I'll post reviews for both big AAA releases and indie games, showcase interesting people in the gaming industry, and dig into the ways we play. So this is the beginning of a new, biweekly column called Join the Game, where I will talk about (can you guess?) video games and gaming culture from the perspective of a lifelong gamer and former gaming YouTuber. A lot of our normal coping mechanisms are cut off - but video games can bring us joy, escape, and connection. But right now, a lot of us are stuck indoors, scared and uncertain about the future. It might seem like a strange time to be talking about video games. I went home and begged my parents for the game. That was my first encounter with Nintendo's Animal Crossing. He was playing a game - piloting a cute little character through a bubbly, dreamy cartoon town filled with randomly selected animal villagers, flowers and fruit trees (that occasionally yielded money bags). It was 2003, and I was in the second grade. I remember, I was sitting on the floor of my friend's bedroom, staring up at his tiny silver box of a TV.

The multiplayer function in Animal Crossing: New Horizons means up to eight people can be on the same island.

Animal crossing