When the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update was announced back in 2025, I did the unthinkable. I took a virtual sledgehammer to my island and deleted it, resetting the home I had put over 1000 hours into. It was the same island I had had from day one of the game's release, and had spent an embarrassing number of Nook Miles tickets to get all my favourite villagers in a perfectly organised neighbourhood.
While deciding to simulate armageddon for all my villagers (sorry, Stitches) wasn't easy, the hardest part of starting over was actually how overwhelming the prospect of planning a new island was. It was so stressful that I decided to revert to my childhood self, which led me down a surprising path that has completely changed how I play New Horizons.
