Four Games to Play If You’re Burned Out on Animal Crossing

It’s been over a year since the early days of shelter-in-place and social distancing drove everyone to find adventures in their own homes. Video games offered an easy escape from all of the stress and uncertainty, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived at the perfect moment in March 2020. For some folks who craved a change in scenery from the chipping paint on their walls, it was easy to connect with Animal Crossing’s colorful nature, mellow music, and undemanding gameplay. And for friends who couldn’t see one another in person, it also offered a unique platform to hang out.

Still, everybody needs a vacation sometimes, even from the nicest island. If you’ve exhausted all there is to do in Animal Crossing over the past year and have grown tired of the grind, you may be in need of some fresh entertainment. Whether you’re looking for something similarly relaxing or just want a new way to engage with friends, these games should appeal to anyone getting sick of Animal Crossing.

A similarly relaxing simulation: My Time at Portia

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Price: $30 at the time of publication
ESRB rating: E10+

Another peaceful simulation game, with relaxing aspects that remind us of Animal Crossing.

One of the most endearing things about Animal Crossing is its unhurried pace and its relaxing, nature-oriented activities. Slowing down to walk through the woods, catch fish, and water flowers has been a welcome respite through the most stressful days of the past year. We like My Time at Portia for its similarly peaceful gameplay, tranquil music, and large variety of things to do.

My Time at Portia brings you to the town of Portia to take over your father’s old workshop, where you serve as a builder who must take commissions to construct various items for the town. You can take them on at your own leisure, which leaves a healthy amount of freedom to navigate the game how you wish. When I wasn’t befriending townsfolk or gardening on my humble plot of land, I spent most of my time grinding away at building projects that sent me off to far reaches of the map to search for resources. There’s no shortage of things to do, and Portia is full of mysteries that are a delight to watch unfold.

If you like beautifying your town, interacting with your villagers, and participating in events in Animal Crossing, you’ll find similar elements to enjoy in My Time at Portia. The town’s festivals and events are fun to be a part of; I particularly enjoyed the frantic rush to catch presents as they fell from the sky at the Day of the Bright Sun festival, as well as competing in snowball fights on Winter Solstice. The relationships you build with the townsfolk are also deeper than what you can find in Animal Crossing, making friendships—and romances—more satisfying to cultivate.

Building with friends: Parkitect

Platform: PC
Price: $30 at the time of publication
ESRB rating: not rated

A game with more activities to do together, for people who love showing off their Animal Crossing islands to friends online.

If you painstakingly terraform and decorate your island in Animal Crossing so you can proudly give tours of it to your friends, building and sharing your own theme park in Parkitect is a good next choice. Many of us at Wirecutter remember RollerCoaster Tycoon fondly, and Parkitect is practically a modern-day clone of the best of the early-2000s series. The multiplayer mode, which lets up to eight people work on the same park in real time, is the standout feature for anyone who likes the more social aspects of Animal Crossing. You can either work on the same project together or take on your own area of the park. This is a game for PCs, but the system requirements are pretty minimal, so it should run well on most computers without leaving anyone out just because they don’t have a “gaming computer.” The gameplay—from placing decorations to constructing rides—was smooth for me in multiplayer mode. The in-game tools and building mechanics did involve a learning curve, though, and I recommend utilizing the tutorials in single-player mode before you hop online with a group.

While it’s not wholly the same as inviting friends to see your island in Animal Crossing, the social aspect of Parkitect will feel more engaging for a longer stretch. Thanks to the game’s collaborative nature, everyone can actively participate at the same time, and you can save your progress at any time for future sessions together. Joining or dropping out of a lobby is quick and easy, and the in-game text chat is intuitive to use. And although there’s no voice-chat option online, you can easily turn to Discord to talk with friends—or you can jump on a simple phone call for a real taste of the early 2000s.

Connecting to characters: Spiritfarer

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Price: $30 at the time of publication
ESRB rating: T

Like finding new villagers and making them feel at home in Animal Crossing, except deeper and more impactful.

Spiritfarer is a game about sailing a ship and ferrying lost souls to the afterlife. Though its theme is centered on death, it’s actually a calming meditation on existence that omits all violence and morbidity from its gameplay. It offers more structured missions than Animal Crossing does, but it doesn’t push you to pursue them until you’re ready. I found a great deal of freedom to explore the open world and choose which activities to do each day, and I appreciated the forward momentum of the story when I wasn’t sure what to do next.

Beyond just being neighborly to other characters, in Spiritfarer you are a caregiver. As you explore and find spirits who have recently passed (all of whom take animal forms once they’ve boarded your ship), you have to build them homes on your ship, cook their favorite meals, and perform different tasks to make them as comfortable as possible on their journey to the afterlife.

You spend the rest of your time in Spiritfarer exploring new islands, gathering resources such as wood, ore, and seeds, and expanding your boat to accommodate new buildings and comforts for your passengers. After 10 hours, my ship was stacked to the sky with different buildings reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle, and I customized and interacted with all of them while I sailed from place to place. Watering plants in the ship’s garden and sanding down boards in the carpenter’s shop reminded me of leisurely activities I liked in Animal Crossing, such as tending my flower garden. And while building relationships with my passengers was similar to chatting with my villagers in Animal Crossing, the character dialogue and backstories in Spiritfarer felt far more realized and impactful.

Like Animal Crossing on your phone: Seabeard

Platforms: Android, iOS
Price: free, with in-app purchases available
ESRB rating: not rated

A cute and laid-back Animal Crossing alternative for your mobile device.

The Animal Crossing series already has a mobile installment, called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, so if you’ve gone as far as you can in New Horizons and you just want something similar on your phone, you don’t need to look any further. But if you’re sick of the Animal Crossing universe and want to shake things up without straying too far from the formula, we recommend Seabeard. Most games like this are “freemium” apps—you can download and play them for free, but optional extras and conveniences will cost you. In this case, during certain actions you’re subject to lengthy wait periods that exist solely to annoy you into paying to skip ahead. But Seabeard’s paywalls aren’t the worst offenders compared with similar titles, and it’s an enjoyable game with cute artwork and activities like those in Animal Crossing. As with any game that has in-app purchases, though, be sure your parental-control settings don’t allow for purchases before you hand the game to a kid.

In Seabeard, you are a captain tasked with rebuilding a once-thriving island. You sail to different islands to recruit crew members and fetch the necessary supplies to fix up abandoned buildings, all while going through the familiar motions of shaking trees for fruit and catching fish to sell. Whereas Animal Crossing displayed only a simple loading screen when I was traveling from island to island, Seabeard gave me a number of fun mini games to play while sailing. Whether I was tapping my screen to shoot at fleeting targets or swiping to move my boat between slalom poles, every departure offered a short trial that rewarded me with money and different items for my trouble.

Almost everything in Seabeard forces you to wait in real time unless you have the required currency to skip, but I didn’t find waiting for things like construction projects to complete any more frustrating than in Animal Crossing. The entire game can be played in portrait mode—and at many times, with only one hand—which makes it more appealing to pick up in free moments throughout the day. And I didn’t forget what I was doing if I put it down for a while, as the objectives were recorded clearly and the islands were too small to get lost on. Not every game needs to be action packed, and like Animal Crossing, Seabeard excels at fairly mindless gameplay with adorable music and artwork that’s easy to relax with at the end of the day.