Animal Crossing: New Horizons: A lonely multiplayer experience

Adding a second player to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch doesn’t do much unless you play with local co-op.

When Nintendo first explained its local multiplayer features for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there was one particular thing that caught a lot of people off guard. If you have multiple people in your home that want to play, you can only have ONE island on your Switch. Whoever plays first is in charge and everyone else just gets to live there.

The first person can build new projects, start work on things like the museum, alter the layout, all that. Player two can just hunt, fish and donate to projects. It’s a much more minimal experience and something I feel is just something to push people to buy more than one Switch for their home. But that’s not for this article. This article is to talk about something I’ve really wanted to know but couldn’t find anywhere online. What is it LIKE having other people on your island?

To fully understand this, I made a new account. Because I’m a weeb, I thought it would be interesting having Rem from Re:Zero live on my island so I set out to make Rem. After making a new account on my Switch, I loaded up the game itself.

When I entered the game as a player two, I was met by Timmy and Tommy Nook at the airport. They explained that they already lived on my island of Galifrey (I’m a bunch of different types of nerd, don’t judge) and that they’d love to help me move.

So right out the gate, it already lets you know someone’s already established the island and they’re going out of their way to pick you up. I was then shown the Nook Inc. introduction video that showcases a lot of the things you can do on the island.

Afterward, I ended up getting off the plane and then meeting up with Tom Nook who gave me a phone and a tent, which I went and set up. If this works the way I want it too, I’d also build a second home so I could have Rem’s sister Ram living on my island as well, so I had a nice two house-wide section reserved.

Afterward, I decided to visit my main villager’s home, the one I normally play as. As I entered his home I noticed something, I wasn’t there. I checked every room in my home. I checked the garden, checked the beaches, checked the giant shrine to Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls (I already said I’m a lot of different nerds). I was nowhere. I didn’t expect this. I thought there was a low probability that the other players were wandering around like NPC’s but I thought, at least, they’d be visible in their own home. You’d think that would be something Nintendo would have as you were forced to live on the same island.

I then wanted to double-check so I hopped back over on my main account and visited Rem’s tent. Empty of anyone, just her stuff. So having other people on your island, while taking up space, just seem to take off space with their houses but still leave things incredibly lonely.

Next. Animal Crossing: New Horizons complete guide: Walkthroughs, tips and tricks. dark