Everything New Revealed for Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was featured on Nintendo Direct today, February 20, showcasing nearly 30 minutes of footage. While many features were already confirmed for the game, Nintendo Direct officially confirmed features which many fans expected, naturally, as well as surprised fans with many new features and gameplay elements which showcased what is easily shaping up to be the most customizable and interactive Animal Crossing title yet. 
In traveling to a recently uninhabited island, titled the "Deserted Island Getaway Package," players are free to make the choices they want in interacting with the island in order to make the home and environmental paradise that suits their needs and tastes individually in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Basic Objects

Nintendo Direct unveiled a close look at houses in Animal Crossing: New Horizon's island world, demonstrating the living conditions that evolve beyond tent-living campgrounds. Also, furniture will be available for purchase or construction, and it also appears there will be quite a variation in choices for what type of housing facilities are available. For example, a house decorated with fish tanks, aquarium setups, and a variety of fish was shown.
Additionally, such facilities as the shop, aquarium, tailor, airport and museums were also included, many of which will be run by mainstay Animal Crossing characters from previous games who are returning. The key facilities appear to start-off the game as limited make-shift versions inside tents, and eventually evolve into building structures.
Also, constructing bridges were demonstrated, as well as slopes and stairs to more conveniently navigate the island and make it resemble a comfortable living environment. However, threats within the environment were also presented, such as scorpions, ghosts and snakes, which the player will need to be careful of or figure out viable solutions in order to deal with them.

Deeper Interactivity

Players will also have a digital in-game mobile phone at their disposal, entitled the Nook Phone, to help them with their journey on Animal Crossing: New Horizon's island getaway. It will include a variety of apps to utilize, including a camera and GPS. Developers have confirmed that new apps will be added in future game updates as well to support all "deserted island needs." One of the apps will enable players to call in a rescue if they are lost, as well as fast travel.
Animal Crossing's mainstay character and island resident, Tom Nook, will also be making in-game radio broadcasts daily to provide players with the latest news on island events, life advice, and much more. Tom Nook's news updates will also be conveniently posted on the Animal Crossing Twitter account, so players can stay updated and immersed in the game world, even if they are not logged into their Nintendo Switch.
Another likable character from previous games, Isabelle, was also shown, making her return as the island's Resident Services office secretary or agent. She will enable players to take advantage of an array of features, from customizing the island's flag to making drastic changes to one's house. The detail in customization will clearly add lots of replay value, not that such a game is lacking to begin with, given the thousands of hours of gameplay available in Animal Crossing in previous games already.
For players looking to fulfill an itch similar to Minecraft, the ability to transform the geography in Animal Crossing: New Horizons by adding cliffs, or adding slopes to climb up cliffs offers a lot in the way of making drastic changes to the geography and overall design. It goes well beyond simple additions to the environment, such as building bridges to cross rivers. Even rivers themselves can be modified, such as the ability to replace and fill-in areas of water with land mass.
Overall, Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers more customization than any previous game, as players can choose the location of Animal Crossing: New Horizon's facilities on the island and where they can be placed. In previous games, the randomly generated worlds sometimes placed shops in an frustratingly inconvenient location, and this level of customization should alleviate these possibilities.