Crossing the Line into Cozy Gaming | Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing has become one of the most thought of game when asked about cozy gaming. The sandbox game allows players to collect a town full of animal villagers, decorate their own home, and catch critters to show off in their own museum. What more could you want when looking for a game to relax with?

As someone who appreciates cozy games, but does not typically play them, this was not a game that I thought I would enjoy. Yeah, it looked cute, but how long could I just run around an island? Apparently, the answer is one year.

I was one of the many people who grabbed the game during lockdown when I couldn’t physically be with my friends, and this game helped to at least give me a few things to do in my day. I made my cute character and landed on my island and after a week or so, I would get on after my classes and clean up my island. I would shake my trees, find my fossils, and collect bugs and fish. I did grow to enjoy the light heartedness of the game, I found some cute villagers and I just ran around my island for an hour a day.

I never would have thought I would be able to put hours into moving flowers around and island hunting to try and find specific types. The simplicity was what made this game so great, I didn’t have a set goal aside from make my island pretty, I could go as fast as I wanted or as slow. I could have my friends visit my island and run around together. It was a time that I didn’t have expectations to worry about, it was just fun.

The best parts were (1) the events that would pop up, everything from holiday events to being able to sell fish for a lot more money. And (2) seeing the season changes on my island in the first year. Both of these had me back into the game full force. When all my wood trees bloomed into beautiful cherry blossoms, I spent a lot of my time placing trees around my island, I wanted to have them at every corner. My first snow gave me so much to look forward to. I could dress my character for winter and run around in the snow, my favorite part was that I could actually make snowmen out of the snow on my island.

This game was such a fun game that stuck around for a lot longer than I anticipated. I played on and off for about a year, I wanted to see all the events that were put on through a year and I felt I needed to see all four seasons. Throughout that year, I gathered a full island of villagers and decorated everything that I could. By the end, I felt like I got enough out of Animal Crossing and was simply done with the game.