25th Anniversary of Animal Crossing

Nintendo is being weird today, because they are celebrating one of their anniversaries on point. On April 14th 2001, Dōbutsu no Mori was released in Japan for the Nintendo 64, which would later be known as "Animal Crossing". The series has a long crossover history with The Legend of Zelda, where earlier this year we got the 3.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons with Tulin and Mineru as new villagers, as well as various Zelda items.

Today we got a new update (version 3.0.2), which adds a postcard themed after the original game, as well as the "Leaf Statue" item, which serves as a lamp. They've also added the first game's soundtrack to Nintendo Music. It's certainly nothing amazing, but better than nothing

Still, this will make many people wonder what happened to the 40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, which Nintendo has yet to acknowledge in any way or form. But keep in mind that this is normal... at least when it comes to the Zelda anniversaries.

The main difference is that Nintendo has never done any extensive anniversary campaigns for Animal Crossing. It was just another artwork for the 20th Anniversary, for example. The only two series where Nintendo has done extensive campaigns are Super Mario and Zelda (Pokémon is handled by the Pokémon Company). And Zelda always has to wait a little, so it doesn't clash with Super Mario's.

But the Super Mario Galaxy Movie is in the cinemas now and we will get Yoshi and the Mysterious Book next month, so we're getting there. Expect to hear about the Zelda anniversary in a Nintendo Direct in June. And in the meantime, go play some Animal Crossing. It's chill.

Maze Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

One of the big new features in version 3.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons were the "Slumber Islands", where you can create up to three in three different sizes. They let you freely design without the limitations of your actual island, which is perfect to realize ideas that otherwise would have been too large or inconvenient. And one of the ideas I had was recreating an island from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

The Dodolint Chronicles II

It's been two and a half years since I had posted my Dodolint Chronicles and during these two and a half years I have kept playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons more or less regularly. For a while it slowed down to only once per week, but since the announcement of the 3.0 update I went back to playing on a daily basis, in an attempt to finish my vision of a Zelda-themed island. So, let's have a look of how this has been going...

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Update 3.0 Impressions

In November 2021 the 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released and said to be the last major one. Luckily, four years later Nintendo has changed their mind about it and added a variety of new features alongside a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for the game. This includes a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda, so let's take a look together!

 

The Legend of Zelda x amiibo 

Let's actually start with the Zelda stuff, though pretty much all of it was shown in the announcement already. The only thing that hasn't appeared in the official footage was the Heart, which can be picked up in the same style as the Rupee(s).

It's generally a lot of fun to fully change into either Link or Zelda with a wink of your shiny new Tri Rod. I've never been 100% happy with the dress-up options in this game, even though there is quite a lot, but now I'm content. This is all I will need going forward. Well, it would have been nice if there was a second variant for Princess Zelda, like her appearance from the classic games or even Echoes of Wisdom, but what we have is lovely.

The interactions with the different items are also really neat. The Triforce makes the intro sound from A Link to the Past, the Goddess Statues bring their signature glow and you can wake up the Decayed Guardian. You can also "collect" the Rupees and Hearts, where it's a lot of fun to create some (secret) trails with them on your island. The Rupees can even be customized into six different colors (green, blue, red, purple, silver and gold), while the Goddess Statue has adorned variants based on Kakariko, Goron City and Rito Village.

Sadly, the treasure chest did not return, where it also could have had different variants from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Instead, the Master Sword will play the typical key item melody when you touch it... It also would have been nice if there were a second set of wall and floor, e.g. one based on the Sheikah Shrines. This would have been a great fit for designing indoor environments.

But the largest omission are certainly the Zelda villagers who are not returning from New Leaf. Both Mineru and Tulin feel quite special with their designs and are fantastic additions to the game, where I was quick to add  them to my island. However, I could have a whole Kakariko Village filled with characters from the Zelda franchise if Nintendo wasn't so selective about this.

A good excuse would have been if the recent additions introduced new personality subtypes, a C-type so to say, where they get special dialogues revolving around their respective franchises. Mineru and Tulin could have forever talked about Hyrule, the Demon King and Secret Stones, for example. But that's not the case, where instead they both got the plain A-type and act like any other villager in the game.

