Multiplayer Activities
The general gameplay loop in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the same as it’s always been in the series. You take out a loan, go fishing, bug-catching, and fossil hunting, and sell what you find to pay off your loan. That’s a very simplified loop. It doesn’t sound fun, but it 100% is.
Hopping online in any game tends to breathe new life into it. Taking part in activities with friends is always better than doing it solo… except for in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Not only does the game once again highlight the Nintendo Switch’s abysmal online service (including the smartphone companion app), with two friends unable to head to your island at the same time due to “connection interference,” but once you do all get together… there’s nothing to do.
You can go fishing and catch bugs, you can maybe even dig up any fossils you spot if the island’s owner doesn’t mind. Outside of that, though, you’re left to come up with your own fun.
While we’ve broken down a handful of fun multiplayer activities you can do with a group of you, we’d like to have seen Nintendo put a little more thought into how the online worked and what friends would do together.
As is always the case, Nintendo could give the online a bit of an overhaul with a post-launch update, but nothing’s been confirmed as of yet.
