Shaping 2020
When I first heard of the game, it was when it was announced back in 2018, after the Isabelle (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) reveal. COVID-19 caused my school to shut down, I had no contact for friends to communicate with. A little while later, I saw that Animal Crossing was available for pre-order. So, I pre-ordered the game.
I never played any of the other games in the series, except the phone game, Pocket Camp. I have heard of the series, though. I didn’t know what to truly expect.
Celebrating with Villagers!
I loaded it, started my island, got my starting villagers. One of them was Boone, an ape with a jock personality. The other one was Reneigh, a sisterly horse. I know that they are just video game animals and whatnot but, it felt like they were gonna be the only friends I had for a long time (which technically was true).
After grinding the game for a few days, I finally got the character Blathers to show up. Instantly, I got all of the required things for the museum to be built. And after all of the things I have done, including getting the town hall, I started customizing my island. That was a fun time. It took a long time to do, but in the end, I finally got my island to a much more satisfactory state. I have my paths, decorations, and houses in the way I am happy with. The hourly music made it much more enjoyable. My favorite songs from the game are 5PM. 2PM, 6PM, 7AM, 9AM and 12PM.
What made the experience fun was watching other online friends and content creators share their islands.
Content Creators such as Its_Jawsh, RTGame, Vinesauce, Traves, Cscoop and many, many other people I watched made my time playing the game way more enjoyable, the jokes on social media also made everything better. Overall, it was just funny and interesting content. When the summer was ending, and entering the fall, I had to prepare for school. Basically preparing to stop playing the game for a while. And yes, I actually did stop playing for a long time.
Up until November when, in Michigan, everything was once again shut down. And with that, I started playing ACNH again. I forgot how much time I enjoyed playing it.
Construction Mode
And with new updates, it reinvigorated my interests in the game. And this happened at the right time, because my birthday was in a few days. Since it was basically cancelled for this year, I thought I would just play the game by myself to celebrate. Its really nice to see your island’s villagers celebrate with you. I dunno why, it just makes you feel happy, especially on your birthday. Not much happened until August. In August, they announced that they would do fireworks every sunday. You could even use your custom designs as fireworks as well. I took advantage of that, creating some probably-funny firework displays.
When the holiday events started rolling out, it was very cool to see the stuff that was being added. For example, Turkey Day. Basically thanksgiving, but not. A special NPC comes by and you gotta help em’ cook food. Gather fish, mushrooms and fruit. It took me awhile to do that, but it was fun in the process. The next one is Toy Day, the equivalent of Christmas. As of today, that is where we are now. It is so weird to recognize the fact that the year 2020 is already almost over.
It was so saddening but, very good things came out of it as well. This game, being one of them.
Birthday Party
I hope people realize that this game helped shape 2020. It caused the internet to change a little bit. Caused people and their friends to change lifestyles. People had weddings, funerals and even talk shows and podcasts. This game also helped me out of some dark areas this year. It just made me happier in general. A video game has never helped me like that before. This game is very special. In the future, when people think of 2020, they will think of this game, and the amazing things it did for (almost) everyone.