Game review: Animal Crossing New Horizons Happy Home Paradise DLC

Animal Crossing New Horizons was one of Nintendo's biggest hits. The game came out in March 2020 when the entire world desperately needed an escape from what was happening. The game sold over 34 million copies.

I was one of those people that woke up early on release day to load up the game. Since then, Nintendo kept on updating the game with new free content. Finally at the end of 2021 Nintendo released the first paid DLC : Happy Home Paradise.

The DLC is based on the 3DS game Happy Home designer. Back then, while the game was popular, it was a little weird that the game was released as a standalone game. This time around, Nintendo pulled a genius move and released it as a paid DLC for Animal Crossing New horizons.

It has been a few months since that release and the game is still growing strong with an ever growing community. The integration between the Happy Home Paradise DLC and the base Animal Crossing game is seamless. Nintendo achieved a simple natural progression feel for the DLC by simply asking the player to go to the airport to help out a Tom Nook's friend "Lottie". You are then offered a job by Lottie as their new designer. This adds a new layer of excitement to the base Animal Crossing game. Your character now wakes up and has one extra thing to do and that is go to work.

Between the museum, the coffee shop, the shops, the fishing, the bug collecting, the planting and now the job, the game finally feels full. Up until the release of the DLC players were starting to get bored, but since then it feels like the game has had life pumped back into it.

The concept of the job is simple. When you feel like working (Don't we all wish we could only work when we feel like it), you just head on to the airport and take a private jet to your job that is located on a vacation island. You meet up with work colleagues and get given special work outfits.

The entire concept is extremely adorable. Your job gives you access to a few different islands that you can place clients on and you then get to design their houses. When you are done with each design you get paid for your hard work. You can then use that pay to purchase new furniture and decorations for your own island and home.

The game is best enjoyed slowly in my opinion. Maybe a couple of designs a day in short sessions. That way, you present burnout and get excited by all the things you unlock. The game also rewards the player the more they play by unlocking extra furniture, features, facilities like restaurants, schools, and hospitals AND even pay rises.

After around 9 months of owning the DLC, I still find it extremely relaxing after a long day of work to just logon, check on my villagers and then go design someone's getaway home. It is a wholesome and peaceful way to spend an evening. If you own a switch, and you do not own Animal Crossing New Horizons and its DLC Happy Home Paradise, you are not using your switch the right way.