If you read my previous article, you would know that I somehow managed to obtain the last Nintendo Switch in Cleveland. Well, the last one before the quarantine. And with that, I have obtained a small collection of games to keep myself entertained as well as for future parties - whenever those are allowed. I have a total of three games: Mario Kart 8, Just Dance 2020, and finally Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have put in a lot of hours into Animal Crossing compared to my other games. I remember when I was young my cousin had it on her GameCube but she never let me play. Now, a decade and a half later I have my own copy and with that, I have had some challenges. Being new to the Animal Crossing world, I have had my fair share of trial and error. And over the last couple of weeks, there are some aspects of the game that I've grown annoyed with. So, I am presenting a listicle of the things that grind my gears with the new Animal Crossing game. I love the game, don't get me wrong but these are just some things I've noticed that make my time on the island a little bit more annoying.
1. The Island
Me realizing that my Island is terrible!
Marc Anthony Brown
With Animal Crossing, Nintendo has decided to only allow you to create one island per Nintendo Switch. A backwards concept in the age of cloud saving and multiple save files with other games but that's beside the point. What I am annoyed about with my island is the way it was presented to me. Apparently you can get a randomly spawned island every time you back out when you first boot up the game. I didn't realize that and now I am stuck with an island with not the best layout. Over the last couple of weeks, I've managed to rework what I want the theme of my island to be, but I am still annoyed that certain things like the location of the airport, the Resident Service building, and river entrances can not be moved. I was trying to go for a central downtown theme - an urban metropolis, but with the way the land is laid out, I had to change it to be a forest theme. Which I guess makes sense, because you can't change the name of your island and I decided to name it "Oak Harbor."
2. Placing Buildings
Tom Nook forcing the player to craft!
GiphyIn Animal Crossing, you have to progress through the "story" to get buildings to place on your island. Apparently, with this game compared to those of the past, there is a limited amount of buildings in this new campaign, resulting in a frustrated fanbase. Since I decided to redesign my island, I now know how I want my buildings to function however, I am annoyed with some aspects. Mainly how I have to gather all the resources for these buildings. The game runs in real time, meaning that if it's 5pm in real life, it's 5pm in the game. And this sometimes leads to things spawning only once a day like rocks. And these rocks contain materials needed to craft these buildings. It can be a struggle especially for me as I needed one more piece of iron for a building and I ended up having to wait a full day to hop back on and collect it. It can be annoying because a lot fo the time I work so hard gathering these materials to only end up getting a lousy shirt.
3. Bells
Tom Nook convincing me to go into more debt.
Marc Anthony Brown
Bells are the currency for the game and they are a pain to obtain. I am a poor man, and every time I log on I am reminded of that by my Raccoon overlord Tom Nook. With the game, you gain bells by selling items and completing tasks like helping your villagers. However, it is a pain to gather bells. It comes down to basically grinding on special items you randomly travel to and hunting down tarantulas. Grinding for items in video games is like one of my least favorite pastimes and I know I am going to have to do it once I am done with the semester. There's this turnip lady that comes Sunday mornings and you can buy Turnips from her and sell them from high profits. But at the same time, it's only on Sunday mornings! I remember last Sunday I woke up and completely forgot and now I have to wait.
4. The AI [Store Clerks]
The Opening of the Nook's Cranny on my Island
Marc Anthony Brown
This is a minor nitpick but I don't like how the store clerks follow you inside. Every time I enter the shop, aka The Nook's Cranny, I am greeted by Tom Nook's … I think they are his students… Timmy and Tommy. And look they're great. They are young, running a business and making bank. However, I am not really enjoying the fact that every time I enter their store I am followed around when I am looking at the four items they have to offer. Like - Listen kids. I know my character is brown but I am not going to steal anything. Is this a minor nitpick? Yes, but I personally don't like the idea of being followed by people in the store. Especially since it happened to me last month when I was shopping with my grandmother. But that's a story for another time.
5. Villagers AI
Me with my favorite villager
Marc Anthony Brown
Look I have some ugly villagers. They are annoying, whine and have an attitude with me. They like to run around my island and it stresses me out because I think they are going to run into my character. I feel like I am a parent trying to maintain all these kids. I am always the one that has to build their houses, I am always the one that has to resolve their disagreements. I am always the one that gets stung by bees and not them! It is super annoying. There is only one person I enjoy on my island and that's Flip. He's an orange monkey and seems like the only one that cares for me. I always check up on him and I made sure to get a picture with him for my wall. He is literally the only villager I care about.
6. Events
The Spawn of Satan himself.
By the time I am writing this, the Easter event just ended in Animal Crossing and oh my gosh. So a creepy bunny character showed up to my island and was like, "In 12 days I will return with an egg surprise" and since then I literally had dozens of easter eggs hidden around my island. This doesn't sound like a big problem until it is literally interfering with me progressing the game. I could not fish, dig for fossils or even pop balloons for weeks because of these eggs. They spawned so much in the game and they literally serve no purpose other than to craft furniture. And Like I said it hindered me from progressing in the game because I would need certain materials and the game would be spawning eggs that would've normally been the material. Nintendo decreased the number of eggs that spawned before the event ended but that didn't help. I hope to never see that bunny ever again.
And those are just some of the things I don't like about playing Animal Crossing. I still love the game and I enjoy visiting my friend's island. Hopefully, I can get more friends to play with soon!
