Returning to Animal Crossing

The little animals in my Nintendo Switch have missed me dearly, or so they say. It has been quite some time since I've deigned to speak to them, but now, in January 2026, we have been given the gift of an enticing new update. So I must return to my island and see what's new.

Fine.

Screenshot from Animal Crossing of the player character sitting at a table with a slice of pie and a cup of coffee.

I stopped playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons some years ago because I'd essentially done it all. Every inch of my island was terraformed and bedazzled to perfection. Pink flowers and gnomes surrounded my little house, and I'd collected enough Nook Miles to last a lifetime. Back to the real world.

But what's this update all about? Did they add fights? Can you now physically brawl with your pig friends in this game? Of course not. They added a hotel.

Screenshot from Animal Crossing of a group of characters standing outside a seafront hotel.

There are some quality of life changes like improved crafting (you can make one thousand things at once now, you little manufacturer), but the main thing is: you get a hotel to decorate. This is situated at the end of that previously mysterious empty pier that sat lonely on the island, and that I plonked a harvest spread down onto, imagining it as a scenic, secluded picnic spot.

A newly decorated room with a sort of retro beachy theme.

Here, the game gets into Happy Home Designer mode. This was a spin-off game on the 3DS that followed New Leaf, which had you decorating rooms to different animals' specifications. I didn't play it that much, but I liked the more task-focused gameplay. Here, that's tacked onto New Horizons, and here I am, decorating a new, child-themed room.

The player character sits in a chair that looks like a baseball mitt.

Lovely.

I'm only a few days into this (new rooms are allocated for you to decorate each day), but I already feel like I've exhausted the new stuff. Sure, it's fun to decorate a few rooms, but I've done it. And sure, it's nice to see hotel guests wandering the island, but they have little to say. All I get for my trouble is a new type of currency which I can redeem for stuff I don't care about. There is a hollowness to the experience. All these rooms, and nothing much to do with them.

Screenshot of the player talking to Resetti, who says, "But the game has changed, and it's long past time I buried the ol' pickaxe. So, here we are."

I do like to see Resetti again, though. Maybe I'll employ his new services and wipe it all. Probably not though, because I'm attached to my gnome placement.

A screenshot of the player character sitting outside of a beautiful decorated house surrounded by pink flowers, bamboo, and some gnomes.
Don't touch my gnomes.

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1 comment:

  1. Meg16 January 2026 at 16:03

    Yeah I put a lot of work into my island and don't want to start completely over, but I want more to do. I haven't tried the new dream islands to decorate though, and I think that's a big part of why they have them. Design a new place without completely destroying what you've already got.

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