To be fair, their designs are quite sophisticated and detailed, e.g. Mineru actually opens her third eye whenever she is surprised, which certainly has surprised me the first time. But otherwise we're looking at low effort implementations, where they could have done the same for Epona and friends. It's just that then they really would have needed more floors and walls based on Zelda to make their houses more distinct from each other.

 

Quality of Life

What has been a real treat are some of the smaller improvements, especially everything revolving around the storage and crafting. Not only can you have up to 9000 items now stored away, it will automatically take items from your storage when you're crafting things on your island. This frees up almost 25% of your inventory, because you now can just keep the different crafting materials, like wood and stone, in the storage, instead of always carrying some around.

And yeah, there is the new batch crafting functionality as well, where both of this probably only got added for the new hotel DIY deliveries. You can even now buy 50 Customization Kits at once and they also can be used from your storage, where customized items will score you a few extra hotel tickets. These are all good improvements, but it feels like Nintendo was purely concerned about crafting things for the hotel and nothing else, because there are plenty of other things in this game that could use some streamlining.

And the new megaphone, which is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, is absolutely horrible. It rarely ever works, where it just calls Kapp'n most of the time for some reason. Maybe he's the fallback, but why would they make a character who always sits in the same place the fallback? And when the characters are inside buildings, they won't respond anyway, so it won't help you with villagers lost inside the museum. At least the loading times on Switch 2 are faster, so a restart (which resets your villager's positions) isn't as annoying as it used to be.

 

The Hotel

Your residents won't be the only ones lost on your island after this update. Easily the biggest change comes with the new hotel, which is ran by Kapp'n's family. At least now when he's sitting at your dock all day long, he's basically home...

This is a smaller version of the paid Happy Home Paradise expansion, except that this is properly integrated into the actual game and has a real impact on your island. In the expansion you were making these vacation homes for individual characters and there was no real reason to ever revisit them once you're done. It was its own little cosmos, where your villagers can appear on your island and in the resort basically at the same time...

But the hotel and its rooms, of which there are eight fixed ones in total, become essentially a part of your main island. As a result tourists will now arrive as guests, in addition to the rare person on the campsite. And unlike the campers they will freely wander around, where they even can go into shops and the museum, which completely changes the feel of your island, which used to be a fairly exclusive place. It now truly becomes a resort, whether you like it or not.

You can also visit the tourists in their rooms, which gives you an incentive to actually make these rooms look nice. However, without the Happy Home Paradise DLC you will be missing a number of design options. This isn't just about items, like the partition or the pillars, because you won't be able to change the size of the room or their soundscape, for example. And this makes the hotel feel like another hook to get you into buying the expansion if you hadn't already.

Luckily, it doesn't seem like you can make a bad job here. The Happy Home Paradise had this awkward scoring system, where you have to spend at least 20 minutes designing a home. That's not the case here, so you can just quickly throw something together and get your 200 or 300 hotel tickets out of it. 

And then there is the question whether you even want any of this to begin with. Maybe you have a themed island and carefully curated villagers, where you don't want any tourists running around. In that case your only option is to forever ignore the hotel, which will lock you out of many of the new furniture items, including the retro Nintendo systems.

At least you can provide your unwelcomed guests with clothing matching your island. In my case I went with the outfits of Tulin and Mineru combined with Majora's Mask and Tri. Both headpieces glow in the dark, which make them quite the eyecatcher.

But there also isn't really much to do with these tourists. If you happen to run into one of their former residents, they will remember you for some heartfelt moments. Tourists that have visited your island before will also remember you, where you can learn the names of everyone over time. But here's a missed opportunity by not letting you do more.

First of all, they only ever stay for a single day, which certainly should have been longer to make it seem like they are actually on a vacation and not just some randomized game feature. It especially makes putting any effort into the VIP rooms completely pointless, because you will be designing them for a single night. It would have been much more realistic and dynamic if the tourists were staying for a random number of days, arriving only when there are free rooms.

And if the tourists were to stay longer, this could have allowed the player to form a bond with them, maybe even in the form of some activities, like different games. At the end of their vacation they then could send you a letter with their photo as their thanks. Now, that would be truly engaging! I have never considered collecting the photos of all possible villagers as a realistic goal, but if it was working like this, then I would certainly attempt it and have a reason to play much more from now.

