A trip to this tropical island can be wonderful with its relaxing tone and fun gameplay mechanics, but there are some Animal Crossing: New Horizons cons that Nintendo need to fix to make the experience even better.
The Tool Wheel
In a snap second, you may have to whip out your net, but unfortunately in New Horizons, it’s not fast enough for you to make that quick movement to catch a bug. The wheel takes a few seconds to boot up, and then you have to choose each tool with the A button. Instead, the game should freeze in place, and in a similar fashion to a first person shooter like DOOM, the right analog stick can instantly choose the tool you need in that split second rather than having to confirm with the A button. When your game revolves around collecting critters in the environment, it’s kinda important to have a good UI.
A Mobile Crafting System
I don’t know about you, but it’s not fun to run from one point to another on the map when you run out of space in your inventory. In early game, it is difficult to get the expanded bag because you need 5,000 Nook Miles, and those Nook Miles are basically required to be used on tickets, so you can get the materials you need for daily tasks. I wish I could just have a crafting gadget with me wherever I go rather than backtracking many, many, many times. It would save so much time. Another way to go about it would be to give us the option of sending non-essential materials to the storage at home, and then the ability to summon them whenever we’d like. In a world where we can get a fishing rod, a shovel, an axe, and many other tools by waving our hands, this wouldn’t be out of the question, right?
Imprecise Motions
Fishing and picking up the items you actually want can be frustrating. I did not mean to pick up that weed! Why did I overshoot the rod and then miss my chance to get that fish!? You have to be so precise with your spacing to act in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Juuuust move to the left, just move to the right, ahhhh, there we go. It feels cumbersome. The camera is also a nuisance; sometimes trees obstruct your character, or the camera is just too far away that you pick up the wrong item. It’s a small nuisance that one time, but when you multiply that throughout a stretch of time, it can get frustrating. Kinda goes against the point of a relaxing adventure, right?
Despite having some grievances with the UI, controls, and gameplay mechanics, I still love this game. It’s incredibly addictive and rewarding to see your town sprout into an island destination of your dreams. Do you think there are any Animal Crossing: New Horizons cons I missed? Let us know in the comments below!
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