’re new to the game, or only just getting around to playing the update, this is what you’ll want to do first.

1. TALK TO BLATHERS

To unlock Brewster’s Coffee Shop, you’ll first need to talk to Blathers at the museum who suggests finding Brewster and inviting him to join the museum. As I found out, unless you do this first, you won’t be able to find Brewster when you sail to the islands.

2. SAIL TO THE ISLANDS

Head down to the docks to find Kapp’n waiting in his boat. It’ll cost you 1,000 Nook Miles per trip, but hopefully you’ll find Brewster on your first few tries. When you get to the island, you’ll notice some new additions. See those holes in the ground? Dig them up to find gyroid fragments! Take them back with you, plant and water them, wait until morning and you’ll find a gyroid. These are from the older games and a fun addition to have in New Horizons. If you’re lucky, you’ll find yourself on a crop island filled with wheat, pumpkins, tomatoes that you can use in recipes (but don’t worry there are other ways to get the crops on your island!)

3. FIND BREWSTER

You’ll soon find Brewster wandering around one of the islands. After talking to him you can invite him back to your island. Then, when you next talk to Blathers he will announce that the museum will close for a day to build the new shop.

Once the building is complete, when you head into the museum you can find Brewster’s up the stairs on the left-hand side. As in previous games, you can sit and buy a cup of coffee. I haven’t gotten that far yet, but I imagine as in other games, if you buy a certain amount of coffee Brewster will offer you a job making coffee for your island residents!

4. GO TO HARV’S ISLAND

There has also been an expansion on Harv’s Island, a place I rarely went to before the update. Harv explains that he wants to create a community of merchants on his island.

Now, old NPC characters and their services can be unlocked for 100,000 bells each. The first one I unlocked was Leif’s cart as I hoped that I could purchase crop starters from him – and I was correct! I currently have potatoes and wheat growing on my island and I cannot wait to start cooking. Other vendors include Katrina, Harriet, Redd, and Kicks. I definitely think it’s worth saving up to unlock these NPCs as you can more easily purchase artwork from Redd to complete your museum, Harriet gives you bonus hairstyles, and Leif lets you buy crops instead of waiting for crop island to spawn.

5. GO TO WORK (DLC)

The main feature of the new update is the DLC – Happy Homes Paradise. I preordered the DLC straight away as I enjoyed playing Happy Homes on my Nintendo 3DS and wanted to experience it on the Switch.

After heading to the airport, you can fly to a remote island where Lottie is waiting to recruit you as part of her team. She offers you the chance to design homes (interior and exterior) for island visitors according to a theme. I really enjoyed designing my first home and found it to be quite therapeutic! If you like designing rooms and fancy switching off whilst doing it, the DLC is worth it.