Introducing My Mom to Animal Crossing

Back during lockdown, I finally got back into gaming, this was a hobby that began to take up a big part of my life as it and school were the only things going on at that point in time. The Nintendo Switch was my latest fun thing to play games on and my mom was the one to grab one for me. She managed to get two as she was going to give one to my nephews to share, but ended up getting two Switch Lites so they each had their own, and kept the regular Switch for herself. This change happened a few weeks after the initial purchase, and during that time, my boyfriend had gotten me Animal Crossing so we could play together. My mom watched both of us playing on our islands and wanted to try it out for herself. After deciding what to do with the Switches, she ended up buying a copy of Animal Crossing for herself.

Before Animal Crossing, my mom had never played any video game aside from Mario Kart (where she would constantly get stuck behind cows on Moo Moo Meadows or falling off the tracks on the sections without gates to keep her on the pavement) or Mario Party. Her journey into this new video game allowed me to see what stuff I took for granted having played games since childhood.

Struggling with controls

Even I will admit that I would sometimes forget what menu a function is in while playing Animal Crossing. This was a constant problem for my mom over the first few play sessions. She would often get lost in how to get to her tools or how to change them out for others, she would forget how to get to her daily nook miles section on her phone and would struggle to interact with the world due to the control mechanics being confusing for her.

Real-Time Mechanics Caused Heartache

When my mom first got the game, I warned her that she should get on the game to start it during the week so that she could play it during the weekend. Well, I should have explained it a bit more because she didn’t think too much of it and didn’t break out the game until Saturday. When she got to the section where she would be stuck until a whole real day time left her distraught. She had been looking forward to playing a fun game but was left to wait with only a tent and some trees as her only friends because those evil tanukis were not her friends. Seeing this look of sadness made me feel sorrow because she was so excited to be on her new island only to be met with disappointment. This trend of days needing to pass to gain access to buildings continued to be a constant hurdle for her in the beginning. At least the reactions became less sadness and more annoyance, which I guess is better.

The time limitations in the game, especially early on, caused a feeling of sluggishness and the inability to progress at her own pace made the game feel like it lacked content.

The Joys

After learning how to play Animal Crossing, my mom unlocked the fun that the game presents. She started to put stuff in her house, decorated her island, and started to collect things like fossils and fish. She found it rewarding when she would find a new fossil that she didn’t already have or when a new fish would be caught because she could add to her museum. She enjoyed it when she could physically see her progress on her island.

When she finally got to the part of the game where she could go and collect villagers for her island, she was excited. Before this point, I had shown her all of the villagers that were available in New Horizons. Her love for frogs caused her to name her island Frogville and therefore wanted to get some frog villagers.

After many islands in search of cute villagers, my mom found Wart Jr. the adorable little frog villager. He has become her hands-down favorite villager and she loves to show him off whenever he’s on screen.

She also loves when events go on in the game for the holidays and the weather changes with the seasons. These little things like building snowmen in the winter snow just make the game more enjoyable.

The Lack of Progression in a Sandbox Game

The main killer that made my mom put the game down was that she hit that wall in the game that I, along with many others have experienced. Once she had a full island of villagers and managed to get a five-star rating, she found that there was nothing else to work for. After she saw each event once, she never really felt the urge to go back and do them again next year (except for building the snowmen, she still enjoys doing that).

Since she has completed the game, she only occasionally picks up the game. She has essentially stopped playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I will still call this introduction to Switch gaming a huge success. She played that game for hours, getting on every day to take care of her island and see her villagers.