Welcome to our first Beyond Hyrule episode! These episodes will be where we periodically discuss a game outside the Zelda series. For this first Beyond Hyrule, we welcome Maddie, the youngest of the Short siblings! Maddie grew up watching Tanner and Timmi play Zelda, and then she got into them herself throughout elementary school. She's played Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Oracle of Seasons, Skyward Sword (which she recently beat for the first time), and Breath of the Wild. This week, she and Timmi give us a beginner's look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons.Animal Crossing is a Sims-style game from Nintendo, and the main goal of New Horizons is called Project K, an initiative to create a 3-star island suitable for the popstar, K. K. Slider. You accomplish this by building houses, bridges, and inclines for the people who come to live on your island. There are also other islands you can visit, such as Harv's island, to make money and meet villagers. There is also a DLC called the Happy Home Paradise that lets you work on a vacation resort to save up money and find fancy furniture.  You can also visit other people's islands. You can "dream" into random islands of other players, use a dream code to visit a specific island, or visit the island of a Switch friend.Your island can become home to various personalities of villagers. You can get visitors if you have camping sites setup, or you can interact with the typical villagers common to the game. You meet Blathers the owl early on who collects bugs, fish, and fossils to eventually set up a museum. There's also the mayor, Tom Nook, who offers you loans to build new buildings, and his two sons, Tommy and Timmy, who set up a store called Nook's Cranny. Other villagers come and go, selling you their wares as they come. Then there are the other 400 collective villagers. There is a large range of Animal Crossing fans, and one hub for fans on the internet is Nookazon where players can buy and trade villagers. Maddie's favorite villager is Marina the octopus because of her bubbly personality, and Timmi's favorite villager is her tubby penguin Wade because he's simply adorable. Earning money is a major factor of gameplay. It can be hard to get started, so you can sponsor friends if they visit your island. You can also trade in artifacts at Blathers' museum, trade turnips in a stock-market type system, or you can collect Nook Miles to redeem for bells (the currency of the game). There are tons of other creative ways to earn bells, and the money helps you build up the island for Project K. When Project K is complete, you are given the ability to terraform and let creativity run wild on your island.Overall, this is an amazing game that lets players relax and created their island however they want. The objective is simple enough too to lure anybody into the game. In the future, Timmi and Maddie hope to see an easier path to initially saving up bells, as well as more DIY recipes and customizable furniture.This episode is rated Beginner. Discussion topics are broad and tailored to all levels of gamer, especially those who have never played Animal Crossing. Spoilers for games are at a minimum.Follow us on Instagram and YouTube! @shorts.on_line