 

Retro Gaming

As a reward for doing all the stuff around the hotel you can order some new furniture items, as well as a series of new special items around Nintendo. These include the NES, Super NES and Game Boy, which even let you play a game on them, just like in the classic Animal Crossing games.

However, this is by far the biggest disappoint in this entire update. There is only one given game for each system and it's probably not the one you would pick. The NES lets you play Ice Climbers, for example, yikes...

No Awakening for Link here

And despite this massive limitation, they still had the audacity to ask for a Nintendo Switch Online membership in order to start them... Plus, the systems only really cover the basic subscription and not even all of that. There is no GBA, no N64 and no GameCube for you to enjoy here. In the very least they could have added a Game Boy Pocket and Color.

I'm not expecting them to give you access to the entire library here, but they could have made this a bit more playful. You should be able to customize the systems to swap their cartridge from a selection of eight different games. Let me pick The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, please.

 

Slumber Islands

The other big new feature next to the hotel is the ability to create your own dream islands. They are just not called "dream islands", because that was already a thing to share your main island at any time. But it uses the same entry point: any bed, where you will be greeted by Luna in your dreams, who will guide you the whole thing.

You get save slots for three additional islands, which you can delete and restart at any time. You can pick between three sizes: small, medium and large. The small one has the size of the little islands that you can reach via Nook Miles and large is the same size as your main island. You're also given one of four different patterns for how the Slumber Island can look like.

And then you're free to change the landscape and decorate as you please, where you can use anything from your catalog (making cataloguing everything quite valuable) and even summon any villager you ever had before on your island. Your house will also be there, which can be fully changed and redecorated from scratch.

This is huge... at least to me. Over the years I had a couple of ideas of what I could do with my island, but which would have turned into a massive waste of space. One of those ideas always has been making a gallery of all the insect and fish models, which I have all collected as one of my previous goals in this game, only to put them into my storage at the end. But there is simply not enough space to display them all on my island, especially since I like to keep things more practical and gameplay-oriented.

However, here I can now design a whole insect and fish island and take all the space I'll need for this. Sadly, you can't invite special characters to these dream islands via amiibo, so that I could have invited C.J. and Flick.

Another idea I had was recreating some island from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, because the Nintendo DS Zelda games feel quite similar to New Horizons with how the landscapes are structured and with how you move around. For example, you can jump across gaps on elevations. That basically invites you to remake something for the fun of it. And the best candidate seemed to be Maze Island, because it's square-shaped and only uses simple elements, while the idea itself isn't a stranger to Animal Crossing either. Of course you wouldn't want your main island to be a maze, but it's the perfect thing to built for one of your Slumber Islands. So... that's what I did:

It took me a whole Sunday and getting this right came with some frustrations, but I had fun in the process and I'm proud of the end result. I will show this off in greater detail at a later point, together with my updated main island.

The Slumber Islands are also great for simply prototyping. Maybe you have an idea for a change on your island, but you want to see how it looks first before you invest the time, effort and Bells to make it happen on your real island. 

 

Wishes for Further Updates

The golden rule of Nintendo is always to leave something to be desired. And should they eventually give their customers what they desire, this shall still leave new things to be desired. It has always been like that... But they are not completely deaf to feedback and maybe we will be getting a version 3.1 in the near future, which may address some of the aforementioned issues:

• Let tourists stay longer and give us new interactions to obtain their photos.
• Let the player decide whether tourists are allowed on their island or not. 
• Expand the Legend of Zelda collaboration to bring back Epona, Ganon, Medli and Wolf Link as villagers and the Treasure Chest, Princess Zelda Dress and Wig as items, plus the Sheikah Shrine Wall and Floor as new items.
• Expand the Splatoon collaboration to bring back Inkwell and the Spawn Point.
• Let the players swap the games of the NES, Super NES, Famicom, Super Famicom and Game Boy systems via customization.
• Add Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube.
• Allow to summon characters to Slumber Islands via amiibo. 

Those are really just small suggestions that would make the recent additions a bit more wholesome and polished.

My Nintendo Switch Year 2025

Yesterday Nintendo has made your play statistics for 2025 available, which is about a month later than in the last years. But that's actually a very good thing because now these statistics include the month of December, which they hadn't before, potentially creating a significant gap. In this case Metroid Prime 4: Beyond wouldn't have appeared at all...

