On Very Suddenly Not Liking Animal Crossing

A while back, I was considering doing another Let’s Play for something on the Switch. After all, I enjoyed playing Pokemon Shield, I enjoyed writing about it and I wanted to try and replicate that joy. However, at the time, nothing really sprang to mind. There’s too many games to play, and my Steam library is bloated beyond belief. But what I really wanted to do was play a game on the Switch, while also writing notes right here on the Daily SPUF’s backend.

Small problem, I only actually own one other Switch game. And that game is Animal Crossing – New Horizons. Which I’m immediately shorten down to just Animal Crossing.

My first go-around.

Back at the time, doing a Let’s Play didn’t seem too insane. Animal Crossing is slow-paced and calm and gentle. There’s no battles to worry about, no enemies, all you have to fear is wasp chasing after you. I’d play the game at my own pace, maybe not with daily articles, but a slow burner every few days or so. Like I said, it’s a slow game.

That being said, I did already have a save, which I hated. My first attempt at playing Animal Crossing was somewhat fruitless, despite the huge number of pears I sold to make money. The island was ugly and I had stuck a ton of flowers down to work as decorations for the island and it was just ugly. Not only had the flowers spread all over the place before kicking the bucket; all the houses were badly misaligned and the special buildings were all set at the front of the island. Overall, my island looked like crap and I thought my best bet would be to start over.

A new island?

After taking a bit too long to work out how to start anew, I finally opened Animal Crossing. I went and started getting the early stuff doing; getting some early bells before doing anything important. My new island had a tiny island on it. That tiny island was where I wanted to build my house.

But then I realized just how much work I needed to do. I had to progress far, just to get a bridge built to access the mini island in the first place. Building bridges was very expensive. As was moving my house. And, frankly, everything I needed to do to build my tiny island… It was all too much. Getting basic things like bridges or sticks takes forever. And cost a small fortune too. Moving your house is also expensive. Very expensive.

I swiftly realized that I was doing endless chores, and progressing extremely slowly. And this quickly began to annoy me. It’s not just the progress though. It’s also having a family of scummy raccoons constantly getting in my way. The other animal settlers are fine. But those raccoons are just there to make you further and further indebted to them, and they just don’t shut up. It’s even worse because they get me to do all the work and pay all the money. It’s not my island, it’s their money laundering.

Basically, this game is a chore simulator while you line a raccoon’s pockets with their own money. And that’s why I now hate Animal Crossing.