🦉 Animal 🦒 Crossing New Horizons: A Family In Lockdown On A Tropical Island 🏝️ #AnimalCrossing #ACNH

Animal Crossing New Horizons was released on the 20th March 2020 and swooped onto the Nintendo Switch just as the COVID 19 pandemic was really taking hold of the world.

The world needed a comfort food game and Nintendo delivered.

6 weeks after release this video game has opened my eyes up to how it has shaped my family's day during these times of lockdown.

My family and I all inhabit the same island named Tropical by my children. The great thing about this co-inhabiting of our island is that it's down to us all to share the island's resources fairly to enable us all to have a fair chance of succeeding in achieving our Animal Crossing goals. 

My children are aged 8 and 5 and my wife is not necessarily classified as a gamer as she barely plays any video games normally (if any). This game has seen my wife put in more hours than me (I've put in 50+ hours so far). Our game time has also seen my children learn some really valuable life lessons in terms of teamwork, budgeting and saving. 

I didn't foresee this experience at the start but now I have been through this lovely 6 weeks of video games utopia I am so glad that I spent my hard-earned real-world cash on this pandemic video game survival kit.

In Animal Crossing New Leaf my daughters and I would sit and play together on the Nintendo 3DS. One would watch and assist whilst the other did the jobs etc. This was fun but it lacked being able to put it on the 'Big Screen' so as we all could enjoy it together. 

The Switch version obviously excels in giving us that shared experience through the 'Big Screen' whilst also giving the opportunity to hunker down at night in bed and get in a quick 30 minutes before going to sleep and having pandemic induced Animal Crossing Nook dreams!

My family and I get truly excited at showing our homes off to each other as we expand and buy new items for our rooms. We've also really enjoyed taking part in Tropical community projects like the building of a football pitch, a Zen garden, a Relaxation Park and a lovely Playground complete with a Basketball net and a swimming pool!

I'm so glad that this period of sacrifice for us as a family will be remembered greatly in our household for the time we all got to play Animal Crossing together as a family...

Maybe next time we get the opportunity to all play an Animal Crossing game together will be in happier circumstances...

Here are just a few basic tips from 'Tropical' Island that might just tide you over as a new starter to Animal Crossing:

- Plant Non-Native Fruit  on your island  to earn more bells  from selling it (use Nook miles Tickets to visit other islands)

- Buy the upgrade to your pockets from Nook Miles ATM as soon as possible to get extra room to store items!

- Buy the quick select tool from Nook Miles ATM to speed up the process of selecting the right tool for the job

- Hit Rocks daily to get nuggets, clay, rocks and cash

- Visit the ATM daily to get bonus nook miles (keep chaining the bonus miles on a daily basis to earn more)

- Take trips to other islands  via the airport to gather resources (use nook miles to buy tickets )

- Build a fishing  rod , net, shovel, vault pile, ladder and a catapult ASAP as these are your ticket to self-sufficiency

- If you really want to afford the items of your wildest Animal Crossing dreams then you'll need to buy Turnips 🥔 and enter into the Turnip Stock Market!! 

Buy them on Sundays from 8am till 12pm and then start trading from Monday to Saturday. Use this Turnips Tool to forecast the market to enable you to work out the optimal price to sell at.

Rich