Every year I look forward to my trip to PAX East in Boston, and every year I look forward to what Nintendo is going to bring to the expo hall floor. I can tell you from four days of personal experience, Nintendo did not disappoint this time. Past years there was always a nice looking spot with multiple demos of different games that are either out or coming out very soon.
This year at PAX East 2020, Nintendo showed us the happiness of one of their cutest game series brought to life, Animal Crossing. A little less than a month left to go, Nintendo gave us a peek into the world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, that releases on the Nintendo Switch on March 20th. Multiple Nintendo hires donning Tom Nook themed Hawaiian shirts guided the rush of PAX attendees every morning and continued all day non-stop to keep everything smooth and flowing to try to let everyone get a chance to play the twenty-minute New Horizons demo.
While I couldn’t convince one of them to let me have their shirt so I could wear one at work, all of them were very nice to deal with in the mad rush. What really changed the tone though? The beautifully crafted floor space, made to look like you are actually running around in the world of Animal Crossing. A stark contrast to the darker-toned booths of the rest of the companies and games at PAX.
Bright colors, cute trees, a workbench from the game, and fake campfire and tent, a little stream running through everything. Even better? Three of the games’ most popular mascots, Isabelle, Tom Nook, and K.K. Slider were recreated as costumes that had someone inside that people could get photos and videos with.
Getting a picture with Isabelle was probably the second best thing that the Nintendo space provided, I was actually crying in line. Seeing one of my favorite video game characters brought to life was amazing. The best part though was the New Horizons demo.
I was joined by three other players, one being my friend, someone familiar, at my demo station. The great thing about Animal Crossing, I do not think I’ve met a single “toxic” player of the games, and that was what was so heartwarming about the Nintendo space this year. Two strangers that I have never met before played with us like we had known each other already. We talked about the game, things we wanted to try in the demo while we played, and laughed about different things that happened while playing.
Our Nintendo rep started off by showing us how the multiplayer system works. One player gets to be the leader of the group. This is shown by a little arrow above the player. They control where the camera follows, what buildings you enter, and the players’ inventory.
The way the camera follows the leader actually made for some fun laughs at our station, as our leader climbed a ladder we made and pulled the ladder up the cliff with him, effectively leaving the rest of us behind and yelling for him to come back. Although we were left behind, once the leader had walked far enough away where the other players were off-screen we teleported back into existence next to the leader.
Our Nintendo guide had us walk into a convenient store of sorts to purchase some medicine as earlier we had gotten stung by some bees that attacked us. The menu in this is beautifully displayed and laid out, showing items you can purchase and how many bells they cost. After purchasing our medicine to cure our bee stings, we were able to check out the crafting menu. This is where we were able to craft the ladder I mentioned earlier, the new pole that allows you to pole vault over streams, and we made a new ax as well.
As with the store purchasing menu, the crafting menu was laid out beautifully, showing you what items were available to craft and what you need to craft said item. After what seemed longer than twenty minutes, we got a two-minute warning, and so our group decided to just run around until we were out of time.
We made it to the shore of the island. This brought joy to me, seeing the edge of the island and thinking that in just a couple more weeks I’ll be purchasing my Deserted Island Getaway package from Nook Inc. and exploring my own island. One of the biggest things that I didn’t experience during the demo, but I am ecstatic for is being able to terraform the island myself and make the island my own virtual home away from home.
Animal Crossing New Horizons comes out on March 20th for the Nintendo Switch. There is also a special edition Nintendo Switch System that will be released a week before the game on March 13th, you can check your local retailers for availability. Stay tuned here at Marooners Rock for more Animal Crossing New Horizons coverage!
