It’s the video game sensation sweeping the sensation – and it’s got nothing to do with princess-saving plumbers, sword-yielding Master Chiefs, or gods of war. It’sAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, the v chill, v relaxing simulation game for Nintendo Switch where you craft a special island, invite your friends to come play on it, and, well, that’s about it! (But if you need a more thorough look into what makes the game special,click here)
If you can’t get enough of Tom Nook, Isabelle, K.K. Slider, haggling for turnip prices, and saving those bells, we’ve got 10 more video games that should scratch thatAnimal Crossingitch.From similar aesthetics, to similar wholesome vibes, to similar gameplay mechanics, these games should open your world up to more gaming enjoyment – low stress guaranteed. Here are 10 video games you should play next if you loveAnimal Crossing.
Baba Is You
From a game mechanics standpoint,Baba Is Youcouldn’t be more different fromAnimal Crossing. WhereasAnimal Crossing’s charms are structured around an intentional lack of structure,Baba Is Youhas, upon first blush, a rigid structure and crystal-clear set of goals. As the title suggests, Baba is you: a tiny, cute little creature that reminds me of a ghost cat in the best way possible. But “Baba Is You” isn’t just an odd syntax for the title role. The game has actual words arranged in this order as movable pieces. Just as there are rocks in the game, there are entities that say “Baba” “Is” “You,” among many other words (“Rock,” “Flag,” and “Win” are among the common ones). And as you delightfully discover while exploring these surprisingly intuitive puzzles, these words can be rearranged to result in different outcomes. If “Flag Is Win,” but there’s a rock closer, and you can replace “Flag” with “Rock,” kaboom. You just beat the level, all with the power of your imagination among necessity. It’s this process I find to be similar toAnimal Crossing– the idea of tending a garden of your imagination stretched to its satisfying limits. If you’ve been into theRichard Linklaterhangout vibes ofAnimal Crossingand wanna see what aChristopher Nolanmight do with the material, well then,Baba Is You.
Golf Story
I’ve got a big sweet tooth. And one of my favorite flavor profiles vis-a-vis sweets is dark chocolate mixed with orange. Ooh, just thinking about it makes me salivate. I think it’s the combination of light and bright flavor profiles combined with a more mature, literally darker flavor profile, the oppositional nature of both providing the perfect base reality for the other to pop.Golf Storyis the dark chocolate and orange of RPGs. Its tone is very, very silly and very, very wholesome (orange!), but at its core is fundamentally sound, deep, satisfying gameplay (dark chocolate!). And wouldn’t you know it, this is exactly the formula I’d say makes upAnimal Crossing’s particular pleasures. As the title implies, the game’s about golf. You play an aspirational golfer, a wouldbeTigerwho must play his way through some of the fiercest and silliest links to win a tournament and become a golf champion. But even if you don’t like golf,Golf Storyis a worthy play. Sidebar Games has a deliciously English-feeling sense of humor in their club bag, with nearly every interaction your character has resulting in smartly silly laughter. But they also have tons and tons of heart, giving the oft open-world feeling narrative a sincere, emotional resolution.Golf Storygoes down like candy in the best way possible, a piece of confection that won’t give you a toothache.
Moonlighter
What if you were Tom Nook? That’s the cleanest pitch I can think of forMoonlighter, a dungeon-crawling RPG with a delightful, script-flipping hook at its center. Y’see, you’re not just fighting through dungeons and battling monsters and collecting treasures to save your village or find your true heart as a hero. You’re also doing it for capitalism, baby! All the treasures and items you find on your quests can be flipped for a profit in your shop, sold to other townspeople in quaint, lovely interactions brimming with easy charm and personality. If your favorite part of other RPGs has been buying items from eccentric NPCs (“What’re ya buyin'?” fromResident Evil 4is my personal favorite), and you’ve always wondered how the other half lived,Moonlighteris the game for you. And even when it takes you on its action-packed hack-and-slash adventures, it doesn’t lose its sense of charm or loveliness – party members that follow you often have lil' hearts that pop up next to their head, and goodness it gets me every time.
My Time at Portia
I promise you, your time atMy Time at Portiawill be a lovely one. The game promises a variety of experiences in an appealing open-world package, with beyond-appealing graphics and vibes. It’s like ifRed Dead Redemption 2was focused on being cute AF. You arrive to Portia, the city of the game, with just one overarching goal: Restore your father’s now-dilapidated workshop back to business. How do you that exactly is up to you! The game offers several mechanics available to play in that feel both like lovely self-contained mini-games and tangibly interconnected pieces of the same puzzle. you’re able to build additions and revamp the foundation of the workshop, you can craft tools by chopping down trees, you can raise and take care of animals, you can go fishing, you can add personal touches and flairs to your home, you can hang out in an online community’s various spaces, and you can even get some dungeon-crawling fighting and grinding on! All for the service of making a town nice! What a lovely-ass game!
Rune Factory 4
When asked about the main theme ofRune Factory 4, the emo-pop-punk spinoff ofHarvest Moon’s yacht rock grooves, producerYashimoto Hirofumirespondedthat it was “passionate love, sweet marriage.” If that ain’t enough to make you immediately want to play this romantic-ass game, you clearly need to play this romantic-ass game so your heart can grow a little bigger. While the franchise was initially developed as a sword-wielding RPG take on theHarvest Moonformula of farming, the fourth entry in the franchise dives deeper into a facet of bothHMand previousRFfranchise entries with unprecedented depth and focus. I’m talkin' love, ya freaks! Yes, you can still tend to your farm if that brings you peace, and yes you can take your party on some addictive RPG-styled combat missions. But you can also just hunker down and find yourself a dang partner, the game offering delightful tasks and mini-games at your disposal to win the heart of your crush. From slashing up some monsters to tending to your crops to making your partner a damn sandwich,Rune Factory 4(available in a special edition for the Switch) offers pleasures for all kinds of pleasure-seekers, with a special emphasis on the heart.
