By: AVA WOFFORD
Staff Writer
Have you ever wanted to live in a village full of animals? If so, welcome to Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Animal Crossing for short. Animal Crossing is a sandbox game, meaning that it’s open world and fairly mellow, where you live on an island with a bunch of human-like animals called villagers. While on the island you welcome new animals, make the island more livable, and slowly go into debt. It’s a fairly easy game that just takes some patience and lots of imagination.
So here’s the big question. Why should you play Animal Crossing? For the last two years or so we’ve been stuck in a global pandemic. Over this time many people started feeling isolated and shut out from the world. We couldn’t hang out with our friends and stores closed down. People got anxious to talk to others and resume regular life so they turned to Animal Crossing. In Animal Crossing you can escape COVID on a beautiful island where everyone is your friend. You can make whatever you want, go wherever you want, and even talk to whoever you want. Animal Crossing became a game that allowed you to get back to regular life while staying safe in your home. The game also became a way to hang out with real-life friends as Animal Crossing has an online platform as well. Animal Crossing as a whole really helped people stay sane in these lonely times.
So why still play Animal Crossing? While we are still in the middle of COVID we can now hang out with our friends, go back to school and work, and have fun outside. Because of this one might ask: so why continue playing Animal Crossing? The answer is simple, this game means more than just the game itself. A community of people who felt the same emptiness as the rest of us during COVID came together and made something beautiful. They created art, outfits, new ways to play and explore the game. People who enjoyed the game started talking to other people who enjoyed the game. Before you knew it there was a community of different experiences, mindsets, and personalities that all came together for this game. Animal Crossing was a game in which you create a community that will have your back and in the end, this game left us with the greatest gift, It truly gave us a community to love and cherish.