Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Switch 2 Review

Who here remembers what they were doing in 2020? Wait, literally everyone?! Oh, right… Well, one of the few positives to come from that year was the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, bringing Nintendo’s mega-successful franchise onto the Switch and giving us all a chance for an island getaway just when we needed it. Six years later, we have the Switch 2 version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons available. So, is it worth the upgrade?

The Good

The Switch 2 edition/upgrade (if you have the Switch 1 edition, the upgrade is a relatively small £4/$5) is launched alongside the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update that is free to all versions. The Switch 2 upgrade itself only adds a few things (hence the small price tag), but they are all geared towards taking advantage of the Switch 2’s new hardware. The most obvious and impactful benefit is the upgraded graphics – everything is in 4k and while it certainly didn’t look bad before, you can absolutely see the difference, particularly in docked mode. Everything looks a little cleaner, sharper, and, in some villagers' cases, fluffier.

The addition of mouse controls is also a welcome addition. They aren’t available everywhere, and it can take a bit of getting used to switching control modes in menus, but they make decorating rooms and making custom designs a much smoother experience. If that aspect of AC:NH is your jam - and with the new update there’s a lot of decorating to do – you’ll find that mouse controls are a godsend, moving items and rotating the camera with ease.

The online functionality has also undergone a minor upgrade on the Switch 2. As well as supporting game chat and associated cameras, you can now have up to 12 people on an island at once rather than the maximum of 8 before. This will likely be only of use to the hardcore Animal Crossing fans – I certainly wasn’t able to find 11 friends all still playing Animal Crossing and couldn’t fully test this part – but it is admirable that the online social aspect is still being encouraged and catered to by Nintendo.

TL;DR

• Better graphics, particularly in docked mode
• Mouse controls make some things much easier
• Enhanced online experience

The Bad

The final of the four major additions in the Switch 2 version of AC:NH is unfortunately a disappointment: the megaphone tool. The idea is cute enough: get out the megaphone in the game, actually say the name of your villager into the Switch 2’s mic, and a speech bubble and reaction from that villager will pop in the direction they are, meaning you can find them more easily. In practice though… it works at best half the time. No matter the volume, intonation or speed I tried, either nothing happened or I was misunderstood. It was fun when it worked, but that wasn’t nearly often enough.

TL;DR

• The megaphone feature is a bit of a dud

Final Score: 7/10

If you’re thinking about jumping back in with the new update and will be playing in docked mode, the 4k graphics will make the upgrade pack worthwhile, and if you’re into the designing and decorating, the mouse controls will similarly be worth it. Ultimately Animal Crossing: New Horizons remains a great game, and while the Switch 2 edition adds some nice features, there’s nothing essential in it that will stop you from fully enjoying the base game without upgrading.

Thank you for checking out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch 2 Edition) Switch 2 review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

• Andrew Caluzzi (Inca Studios / Camped Out)
• Bel Cubitt
• Bobby Jack
• Jack Caven
• Nintendo Maniacs
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