![]() ![]() ![]() Despite that fact, he drops me off cheerfully. I'm heading to the town of NewGenki, a small town populated by animals, and I have no money to pay the fare. The driver, a frog, introduces himself as the Kapp'n, and asks me a variety of questions to find out who I am - secretly it helps me ascertain that very thing myself. We change up our virtual hairstyles with the push of a button (highly satisfying given the current confusion around whether or not you can visit a hairdresser in Australia) we collect stacks of lumber to craft bespoke coffee tables and bookshelves we grow flowers and run barefoot along the riverside.The first thing I remember is waking up in the back of a warm taxi cab, speeding through the driving rain. We’re reacting to a global emergency by clinging to the familiar, the nostalgic, the simple pleasures. We’re desperate for an escape from our rented apartments, from a time riddled with overwhelming uncertainty, from the pressure-cooker of anxiety that is now the everyday reality of the pandemic. Over the past week, my friends and I have spent our evenings together visiting each other’s virtual islands, picking fruit and rearranging furniture, all while chatting with our phones on speaker. A surprising number of my millennial peers, many of whom have never previously identified as gamers, rushed to buy Nintendo Switches in anticipation of a lockdown. As my partner and I sit self-isolating on our couch, taking an in-game photo of our avatars fishing on the beach at sunset, I look across at him and whisper, only half-jokingly: “This is our reality now.” The graphics are lush (I never thought I would appreciate the texture of a digital raccoon’s fur) and the sound design would make the spine of an ASMR tragic tingle with delight. Far from boring, Animal Crossing’s low-stakes domesticity is extremely soothing, and the latest version, New Horizons, offers the player a beautiful world to immerse themselves in. Photograph: Animal Crossing New HorizonĪnimal Crossing is a simulation game where your super-cute avatar furnishes a home, tends to the natural surrounds of the island you live on, and befriends a series of adorably sassy animal neighbours. A surprising number of my millennial peers rushed to buy Nintendo Switches in anticipation of a lockdown. ![]()
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