Anyway, out of those 21 games that I've played, nine come from the Nintendo Switch Online offerings, which I often just play for the Platinum Points, so that really leaves twelve. And two games I had only launched because I wanted to quickly check something out. These were Echoes of Wisdom for the updates with the favorites back in June and Age of Calamity, where I wanted to get a sense for how it feels to return to it after Age of Imprisonment. So, that leaves ten games that saw some proper dedication. And these are the top three:

Unsurprisingly, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is my most-played Nintendo game of the year. It could have been Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Editions, which I was playing in preparation, but then came Hollow Knight: Silksong (which I didn't play on Switch). I've only done about a third of the Adventure Mode, so there is still a lot of time that I can and eventually will sink into this game again.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons also saw some more commitment later in the year, because I was preparing for the 3.0 update. (By the way, Nintendo has already released it today, one day early again.) I was adding all the villagers I wanted to have in the end, before Tulin and Mineru arrive, and trying to get their photos. So, I was back to playing it on a daily basis, as opposed to only once per week. And this will continue in early 2025.

The overview now offers your play time data for your most-played game each month, which makes it a bit easier to compile a list for the rest, though the hours aren't fully accurate:

1. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (110 hours)
2. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (72 hours)
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (53 hours)
4. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (53 hours)
5. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (31 hours) 
6. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (30 hours)
7. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (20 hours) 

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker were my main games in the first half of the year. Due to some other hobby project, I wasn't playing much on my Nintendo Switch at the time – for less than an hour per day on average.

In the above graph you can also clearly tell when I was playing the three most important games for me in the year: Silksong, Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4. Silksong left a gap in September and October, where I was only doing my weekly Animal Crossing rounds. And at the end of October I got my Nintendo Switch 2, where I was also playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in early November to check out their Nintendo Switch 2 Editions and collect all the voice memories.

And I already have too many plans for this year... Currently I'm still playing Mario Kart World and afterwards I finally want to experience Super Mario Odyssey for the first time. But I'd also love to replay a number of recent Nintendo games in their harder/hardest difficulties: Echoes of Wisdom, Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4. And I also want to play through Silksong again and prepare for its upcoming DLC, while Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition wants to be continued as well. It's a lot of time with games that I have already beaten, but they are all worth the extra round.

Fortunately, I have a feeling that 2026 won't bring as many must-play titles for me as 2025 did. Maybe there will be a Zelda remake, where I'm hoping for the Oracle games, and maybe some DLC for Mario Kart World, but I don't expect to be busy with new games for hundreds of hours. And that would be completely fine...

Dawn of a New Year – 2026

While it's technically just a change in date, there is something magical about looking forward to another year and what exciting things it may bring for your hobbies and passions, like The Legend of Zelda. And with the 40th Anniversary taking place from February 21st onward, there will certainly be something to talk about.

 

Expanding Worlds

The year starts with a small collaboration between The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The 3.0.0 update for the game will launch on January 15th, in exactly two weeks, and contain a number of new features, including new amiibo-induced crossovers.

You will be able to obtain outfits, items and furniture based on the Zelda series, as well as two new villagers: Tulin and Mineru from Tears of the Kingdom. Sadly, the Zelda-themed villagers from New Leaf are not returning for this, but it's still better than nothing and will allow Zelda fans to make their islands feel a lot more special.

In general, updates and expansions like this one could become a strong point of interest in 2026. For example, Hollow Knight: Silksong will get its first free expansion, Sea of Sorrow. And it's possible that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment may get further DLC. There are no shared plans so far, but there is certainly demand for playable Ganondorf and Sonia, where Koei Tecmo may follow up on that. It wouldn't be the first time.

Another game that sees a lot of demand for DLC is Mario Kart World. 200cc, more costumes, the Koopalings, or contents based on Donkey Kong Bananza are what first comes to mind, but for a major expansion they could return to the crossovers with other Nintendo franchises. Bring back Link and the Master Cycle (Zero), introduce Zelda as a driver, and have an island that represents Hyrule. And Samus is practically begging to make a guest appearance in Mario Kart with her newest toy, Vi-O-La.

