I’m once again looking at a game I reviewed already. But much like Total War Warhammer 2, I have been replaying it quite a bit and a lot has happened since that initial run.

I kept playing Animal Crossing for a full year. Every day I popped on and did a morning routine. Chatting with people, collecting fossils and growing rare flowers, I got a number of golden roses .

There had been some important updates while I played. Art could be sold to you by a somewhat shady fox who occasionally moored his boat to the island in an isolated beat on the northern end. These could be purchased and given to a new exhibition in the museum. The catch was they might be forgeries. You had to carefully look to see if it was genuine or a forgery, and you could only get one each visit.

A second update allowed you to swim in the ocean around your island and collect marine life separate from the fish you could catch. Occasionally encountering a sea otter if you found a scallop and he would trade you for some nice items.

But once a full year was up, I felt it was time to move on

Now with updates thanks to the Switch 2 I’ve returned to it and experiencing those plus others I had missed out on in my years away.

When the Switch online expansion arrived, an expansion to the game was offered to those who had it called Happy Home Paradise. This sees you head to an island resort with the goal of giving the tourists rented holiday homes. These tourists will give you a set number of items that are to be used so the clients are happy. The more houses you set up, the more facilities are unlocked and you receive a different currency that allows you to get more items for back home.

With the Switch 2 update came the new hotel. Similar to Happy Home Paradise this will have you make up rooms for tourists. The difference is the focus is on a theme rather than an individual client’s wants. Once a room is made you will find tourists showing up on your island as well as the residents, more rooms, more tourists. Similar to Happy Home Paradise, there are items you can get from the hotel thanks to a currency you get from completing tasks with them, either making the rooms or dropping items to be sold.

This update also brought 2 other features. One had new islanders related to Amiibos of other franchises notably Splatoon and the Legend of Zelda. Use the right amiibo and a character related to it will visit the island. Have them visit enough and complete tasks and they can move in permanently.

The second is Kapp’n will offer you boat rides to random islands. These can contain off season stuff and will be where you can find your first Gyroid and Brewster who will explain Gyroids and he will then set up a coffee shop in the museum. Gyroids are another collectable but unlike earlier ones, these aren’t donatable to the museum.

One final  find that had been implemented since my hiatus, was I could now cook meals in the game. Many to most require crop farming so I had to set up a small farm in the north, separate from my pumpkin farm. Food is crafted but can only be done on kitchen appliances rather than a work bench (and I hope people IRL don’t go cooking on work benches). I have taken to cooking these to give to island residents so I can improve relations with them, it’s mainly the ones I got from amiibos I had moved in.

So that’s the content that has been added. There is a decent amount, it’s not a huge ‘wow you have to start playing again amount’, but I have been enjoying my return to my island. The game helped me immensely through lockdown in 2020 as the relaxing daily activities would help me at the start of the day, and I still find that to be the case.

Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