Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Nintendo, 2020

Aluminum, copper, gold, iron, silica, zinc, polypropylene

2.9 x 0.3 cm

Purchased from Best Buy

Personal collection

This is a gaming cartridge to be used with the Nintendo Switch console. The game was released in March of 2020 and has been very successful. Throughout this game, the player collects fruits, catches fish and bugs, decorates their home, and invites new villagers to live on their island. It is a very simple game but is relaxing and enjoyable to people of many different age groups. It is very popular amongst children and is considered a “family friendly” game. The popularity of this game shows how children are experiencing entertainment in the present. We are living in an age of intensive technological presence and from a very young age, children are given tablets and other screens to entertain themselves. In this game, the character is outdoors and adventuring, doing things that people would associate with camping. However, through this virtual experience of these activities, although it is providing social interaction during a period of isolation, it is keeping children indoors, rather than outdoors.

It also prevents children from using and developing their imagination. Though there are a few parts of the game that allow the player to be creative and decorate however they would like, for the most part, the player is given a task and has to complete it. There is a pre-told story to follow and no way to change this. All of the functions are predetermined, it is not a “choose your own adventure” type of game, and truly does not encourage too much thinking.

While this does not mean it is a bad game, it does remind us that we should be critical about the entertainment we take in and especially the entertainment we are allowing children to indulge in. It becomes dangerous when provided to children because we have yet to see a generation exclusively raised on technology, in adulthood. There will be benefits and there will be drawbacks, but for now we simply need to be critical of how much we allow children to not engage with their creative mindsets and imagination. We need to be recognizing where and how we are not given freedom to think and do whatever we want, or engage in creative thought - intensified in a period when digital communication is primary and encouraged in the toys we are giving to children.

Alexis Kimberley