The way Sims talk will never not make me laugh. Known canonically as Simlish, it’s a delightfully optimistic, high-energy, fast-paced set of gibberish. And in times when human connection is in short supply, it feels good to see these doofy little humanoids chatter relentlessly at each other, all under your watchful eye.The Simsgives you the chance to play God — but, like, in a fun way! You create a person, give them an abode, and let them interact with all kinds of other Sims. What kind of job will they have? Who will they fall in love with? Who will they get pixelated-nude in a hot tub with? How will their life go? Will you, uh, let them go to the bathroom? All of this, and more, is totally up to you.The Simswas originally released in 2000, and the further entries in the franchise continue to be replayable, immersive, accessible-yet-deep, absolutely astonishing video games. A piece of domestic joy with endless permutability. Or, as a Sim might say: Blursh! Meshaloob! Blursh!
Slime Rancher
Yeah yeah, we all loveAnimal Crossing. But one think we can all agree it’s missing is: slime. Slime! Ooey, gooey, sticky slime! Slime, as far as the eye can see!Slime!!
Luckily,Slime Rancherrectifies that. As you might guess from the title, you’re in charge of a damn slime ranch. You play Beatrix LeBeau, an intergalactic cowpoke yearning to roam a new frontier. Namely, a new planet full of wiggly, cute-as-hell slime creatures that Beatrix wants to wrangle up to start her own barn of slime. Unlike the other games on this list,Slime Rancherprimarily plays as a first-person shooter. But like the other games on this list, it’s a very non-threatening, wholesome, and beyond cute time, a shooter whose purview is not death and destruction but cooperation and charm. It’s likeMetroid PrimemeetsKatamari Damacy, and it is a must-play game with a premise unlike any other.
In conclusion, slime.
Songbird Symphony
Has a video game ever made you cry? I’ve heard of folks losing it in scenes from big titlesFinal Fantasy,Shadow of the Colossus, andMass Effect. But for me, it took an indie platformer about a bird trying to find himself, all set ingeniously to exquisite music, to let those waterworks fly.Songbird Symphonyis about Birb, a young orphaned bird trying to find out where he came from. To do so, he jumps and bobs and flies across various areas of the jungle, interacting wonderfully with his fellow animals along the way. And all of it, sometimes subtly and sometimes explicitly and always masterfully, is synced in perfect time to beautiful, charming music. Like aMario, the sound effects are harmonically in tune with the background music, butSongbird Symphonytakes it one movement further. The arrangement doesn’t fully flesh out until you perform certain goals and tasks, giving each level a constant sense of discovery and evolution, not unlike the way band members walked out one at a time inTalking Headsconcert filmStop Making Sense. All of this beautiful music in service of a beautiful, primal story? My tears, they are a-flowing.
Stardew Valley
How long can you play an open-ended game likeStardew Valley? Well, how much time and dedication do you have? This delightful “real life simulator” that’s got quite a bit in common with games likeAnimal CrossingandMy Time at Portiasees the player taking over their grandfather’s farm and getting in the good graces of the local townsfolk. you may do all of that and get to endgame status in about 52 hours. But this farming, crafting, fighting, and romancing sim is so pure and wonderful that you may find yourself sticking around long after the main campaign is done, just because you can.
You have only to look online to see the impressive farms (and fiefdoms, really) that players have put together since the game’s 2016 release. One-person creatorConcernedApehas long been keeping up with both the community and the game’s patches and updates, giving continuing players more and more new material to work with. A big bonus in this game is the ability to co-op farm so that you can spend time collaborating with fellow players rather than trying to take it all on your own shoulders. That leads to some truly incredible layouts, efficiencies of production, and vast quantities of resources produced … but for many people, the high replay value lies in the relationships between your character and the citizens of the nearby town. With a variety of romance options, narrative arcs, and drastically different outcomes, the “visual novel” folks will want to pick upStardew Valleyagain and again.
Whether you’ve always wanted to run your own farm, battle through endless mines and caves full of monsters, or just romance the ever-loving heart out of a diverse cast of characters (all while chilling out to some incredible music tracks),Stardew Valleyis the videogame home away from home for you.– Dave Trumbore
Yoshi’s Crafted World
You, like me, of course love theMichel Gondryvideo for the 2004 Steriogram song"Walkie Talkie Man.“And you, like me, want to live in that world, even if just in a video game. On the same page so far, right? Great. Then you just gotta playYoshi’s Crafted Worldfor the Nintendo Switch. Beyond its impeccable hand-knitted aesthetics, which are simply the cutest fucking thing you’ll ever see,Crafted Worldis the perfect starter platformer for those only familiar withAnimal Crossing-styled games, and the perfect class of refreshing cucumber water for those used to challenging platformers likeDonkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Out from under the butt of his plumber boss, Yoshi the dinosaur has an adventure of his own to go on. He stomps, booty-slams (the canonical term of course), gobbles up eggs, and interacts with all kinds of hand-crafted looking yarn environments. There’s tons of ingenious platform design here that will tickle your brain while growing your heart. Plus, it has a lot of fun with perspective – after you’ve finished a level, you can literally “flip it around,” as if it’s a real yarn-made diorama, and play a “reverse version” of the same level, with playful physics muckraking and graphics revealing everything you saw was literally “held up by cardboard stands.” Just likeAnimal Crossing,Yoshi’s Crafted Worldis the perfect blend of casual accessibility and subtly deep world-building. Plus: It’s cute AF.
