Five challenges to make Animal Crossing: New Horizons even better

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets great updates every month and especially in the Christmas/winter season it really gets to show how atmospheric and cozy the game can be. You can add a fun twist to all that festiveness by inviting others and doing fun challenges. Here are five ideas.

One of the best things about Animal Crossing is the fact that you can travel to other places. Online you will find big communities of like-minded Animal Crossing players excited to see what other people's islands look like. While it is already fun to just look around, you might want to add a fun twist to the visit. How about a maze? You can use terraforming or bushes to build a great maze that might have people end up at a place where there is a little prize waiting for them. Fun to build and fun to watch.

You can use one timer at a time and that might seem like your options are limited, but there is one game to create that is simple and fun. Again, this is something you want to do with someone visiting your island. Though you could also do it with a roommate, but one of you will have to close their eyes when the ‘bomb’ gets hidden. The idea of the game is that there are all these ‘holes’ that might contain the timer and it is up to your guest to pick the right one. 

Though we are all familiar with the fishing tournaments that Animal Crossing will throw every once in a while, you can also come up with a bug catching or fishing event yourself. You can use the timer and have people show their best catch that might get a prize, if you feel generous. Watch out: people might get very creative and will try to scare away the bugs before other people can catch them. The fun thing about this contest is that you can also play it with someone else on the couch, just taking turns.

Hide and seek is the best thing to play when you have an island that is a bit of a full, crazy place. It is so funny to see where people might be hiding on your island: you will see that strangers find the best places that you had never thought of. This game must be played fair though: you really have to count to, say 50, before you start hunting down people. In general, islands are pretty small so it will not take too much time, especially if you choose to integrate rules like ‘no hiding inside houses’.

Animal Crossing is basically a game that revolves around getting resources. You need to grab a certain amount of fruit or wood or something else. If you have a guest over, why not check out how skilled they are at Animal Crossing? You can have them look for common resources, like branches or manila clams, but you can also hide a few funny objects that people need to bring back. This scavenger hunt can also run on a timer, so there is a hard stop to it. Especially when you know everybody's pockets are empty, this game can be a really great competition. So this one I would recommend playing with friends, so they can send a photo of their empty pockets on WhatsApp. 

Lots of fun stuff to do, especially when you need to stay home. These games are great for playing online and have you connect with people all over the planet. Enjoy!