Why the stress-reducing ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ is the game for this time of coronavirus

As the Friday release date of Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” approaches, there have been calls on social media for the Japanese video game giant to unleash the latest edition of the game series early — to pull a similar advance-release move as Disney did by placing “Frozen 2” on its streaming service ahead of schedule. Think of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” as a sort of virtual theme park, the ideal digital getaway for an era when merely stepping outside can be cause for severe anxiety. In “New Horizons” we can disappear into a welcome, broadly drawn world full of critters and furniture and coconut trees, all of which look like plastic toys that belong in a board game box. The fifth game in the core “Animal Crossing” series, “New Horizons” has some enhanced flourishes — an emphasis on crafting, a deep smartphone, a redeemable mileage program — but all the constants are present.