Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Back in October 2021, I restarted Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I left behind everyone at Sleep Cove and started the new island of Game Room.

At the start, I had the idea of building up the isle enough to try out Happy Home Paradise. The expansion was something I was curious about. Its inclusion swayed my decision to upgrade Nintendo Switch Online.

I played some Happy Home Designer in the first couple of weeks. I have designed 3 homes, and have the teaser info of opening other buildings. While I was busy with work, it was fun to jump in and out. But then I got fixated on upgrading my island instead of designing other peoples homes.

For December, the one thing I particularly focused on was creating a rock garden. This is something that took a large chunk of December, but on New Year’s Eve, the garden finally came together.

It never fails to surprise me how much achieving a small goal can leave you so satisfied. In a lot of ways, this is the appeal of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There isn’t anything pressuring you. No hordes of enemies, devilish platforms or illogical puzzles to overcome.

It’s just your island, some animal friends to make, and whatever you want to do in that session. Even Tom Nooks loans are interest-free, taking the pressure off from repaying them.

So now I am concentrating on tidying up my island and getting that 5-star rating. I also have 2 side goals: creating hybrid flowers and completing the museum donations.

When I have hit 5-stars, I will turn my attention towards the Happy Home Paradise DLC and see where that takes me. Until then, I am tinkering with how else to decorate Game Room.

It’s a pretty simple write up for Animal Crossing New Horizons this week. I got my 5-star rating! Goal achieved! Well, kind of. Still, little happy dance going on in the background.

With the rating, I was awarded the recipe for the Golden Watering can. Yay, another little collectible check item marked off. We are well into the playing for play’s sake section of Animal Crossing.

There are still quite a few changes I want to make to the island of Game Room. More bits to clear, some shopping and possibly designing to do to decorate other areas. Things like that. Nice small jobs to chip away at.

The bigger task I have in mind is to grow hybrid flowers. I have set aside a couple of plots of land and with luck, I can start growing new flowers soon.

Is there a good reason for wanting to grow new flowers? Nope. But it is a low-pressure goal I can escape with for 30 minutes a day. Coming back to work and seeing a lot of change before me, this escape is very welcome at the moment.

I am pretty sure this will be my main way of playing Animal Crossing New Horizons for a while. Not even the fishing tournament held much interest for me.

But in a couple of weeks, when I have a handle on my flower garden, I will start looking at the Happy Home Paradise content again.

It’s been an interesting week for the island of Game Room last week. During a heavy work week, I did the bare minimum of daily tasks to keep things going. At least, that’s what I thought.

I usually have a morning break, and during that time I do some regular tasks. Pick up shells and get a bottle, find fossils, use Nook Stop. Then I stop in for a coffee with Brewster and hit the rocks in my garden.

It’s not a lot of things to do every day, but I try and get it done. I did most of these every day last week, but not everything. I broke my Nook Stop bonus miles streak, pretty sure I didn’t stop for coffee twice and didn’t go for any trips. I don’t even think I hit my rocks every day!

Some of my residents are giving me attitude for not seeing them every day. I am starting to feel a little guilty about neglecting my island. Not enough to take the Switch downstairs and play each night though!

My hybrid flowers are blooming a bit, as I have an ordinance in place helping this along. I haven’t put in any real effort into seeing what is growing though. Goals have taken a bit of a back seat this week!

Saturday, I thought I would spend the morning playing Animal Crossing New Horizons. I would catch up on some tasks and take part in the Bug Hunt event. Well, I did a little bit of the Bug Hunt, but not much else. I ended up trying to catch up on sleep during the morning. Enzo had other ideas though, making sure I was awake from about 5 am. 

It might sound like doom and gloom, or I am not happy with Animal Crossing. I am enjoying my morning ritual, but like any habit, I had a week where keeping it was challenged. Playing at night I was either too tired or wanted to do something else.

So fingers crossed, next week I will get back to normal with my routine. I am definitely trying to get there. But for now, I caught some bugs, tidied some flower beds, and deciding how many turnips to invest in!