NintendoAnimal Crossing: New Horizons offers hours of fun all year round, but as veteran players will know, it gets even more exciting when in-game events take over your precious island.
As you might expect, the holiday season is a particularly joyous time – this weekend many social media users saw videos of their island The countdown to the New Year as we entered 2021, and Christmas events like Toy Day made the long wait for Santa on Christmas Eve a little more bearable. Players even had the option to enjoy seasonal foods to celebrate.
Unfortunately, not everyone will have been able to enjoy these events. As it turns out, in order for these events to play in-game, players need to reach a certain point of progress in building their island and opening the Town Hall. Depending on how you choose to play, it may take a while to complete, and anyone who has not yet met the requirements will not be able to see any of these special events in any form.
Most of the time, this may not seem like such a big deal – unlocking more content by completing in-game tasks feels rewarding, right? – but what about all the new players who got a copy of the game during the festive period, possibly assuming they could join in the celebrations Nintendo has had advertisement?
For Nintendo Life reader, Dennis, this exact situation caused disappointment for the whole family:
“Me, my wife and my two kids love Animal Crossing and all have a copy of New Leaf on our 3DS systems. We especially enjoy the Christmas and New Years events. We only had one Nintendo Switch so we didn’t have the game there, until Christmas – where I surprised my wife and kids with a Switch Lite each, including Animal Crossing.
We were really looking forward to playing the Christmas and New Years events in New Horizons … We played for hours every day, but on Christmas and New Years NOTHING happened on our islands. No gifts, no countdown, not even a mention of it.
As it turns out, for anything related to an event, you need to level your city center. My wife played the most every day and managed to do this on January 2nd, my kids and I are still doing it. So for anyone who got a Switch and Animal Crossing for Christmas it was IMPOSSIBLE to participate in the Christmas and New Years events. What a disappointment. There was nothing for new players, not even a listing or anything. “
A brief conversation at Nintendo Life headquarters reveals that a young family member also got into trouble during the holidays for not completing necessary tasks. Progress and content unlocking has been a thing in gaming for as long as we can remember so it’s hard to complain about the practice used here, but it could be considered a bit of a mistake to get new players out of special, time-specific events from Nintendo, especially around the holidays?
Have you encountered a similar problem with New Horizons this vacation? Have you played enough of the game to watch the celebrations? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.