Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a disappointing upgrade, and fans deserved better
One of Nintendo’s most successful games has been “enhanced” for Switch 2
😖 The Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade costs $4.99 and is pretty disappointing
👎 It fails to increase the frame rate from 30fps to 60fps, a common improvement in other Switch 2 upgrades
🤷♂️ The promised resolution boost (1080p handheld/4K docked) offers negligible visual improvements, with anti-aliasing issues still present
🥲 The update does offer minor benefits like faster loading times and an optional mouse mode, but overall it feels insufficient for such a popular title
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the second best-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time, so it made sense that we’d see an update that takes advantage of Nintendo’s new console.
However, now that the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is available, it feels like a huge missed opportunity.
I already lamented the fact that Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn’t bump the game’s frame rate from 30fps to 60fps, something that immediately put me off.
We’ve seen practically every Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade deliver a smoother, more responsive experience for players, so to see Animal Crossing: New Horizons remain locked at 30fps is extremely disappointing.
Thankfully, the game has received a resolution boost and now runs at 1080p in handheld mode instead of 720p, and outputs at 4K (upscaled from 1400p) when docked instead of 1080p. But as Nintendo Life pointed out in its review, the difference feels negligible.
“Honestly, in handheld mode, I couldn’t tell the difference. On a 4K TV it does look marginally better, but it looked pretty great beforehand. Really, I was hoping for more,” said Nintendo Life Editor Gavin Lane.
Other commenters have also pointed out that the game still features a few anti-aliasing issues, with jagged pixel edges still present.
Not the homecoming we hoped for
From a visual and performance standpoint, then, Nintendo has served up arguably less than the bare minimum – which, for one of the most popular games for its previous consoles, feels a little disrespectful.
It’s doubly frustrating that the update likely means we won’t be seeing a new Animal Crossing game soon, either, as Nintendo wouldn’t have dropped an update if it could sell consumers a newer, shinier version.
There are some benefits to upgrading to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Animal Crossing, though. Load times have been improved, often halving the time you have to wait to get into the game. However, they’re close to what you get from simply playing the original Switch version of the game on the Switch 2, so temper your expectations.
You can also use mouse mode to make styling your home and surroundings easier, and there’s new content to enjoy like up to 12-player online support, CameraPlay, and a megaphone item, which uses the Switch 2’s built-in microphone to let you call out to other villagers.
Should Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition have been a free update, then? Probably. The $4.99 upgrade price instead of the usual $9.99 or more we’ve been used to seeing clearly shows Nintendo knows this isn’t a comprehensive overhaul.
But for a game that defined the Nintendo Switch and created fond memories for many during one of the world’s most difficult times, it’s hard not to conclude that Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans deserved better and probably would have been happy to pay more to get it.
Up next: Nintendo Switch 2 price increase hasn’t been ruled out amid volatile memory market
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. He also runs a retro gaming YouTube channel called Game on, boy! Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.