 

40th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda

Super Mario Bros. was celebrating its 40th Anniversary last year, which was mainly used to advertise the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie, where at the forefront was a two-in-one "port" of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo Switch.

Well, there is also a Zelda movie coming up, but it won't be part of the anniversary, since it's scheduled to launch in theaters on May 7th next year. Still, they will get the ball rolling this year and in the very least present us with a first trailer, while potentially using the anniversary to create some hype.

But a glimpse is also the best what we can hope for when it comes to a new Zelda game. The latest installments, Tears of the Kingdom (2023) and Echoes of Wisdom (2024) are still too recent for anything to be even close to finished. The next 3D Zelda game should be right in the middle of its development, where maybe Nintendo will present us a first teaser trailer.

So, we should not expect another 25th Anniversary, which was huge and revolved around the launch of Skyward Sword. The 30th and 35th anniversaries didn't coincide with a new Zelda game and therefore haven't brought much on the table (only some amiibo, an artbook, and a Game & Watch system).

Maybe this will repeat here. Or maybe they have something else in store, where the likeliest candidate is another remake. And you may already know where this is heading, since the rumor mills have been running for a while: Ocarina of Time.

It simply makes sense. They have remade or remastered all 3D Zelda games at least once, where now they can start it all over again. And this could also get fans of traditional Zelda excited for both the Nintendo Switch 2 and the movie.

If this is really a thing, the only question is who has been working on such a remake. The folks at Tantalus, the developers of Twilight Princess HD and Skyward Sword HD, are good with ports and texture updates, but not necessarily remakes. And the folks at GREZZO, who had developed Ocarina of Time 3D, have effectively taken over the top-down Zelda branch.

Speaking of, instead of Ocarina of Time, we could also be looking at a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons. This could have been developed in parallel to Echoes of Wisdom, where there are even some indications that this might have been the case, or at least that they were remaking the Oracle games at some point. The accessory system was clearly based on the Magic Rings and the return of Smog as a classic boss was rather curious... Make out of that what you will.

Alternatively, we could be looking at something else entirely, like a Shrine Maker based on Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. They have already been pushing both games with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, where they got the first Nintendo Switch 2 Editions, and such a project could be the next step. However, it probably wouldn't be an official part of the 40th Anniversary.

In any case, they could release a 40th Anniversary Edition of the Nintendo Switch 2, just to annoy all the Zelda fans who have purchased a Nintendo Switch 2 already. That's a classic Nintendo move. 

 

40th Anniversary of Metroid?

Nintendo has yet to celebrate any of the anniversaries of their other Action Adventure series, but there is a first time for everything. To be fair, they had the perfect opportunity in 2021 with the release of Metroid Dread, but didn't seize it. In any case, it will have been five years since the last 2D Metroid release, so it's time for another remake or even Metroid 6. And theoretically it would have been possible for MercurySteam to cook something if they hadn't been busy with their latest 3D game, Blades of Fire... So, it's probably best to not expect anything.

The Legend of Zelda x Animal Crossing: New Horizons

It is finally happening! After more than five years, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be hosting a collaboration with The Legend of Zelda. You can learn all about it in today's announcement, but let's get through everything shown. There are new furniture and clothing items, as well as Tulin and Mineru as new villagers.

Like in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, you will need amiibo from the Zelda series to unlock these things. We don't know any specifics, but in the very least you should be able to use Tulin's and Mineru's. Speaking of, we don't have a release date yet for the latter, but it might be available on January 15th at the latest, which is when the 3.0.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches. (It's also possible that other Zelda amiibo can unlock Tulin and Mineru – we don't know yet.)

On Nookipedia you can find a complete list of all the Zelda contents in past Animal Crossing games, where most of it was in New Leaf. Some of these contents will return, but not all of it. From what we could see in the footage, it's at least the following:

• Heart Container (now in the Breath of the Wild style)
• Rupee (with different colored variants)
• Fairy Bottle 
• Master Sword (with pedestal)
• Triforce 
• Majora's Mask
• Hero's Cap, Clothes & Pants
• Champion's Wig & Outfit

In addition to the returning items, you can spot a variety of new things:

• Ancient Princess outfit set
• Tulin's garbs
• Mineru's garbs
• Master Sword & Hylian Shield backpack
• Ocarina of Time
• Decayed Guardian
• Silent Princess
• Zonai Authentication Crest
• Tri
• Tri Rod
• Korok Forest Wall
• Korok Forest Floor 

Most of it is from three most recent Zelda titles on Nintendo Switch, which makes sense, but there could have been a bit more variety. At least one item from The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword would have been nice. But maybe there is more that they haven't shown...

