NintendoAnimal Crossing: New Horizons offers hours of fun throughout the year, but as veteran players will know, things get even more interesting when the events in the game take your precious island.
As you might expect, the festive season is a particularly joyous time – this weekend saw a lot of social media users sharing videos from their island The New Year’s countdown, when we entered 2021, and Christmas events, such as Toy Day, made the long wait for Santa on Christmas Eve much more bearable. Players even had the opportunity to enjoy seasonal food to celebrate.
But, unfortunately, not everyone could have enjoyed these events. As it turns out, for these events to take place in the game, players must reach a certain point of progress in building the island and opening the City Hall. Depending on how you choose to play, this can take a long time, and anyone who has not yet met the requirements will not be able to see any of these special events in any form or form.
It may not seem like much of a problem – unlocking more content by performing tasks in the game feels rewarding, doesn’t it? – but what about all the new players who were offered a copy of the game during the festive period, assuming they could join the celebrations that Nintendo had advertisement?
For Nintendo Life reader Dennis, this exact situation has disappointed the whole family:
“My wife and I love our Animal Crossing and we all have a copy of New Leaf on our 3DS systems. We especially enjoy the Christmas and New Year events. I only owned one Nintendo Switch, so I didn’t play there until Christmas – where I surprised my wife and children with a Switch Lite, including Animal Crossing.
We were looking forward to playing the Christmas and New Year events in New Horizons … We played for hours every day, but for Christmas and New Year NOTHING happened on our islands. No gifts, no countdown, not even a mention of it.
It seems that for any event related to events you have to rise to the level of the city center. My wife played the most every day and managed to do this on January 2, my children and I are still in the game. So, for anyone who received a Switch and Animal Crossing for Christmas, it was IMPOSSIBLE to participate in the Christmas and New Year events. What a disappointment. It was nothing for new players, not even a mention or anything. “
A quick conversation at the Nintendo Life headquarters reveals that a young family member also accidentally fell during the holidays because they had not yet completed the necessary tasks. Progressive unlocking and content has been a thing in games for as long as we can remember, so it’s hard to complain about the practice used here, but blocking new players from special, time-specific events could be considered a bit of a negligence on the part of Nintendo, especially in connection with the holidays?
Did you encounter a similar problem with New Horizons this holiday? Have you already played enough game to see the holidays? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.