History YMMV / AnimalCrossingNewHorizons

* TransAudienceInterpretation: One of the new villagers introduced in the 2.0 update is a rabbit named Sasha[[note]]Mitchell, in the Japanese release of the game[[/note]], who was revealed to be a male Lazy villager. Due to his feminine appearance, unisex name, and being the only male villager with the "fashion" hobby, some fans have theorized that he is a transgender boy. That said, this interpretation has been met with some backlash due to it supposedly tying feminine qualities and hobbies to gender identity.

** Several older fans of the series dislike the fact ''New Horizons'' has apparently been pushed ''Animal Crossing'' into the mainstream, thanks to its huge presence on social media as well as several stories of [[https://www.teenvogue.com/story/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-animal-crossing celebrities]] [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/22/animal-crossing-celebrity-islands-mark-hoppus/ playing]] [[https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/culture/elijah-wood-animal-crossing-trnd/index.html the game]]. This is in spite of the fact that ''Animal Crossing'' hasn't been an obscure game in quite a long time; ''Wild World'' was a top seller for the Nintendo DS, selling 11 million lifetime units, and was decently popular among Nintendo's audience, while ''New Leaf'' was the game that got the franchise pushed into more mainstream attention, selling well in part because it came with screenshot functionality that encouraged players to share their gameplay online (and became very popular on Tumblr and Twitter, which also got people to play), and was undeniably a bigger hit upon its release, selling almost ''13'' million lifetime units before ''New Horizons'' broke its record in May 2020 in a ''much'' shorter timespan (this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic [[https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/7/21250285/nintendo-earnings-switch-sales-q4-2020-animal-crossing boosting the sales of the Switch and some of their games an order of magnitude more than normal]]), with the game selling (as of June 2020) 22.4 Million Units. In fact, the only game in the series that could even be ''considered'' "niche" is the original 2001 game, which sold under 3 million units, and given that back in 2001 it was a new [=IP=] that didn't have much of an audience outside of Japan, that's hardly surprising. As with ''New Leaf'', ''New Horizons'' also encourages gameplay sharing, helping the games' sales even more. Basically, the franchise was never quite as "obscure" as veteran fans like to claim it is.

** One of the few points of contention lashed towards the [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf previous mainline]] ''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf Animal Crossing]]'' [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf entry]] were villagers becoming so nice that they've (supposedly) become "bland". ''New Horizons'' shares a similar criticism towards the dialogue, with many arguing that the {{Jerkass}} tendencies of the villagers (particularly those of the Snooty and Cranky villagers) [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing2001 in the GameCube game]] (and ''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingWildWorld Wild World]]'' to a lesser extent) lended their characters some humor and diversity, and that the possibility that they could warm up to the player character if they spent enough time getting to know them made befriending villagers more rewarding (Although this is only popular belief. They will still be rude no matter how much the player helps them, and this sort of dialogue [[DubPersonalityChange is only seen in the various localizations of the game]]. The villagers are much nicer in the original Japanese version). Others are glad that villagers no longer insult you just for simply communicating with them, and find the rudeness to be obnoxious, unfunny, or unfit for a children's game that's supposed to be a form of escapism. Others find themselves in the middle of this, appreciating that villagers are ''nicer'' than they once were, but still wishing there was more variety or noticeable change when they eventually warm to the player character. Overall, the fanbase can't decide if the gradual change of characterisation in this series has become legitimately blander and softer over time, or if it's just a NostalgiaFilter and WhenIWasYourAge talk.

** The fact that the November 5th 2.0 update is the final major free and paid update for the game has lead to decent chunk of discontent with fans, which was discussed before the update was live. One side argues that it being the final major update for the game is unfair, considering the game is barely over a year old and the players were promised updates for years to come[[note]]It should be noted that this is a popular misconception. The developers promised the players a game that could be enjoyed for over 3 years in a past interview. Along the way, this was misconstrued into them saying that players would receive updates for the game for over 3 years.[[/note]], and not only that, but there's ''still'' characters and mainstay mechanics missing from past games. The other side argue that while the lack of major updates in the future is going to be disappointing, they argue the game has already done enough to introduce new and missing content with 2.0, putting it more on par with earlier entries, and thus "completes" the game.

** Another common criticism of ''New Horizons'', even among those who consider the game a step up from ''New Leaf'', is that villager dialogue is noticeably limited and one-note, with characters feeling static and saccharine as a result of their small interaction pools (with more variable dialogue being locked behind the game's RelationshipValues). The limited amount of possible interactions is actually a trend that stretches all the way back to the first game. However, in earlier cases it was excusable due to the technical limitations of the respective systems; while the Switch is also limited, it's considerably more powerful than previous systems. [[WinBackTheCrowd The November 2.0 update has updated villager dialogue, giving them more diverse things to say when interacted with]].

