A (tool) tip from Breath of the Wild to New Horizons
It happened again today: I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, when I suddenly caught a new cicada. I didn't know that it was a new cicada. I got lucky because I was trying to obtain miles from catching bugs.
Maybe part of the reason why the miles program was included in this entry was exactly to encourage players to keep catching all kinds of bugs, so that they'll eventually catch them all. Still, I got pretty lucky today, and it reminded me once more that I have this nitpick with bug catching basically since I played the first game in the series.
Simply put, in New Horizons, the foremost way of knowing whether you have caught an insect or not, is to pull up the "Critterpedia" app to check them out. Each bug or fish will only be displayed if it has been caught, and furthermore, have a little owl icon next to it if it was donated to the museum.
This system isn't as helpful as you may think though, because there are dozens of bugs, and you can't possibly memorize which ones you have and haven't caught. Maybe the idea is that you are supposed to pull up the app to go check when you lay eyes on a bug that you may think you haven't caught yet, but that isn't practical, because not only do some bugs flee in the meantime, but some species are hard to tell apart, so it can be difficult to be sure (especially when your list is nearing completion).
At least, when you catch a bug, if it is new, then the character will first say "Yes!" to indicate that (same for fish). I don't want to be catching every single bug to test that out though.
You need to keep in mind here that bugs, unlike fish, are visible to the player. They just roam around on the surface. That makes a mountain of difference in how the process of catching and cataloguing them should play out.
Thankfully, Nintendo has released another video game (two, in fact) which has a much better mechanic for knowing which bugs you have or haven't caught: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Breath of the Wild (and Tears of the Kingdom) does something really well about catching bugs (or any "resource"): **When you first approach a new bug, its name will appear as "???" in a "tool tip" floating above it. Once you have caught it for the first time, then you'll get a special jingle with a dialogue that displays the bug's description. From then on out, every time you approach that bug, the tool tip will have its name displayed on it. This indicates that you have caught it before already. Furthermore, even the camera, which is used to fill out the Hyrule Compendium, will either have a set of red/orange brackets around the bug, to indicate that you haven't photographed it yet, or a blue one, to indicate that you have.
Explain to me why New Horizons, which was released a full three years after Breath of the Wild, does not include a tool tip feature for the bugs? It would make total sense. In fact, the tool tip should not only include the name of the bug (once you have caught it for the first time), but also an icon to indicate if you have donated it to the museum. That would make the experience of catching bugs that less frustrating for me.
You may be wondering about fish. Again, only the bugs are visible. The fossils also have their own "gameplay mechanic", as well as the artworks. For the fish, I don't think that it would make sense to have any tool tip appear, unless in a future installment of the series, they make the water transparent, like in Breath of the Wild, and the fish become visible. I understand, however, that the whole purpose of the fish is that you should just go and catch all of them, in the hopes that you get lucky and catch a new one. That makes sense, because the fish are also generally more valuable than the bugs. They sell for a higher price. So, there is an incentive to catch them even if you have caught them before.