Animal Crossing: New Horizons, has become one of the most talked about games this year. With all of us being stuck in quarantine, there's nothing more peaceful than creating your own island with cute little characters...until you get to the Island Designer app that is. So...many...cliffs...to break... *shudders*. Most recently, they've added the summer update; here's what's new.

First things first: we can swim! Players can now put on a wetsuit and hop in the ocean. You can buy a suit at either Nook's Cranny or from the Nook Miles section of the Nook Stop in Resident Services. OK great, swimming...but why? All new sea creatures, that's why! You can now swim around to find patches of bubbles, where below you'll find an array of new animals and plants like sea grapes and kelp. Donate your new finds to Blathers, then sell them for some extra Bells! While you're swimming, if you catch a scallop, a new character will appear: Pascal the otter. He'll ask for your scallop, then give you either a pearl or a mermaid-themed DIY recipe. Save up your scallops for when he comes around, and you might find yourself redecorating a room mermaid-style!

Swimming was the biggest update in Wave 1; now onto Wave 2.

Recently released on July 30, version 1.4 adds a more important element for data. The game now features an "Island Backup" service to save users' island data. This service backs up a recent save file of your island to something similar to the Cloud. This way, if your Nintendo Switch ever gets damaged or lost, you'll still be able to recover your island. This definitely makes me feel much better, as I've spent 150+ hours on the game, and still don’t have my island completely where I want it. However, the only downside is that you must have a Nintendo Switch Online membership. Luckily, Nintendo Switch Online is actually pretty cheap, coming to only $19.99 a year. This was a little surprising honestly, considering PlayStation and Xbox online features are $60+ per year. The island backup feature is a good safety net, and I'm glad to know that my data is backed up.

Have you ever wanted to visit someone else in a dream? Now you can! ...Er, your Animal Crossing character can. Now when you lay down, you'll get the option of either just resting, or going to sleep and "dreaming". Here, you can visit other islands as long as you have the "address" for them. Basically, players can upload a version of their island that's pretty much frozen in time. Anyone who visits can talk to residents and interact with things on the island, but it won't affect the real island at all. This also means that you can't take or leave anything. Whatever time the player uploads their island, that's what time it will be in the dream version. For example, if they choose to upload it at night, there's a chance that some shops may already be closed. This feature is a little strange, but it's nothing new to the Animal Crossing fandom. In New Leaf, players could visit the "Dream Suite" and basically do the same thing. This update to New Horizons is nothing more than a reference to that.

Last but not least, fireworks shows! This is a new seasonal event that will take place at certain times on the island. They will most likely occur around holidays, but Isabelle or Tom Nook will inform you of when to look out for them. Fireworks have been in pretty much every game before this one, so it's exciting to see that it will now be in this one.

As Isabelle would say, "there you have it!" All the big changes that were unveiled in this new summer update. As always, be on the lookout for the next one; I'm sure there will be bug fixes or improvements after this huge update. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to terraforming my island while slowly going insane.