** Although this problem had already been an issue for people in the Southern Hemisphere back when the game launched, by the time September hit in the Northern Hemisphere many players were having issues collecting acorns and pine cones. Most of the time, the items dropped are tree branches, which are already plentiful thanks to random tree branches spawning underneath trees at the start of each day. Because of this, collecting a full stack of acorns or pine cones means repeatedly shaking a tree for it to drop items, and most of those drops will be tree branches that are likely to be thrown away. Most annoying of all, though, is that if you aren't prepared and holding a net when first shaking a tree, [[WickedWasps it is likely you'll be caught off guard and possibly stung by wasps]] when collecting acorns or pine cones, especially if you try your luck with multiple trees. The November 2.0 update alleviates the problem with acorns if you have unlocked Tortimer on Harv's island. During Fall, he is replaced with Cornimer, who gives players a random number of acorns once a day when they talk to him.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The November 5th 2.0 update, which serves as the game's final major free and paid update for the game, did wonders to stifle the growing negative reputation the game had among fans (prior to this, there was a big drought in content updates, with players leaving the game or simply waiting for news of an update). The 2.0 update addressed most of the complaints players had with the game during the first year, reintroducing things from past games with their own spin on them, as well as introducing new things to further establish the game's unique identity.

* FandomRivalry:
** There's a small but growing one between fans of ''New Horizons'' and players of its sister mobile game ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingPocketCamp'', largely over the gacha format of the latter and whether or not Nintendo should port things between the games.
** ''New Leaf'' fans versus ''New Horizons'' fans, largely over the gameplay differences, changes to the business model, and other changes extensively documented on the [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons They Changed It, Now It Sucks Page]]. There are fans of ''New Leaf'' who are detractors of the game because people enjoy playing ''New Horizons'', despite its issues.
** It has gained this reputation with Stardew Valley, due to fans disagreeing on which game is the better life-sim. That said, there is some crossover between people who play both.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Many veteran players have complained that the villagers in ''New Horizons'' are so nice that not only does it border on saccharine, but also make them fall flat as characters, and thus yearn for their villagers [[WeWantOurJerkBack to be rude again]] like they were in past games. ''New Horizons'' is not the first ''Animal Crossing'' game with villagers that are "too nice", and the only game in which the villagers' rudeness was cranked up to eleven was in [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing2001 the original GameCube game]], and that only applies to the English localization, as the localizers [[AmericanKirbyIsHardcore seemingly felt like the game needed to have its script spiced up]]. The villagers TookALevelInKindness come ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk'', and in ''New Leaf'' they acted pretty much the same way as they do in ''New Horizons''. [[{{Irony}} Ironically enough]], the Snowboys are not too different from the rude villagers of the [=GameCube=] game, and [[TheScrappy are not very well-liked by players for this reason]].

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Clothing items called "parkas" in the game are not parkas, they're hooded sweatshirts aka hoodies. Those are called "parkas" in Japanese, but it's a false cognate that was not correctly adjusted for the English translation.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs One of the songs introduced in the 2.0 update, K.K. Break, has some... interesting cover art. It features K.K Slider and Agnes, with the latter holding a distorted projection of Ankha. Meanwhile, the background is a purple sky with a blood-red moon, the Earth and a floating Aries rocking chair emitting some sort of light.

* GoodBadBugs: Time traveling back to a previous Redd visit-- even one you've already bought art from-- tricks the game into thinking that it's a new visit rather than an already-completed one, re-rolling Redd's stock and enabling the player to buy another piece of artwork. Furthermore, this can be done an unlimited number of times provided that the current date and the date of the visit aren't too far apart, giving the opportunity to farm art by constantly time travelling back and forth between an earlier visit and a later date. The one caveat of this, however, is that it's still subject to the 10% chance of all four paintings being fake and the low 20% chance of a real piece of art being guaranteed to be one not already donated to the museum. Consequently, the process is still fairly drawn out, albeit far less so compared to trying to get new artwork without time travelling or visiting other islands. It's perhaps because of this that Nintendo has never implemented a patch against time travel-based re-rolling despite patching out other item-farming exploits.

* BlindIdiotTranslation:
** Clothing items called "parkas" in the game are not parkas, they're hooded sweatshirts aka hoodies. Those are called "parkas" in Japanese, but it's a false cognate that was not correctly adjusted for the English translation.

** Along with the above examples, other annoying fish include the horse mackerel for making it difficult to find the already rare barreleye[[note]]a small fish that only appears in the sea from 9 PM to 4 AM[[/note]] and the dace and cherry salmon for doing the same for the incredibly rare golden trout[[note]]a medium sized rare fish that appears on clifftops during Spring and Fall from 4 PM to 9 AM[[/note]]. Both the barreleye and golden trout sell for ludicrously high amounts of money, at a whopping 12,000 and ''15,000'' bells, respectively (tying the latter with the coelacanth, stringfish, and shark for the position of the most expensive fish in the game); the horse mackerel, dace, and cherry salmon sell for peanuts by comparison. The horse mackerel is especially loathed for being worth only 150 Bells, which is one of the lowest selling prices for a fish and worth ''even less'' than a sea bass. It also doesn't help in the slightest when it is spawned by fish bait.

* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: More like "Unfortunate Item Design", but the appearance of the brown-colored Soft-Serve Hat was likened to that of a poop, earning the nickname "[[https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/fgfj7a/poop_hats_comfirmed/ Poop Hat]]".

*** Some like the idea of a live service function in the game, but believe that the content delivered should have been relegated to seasonal events and content brand new to the series '''only''', not adding back in items from previous games (like various types of fish, shoes and clothes) or re-implementing functionality that practically anyone familiar with the series would consider base-game functions by now (such as diving, meeting Pascal and Pavé, as well as any other number of NPC's like Brewster, and using the Dream Suite) within those events.

*** Some like the idea of a live service function in the game, but believe that the content delivered should have been relegated to seasonal events '''only''', not adding back in items from previous games (like various types of fish, shoes and clothes), as well as re-implementing functionality that practically anyone familiar with the series would consider base-game functions by now (such as diving, meeting Pascal and Pavé, as well as any other number of NPC's like Brewster, and using the Dream Suite) within those events. There's also those who like the idea of live service updates, but not the idea of initially removing features that were already in past installments, with the content added in the service being relegated to things that are brand new to the series.

*** Some like the idea of a live service function in the game, but believe that the content delivered should have been relegated to seasonal events '''only''', not adding back in items from previous games (like various types of fish, shoes and clothes), as well as re-implementing functionality that practically anyone familiar with the series would consider base-game functions by now (such as diving, meeting Pascal and Pavé, as well as any other number of NPC's like Brewster, and using the Dream Suite) within those events.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Most people aiming to get villager photos will gift them a ton of wrapped fossils; as long as they're the "X Tail" or "Right X Wing" kind of fossils, they'll never enter the villager's furniture inventory (so you don't have to worry about messing up their interior design), and most exceed the sell value of 750 bells (since 1.4.0) you need to get an item back from that villager. It helps that you can get four fossils per day, costing nothing but a bit of shovel durability. Since the nerf to the sell value threshold in 1.4.0, wrapped pairs of foreign fruits and wrapped stacks of 3 pumpkins have also become popular gifts for the same reasons.

** While the villagers in ''New Horizons'' aren't nearly as mean-spirited as they were in the original game, many players have pointed out that the villagers do still have a bit of meanness in them, contrary to the belief that they're nice and polite all of the time. For example, their passive aggression is thinly veiled when interacted with too many times in a timespan, Cranky villagers glare threateningly and snap at the player if pissed off, Snooty villagers comment on gossiping about the player to other villagers, and Sisterly villagers have rougher personalities in general, are extremely blunt, and laugh at the player if they're stung by wasps. As well, Smug Villagers will abandon the player to deal with their wasp problem on their own if the player tries to interact with them while being chased.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[AuthorsSavingThrow/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons Here.]]

** The song for 10 AM closely resembles [[Music/{{Aja}} "Black Cow"]] by Music/SteelyDan, particularly in the bass and drumline.

** The groove of the 5PM theme is rather similar to that of Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets".

** When it was revealed that [[SaveGameLimits cloud saves]] wouldn't be usable on ''New Horizons'', many players were both confused and upset. Players pointed out ''Animal Crossing'' is a game that people will play for potentially ''years'', and not allowing cloud saving on this game in particular is a bizarre omission, when you consider other games in its genre (such as ''VideoGame/StardewValley'') uses cloud saving to no ill effect. [[https://animalcrossingworld.com/2019/06/animal-crossing-new-horizons-wont-support-cloud-saves-backup-due-to-cheating-concerns/ Nintendo themselves]] have said that not having cloud saves in the game would prevent time travel, something that ''New Horizons's'' launch very quickly disproved: there's nothing stopping you messing with the console's clock, so the save itself is actually unaffected. The worst part is that ''implementing'' cloud saving would actually deter time travel, not cause it, as the company can verify a save as a legitimate one as they have the technology to check such things; [[BoringButPractical server time codes]] (check the save file date with the one on the nearest server, and, with some leeway of a few hours, you can get the option to upload/ download save data from the cloud, something which both UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and the UsefulNotes/EpicGamesStore already does, albeit optionally decided by the end-user). This has lead to the theory that it was to prevent item duplication, which was a major issue in past games, but it was for entirely different reasons. Some have even threatened to boycott the game because of it, while others petitioned in the hopes that Nintendo would enable cloud saves in a future patch. The compromise Nintendo eventually came to is a separate system to the regular cloud saving other games use, that makes periodic back ups while the Switch is not in the game that can be used to restore an island in case of a lost or broken Switch (which confirms cloud saving is indeed possible, just intentionally being held back for what many find to be [[BlatantLies very flimsy reasoning]]).