Animal Crossing: New Horizon has been well-received overall, both by fans and critics alike. Players enjoy the great amount of customization and the relaxed gameplay, letting players just wander around an island and collect shells while they do their best not to get scared by a tarantula after sundown.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the game is perfect, and Animal Crossing certainly has some flaws. Of these flaws, many players are angry about one in specific – the admittedly-janky multiplayer format that the game takes.
If you’ve played multiplayer online, you might not have any complaints. It’s obnoxious to have to go and talk to Orville and open your gate or search for online friends and all that, sure, but the multiplayer still works perfectly fine once you’ve gone through those hoops. If you’re trying to play off of a single Nintendo Switch, though, there are a few more snags.
[Life Advice] Tree branches are a valuable resource for crafting simple tools. If you can't find any on the ground, try shaking a tree. If you keep at it, you should be able to knock a few down. Persistence pays off! pic.twitter.com/xf9a52PXoI
— Isabelle (@animalcrossing) March 24, 2020
Many players have been complaining about the way that having more than one player on a console works. If you have two players, for example, you’ll both be able to make your own villagers and enjoy the game, but you won’t be able to have your own islands. Nintendo has limited the game to have a single island per console, stopping any more than one player from being able to have their own world.
Some fans have taken this as proof that Nintendo is using the game to try and sell more Switch consoles, though it’s hard to believe anyone would pay the $300 price point just to have their own island. In the reviews, some players state that they could’ve had it to at least be one island per Animal Crossing: New Horizon copy if nothing else, but even that sounds ridiculous.
Past the multiplayer, there are fans that are disinterested in the way the game sets up objectives.
“The objectives of the game are not clear, there are multiple tasks but none lead to a greater objective or at least I did not see any interesting narrative that was spun in the background,” one reviewer wrote on Metacritic. “It’s sad and embarrassing that having superior hardware such as the Nintendo Switch the developer has opted for that annoying world.”
Frankly, these complaints are quite valid, especially the multiplayer concerns. It’s absolutely senseless that Nintendo is forcing players to purchase an entirely new console if they want to play on their own world. While it sounds like it might be charming to play on the same island as your friend, there’s only a limited number of resources that you can get, and not being able to make your own progress is extremely frustrating.
