Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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Part of a series on Animal Crossing. [View Related Entries]

About

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the fifth main series title in the Animal Crossing life simulation video game series developed by Nintendo. The game was released for Nintendo Switch on March 20th, 2020.

History

On September 13th, 2018, at Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that the next Animal Crossing game will be released in 2019.^[1] That same day, they released a teaser trailer (shown below). The trailer received over 932,900 views in nine months on YouTube.

On June 11th, 2019, at E3, Nintendo's deputy general manager, Yoshiaki Koizumi^[2] announced that the game's release will be delayed to March 20th, 2020 “to ensure the game is the best it can be.” They also released a trailer for Animal Crossing: New Horizon's (shown below). The trailer received over 350,000 views in a day on YouTube. The trailer outlined new features including customizable character skin color and the ability to "decorate" the whole deserted island.^[3] Following the announcement, "Nintendo's stock market value reportedly dropped more than $1 billion" due to slim 2019 holiday offerings.^[6]

On March 20th, 2020, the game was officially released for Nintendo Switch.^[7]

Reception

[Work in progress]

Delayed Release

On June 11th, following news of the delayed release Twitter users began using the trailer to post about their disappointment. Twitter user @lostlotus__ tweeted, "me casually waiting for Animal Crossing Switch to come out on March 2020:" with a clip of a character in the trailer patiently waiting on a stump (shown below). The tweet garnered over 670 likes and 280 retweets in a day.

That same day, Twitter user @akidearest^[4] posted a SpongeBob SquarePants image about waiting too long (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 3,300 likes in a day. Twitter user @_OfficerNasty_^[5] posted a still from the Nintendo Direct trailer captioned, "Me getting mad about animal crossing switch coming out in 2020 even though I don’t have a switch" (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 180 likes in a day.

Doomguy and Isabelle

Doomguy and Isabelle is a fan art trend that started in October of 2019. Pieces tend to feature both characters paired in cute and/or gory situations or changing costumes and jobs. The trend came about as a result of Doom Eternal's delayed-release to March 20th, 2020, the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The trend later spawned a derivative meme One Copy of Doom Eternal / Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Please

ACPatterns

ACPatterns or Animal Crossing Pattern Tool is a fan-made tool that allows to create and convert images into .acnl format usable by Animal Crossing: New Horizons, New Leaf and Happy Home Designer. Following the release of the tool in March 2020, it has been used the fans of the series to add various images, including memes, to the game.