Andrew Readyoff

Honestly my least favorite game in the series. It was a big let down. First of all the one island mechanic ruins the game right off the bat with players who have grown up with the game and had their own vision for their island. Now you need to compromise your vision with your brother, sister, child, SO, etc. This is an immediate and glaring issue that frankly ruined a large portion of the game that I was excited for. The next problem is that the first person to visit the island becomes the designated island coordinator- they do all the missions for Nook and they control the entire progression of the island. This is a problem if the other island residence want to progress the story or help with Nook quests because they're stuck waiting for player 1. Additionally, players are left with no resources to collect if the first player who logs on decides to dig up fossils or collect fruit. To remedy this the first person who logs on needs to stop themselves from fully playing the game and leave behind valuable resources so that other islanders can play the game. The next problem is the stale dialog. Animal crossing for the GameCube had the best dialog in my opinion. Characters had their own personalities which differed in a more meaningful way. Now Nintendo tried to make everything cutsie and "child friendly" even though as a child I loved the sassy and sometimes rude remarks of the GameCube villagers. Additionally, the same pre-programmed speech patterns get very old. You'd think that after 19 years Nintendo would be able to vary personalities and text in a much more comprehensive way, but they are stuck in 2001. The graphics and some quality of life changes are really the only notable improvements to the game so far. Additionally, you get a lot closer to the able sisters as you befriend them which is a nice touch. But all things considered, this title dropped the ball on what could have been the game of the year.