After spending the majority of quarantine toiling over my island, placing and replacing my buildings multiple times, I, like many other players, grew bored with Animal Crossing New Horizon. 

I took my ACNH hiatus around July 2020 after exhausting everything there was to do in the game. I’d moved my island around multiple times, worked on completing my museum and even mastered the turnip exchange. At that point, there wasn’t much left except to check in daily. After putting 500 hours into the game, you run out of things to do.

However, this slump wasn’t something I experienced in Animal Crossings New Leaf. I personally think that game had more longevity than ACNH, until recently.

As many people know, the Nintendo Direct 2021 livestream happened in late September, and with it came a ton of new content. This event single-handedly revived half of the ACNH players. I know so many people who have recently logged back into their islands just to get ready for the upcoming release. 

Nintendo Direct 2021 announced brand-new features for the game and the return of a few fan-favorites. If you’ve ever played Animal Crossing you know about the elusive froggy chair, an item that wasn’t included in the game at launch is now being added. This item alone has fans redecorating their entire homes in order to include it on their islands. 

They’ve also brought back some well-liked non-player characters such as Brewster and Kapp’n. With this, they’re reintroducing the coffee shop, which is now located in the upper part of the museum, and Kapp’n’s boat rides which can help unlock new plant life. Harv’s island has some changes as well, players can now play to unlock shops on his island. Before, I never found a reason to visit his island, seeing as it was only a photography studio with no other features. This addition has made his island usable for me. 

Nintendo has had updates in the past that have brought back players, but none this big. The update that brought in the swimming mechanic was alright– it brought me out of my ACNH slump for a little while– but it wasn’t interesting enough to keep me playing. It was another one of those once-you-complete-all-the-tasks-there’s-nothing-else-to-do updates.

This update is different and that’s why a lot of people are excited about it, myself included. They’ve made it easier to customize objects that previously weren’t customizable at all, which will prompt users to play to change their island around. They’ve also allowed us to have more customization with our houses and characters by bringing in new designs.

Nintendo is adding plenty more new features, like cooking. We can now plant vegetables and learn new recipes to cook on our islands. However, the feature I’m most excited about is the pro decorating license which will allow us to have even more customization when it comes to decorating our interior homes.

While ACNH was super fun when it first came out, island living does get repetitive once you’ve gone through everything. These updates are merging everything users loved about ACNL with ACNH and hopefully making it better than before.

The update will officially be out Nov. 4 and it’s free to download if you already have ACNH.

So it’s time to dust off that switch, stomp your cockroaches and de-weed your island in preparation for the new content.