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'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Gives Space For Normalcy, Peace And Quiet

My character in the video game
My character in the video game

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, people are seeking different ways to not only pass the huge amounts of time many of us find ourselves with, but also cope with and escape the increasingly dark news cycle.

I’ve baked more bread in the last week alone than in the rest of my life combined. My roommates and I have developed an addiction to flavoured seltzer water — shoutout to mango La Croix. We’ve gotten really into the HBO show “Succession.” And then, of course, there’s “Tiger King,” the world’s latest WTF streaming obsession.

But one coping mechanism has risen above the rest for me and millions of others around the world: “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”

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The video game, the seventh entry in the Animal Crossing series, dropped March 20 for the Nintendo Switch, a few days after social distancing began in earnest for many people. The release spurred many ill-informed line-ups at video games stores like EB Games and GameStop that were still open for some reason (they’ve since closed). But you could also order it online, which millions of people did.

The game launched to universal acclaim, and came at the perfect time for people to spend hours a day chopping wood, catching fish and paying off your debt to a pesky raccoon.

Like previous iterations of the Animal Crossing series, “New Horizons” finds the player tasked with setting up a small community filled with animal friends.

The game launched to universal acclaim, and came at the perfect time for people to spend hours a day chopping wood, catching fish and paying off your debt to a pesky raccoon.

That’s it —...

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