The most important additions are the two new villagers, though. We have Tulin as a jock bird, who has "gust" as his catchphrase. And Mineru is a snooty deer saying "construct". They look both very detailed, which is also thanks to the new outfit items that come with them.

Sadly, there is no news on the four Zelda villagers from New Leaf:

• Ganon (cranky pig)
• Wolf Link (smug wolf)
  
• Epona (peppy horse)
  
• Medli (normal bird)

There would be no overlap between the personalities of the old and new Zelda villagers, where you could cover 75% of all personality types with them, leaving only lazy and big sister. I originally had planned my island with these four characters in mind, but now I have to rethink who I'm going to keep.

And it's understandable that they wanted to replace Medli with a more recent Rito, but it's still a shame about the other three. In the very least they could have brought back Pig Ganon, since he was featured in Echoes of Wisdom. Maybe this will still happen or maybe they haven't announced all of the collaboration items yet, but I very much doubt it. I'm just happy that this collaboration is happening at all, after all hope seemed lost years ago.

Update (Nov. 7):

The official Japanese website now has a complete list of who each amiibo will summon. The good news is that you have a lot of options for Tulin and Mineru, so you don't need to purchase their specific amiibo. The bad news is that none of the previous Zelda villagers will return, which is very disappointing.

Those have been the main reason why I wanted this collaboration to happen, but it wouldn't be Nintendo if they didn't leave something to be desired. They just can't help it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and 3.0 Update Announced

Wow! Out of the blue Nintendo has announced some big news for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It will be getting a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, but also a major free update  for both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, on January 15th. You can watch the whole announcement on Youtube.

Earlier this year, I've been speculating about Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch 2 and a major update for New Horizons, similar to Splatoon 3, was the likeliest candidate for the near future. After all, both games got made by the same development staff. And it looks like this was on the money!

I didn't think that they would go for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, however, but there isn't much to it. You get the 4k upgrade and there is support for the Joy-Con mouse controls, so it's quite similar to Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

The only questionable thing is the Microphone item, because calling out for your residents has been a much requested quality of life feature. Sometimes you are just looking for a specific villager and can't find them. So, to hide it behind the system's microphone is literally not a good call... Oh, and you can now play with up to 12 players at once online, for those who like online parties. The most I've ever played with was two.

But the upgrade to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition only costs five bucks, so that's fair. And all the good stuff is waiting for you in free 3.0.0 update, so you can still enjoy all that on the Nintendo Switch. The 2.0.0 update was said to be the last major one, but I'm very happy that they've changed their minds about this, because this game really needs these content additions to stay interesting.

The resort hotel seems a bit silly for multiple reasons. I always thought that it was sad how Kapp'n sings about this family and even keeps a photo of them in his boat, but always stays at your pier. The easy solution would have been to make him leave after your daily boat ride. But I suppose you can also just bring his whole family to your island...

It's funny and makes good use of the free space on the water, but the feature itself just seems like a lite version of the Happy Home Paradise DLC. It is the exact same mechanics, just without the exteriors and the resort island. It also makes the campsite feel somewhat redundant now.

The storage upgrade is a godsend. I've hit the limit of 5000 items a while ago, because I've been using it mainly for collections. I've got all Gyroids in there, all fossils, all critters and their models, all the special event items, lots of photos, and so on. And if you want an extensive wardrobe on top, then 5000 isn't enough. 9000 should do, however.

Maybe I could use the new Slumber Islands to display a part of the collection, e.g. all the models. That's also an excellent feature, which effectively lets you create a second, third and fourth island within the game, but as a blank canvas for decorations. So, you won't have the Resident Services in your way and it will be free from the game's usual mechanics. You can even freely set the time of the day and the weather. This alone is a massive feature that can be enjoyed for many hours.

This wasn't mentioned in the trailer, but shown briefly: you can now finally craft multiple copies of an item at once! This is fantastic, especially for something like fish bait.

But you already know what the most important part of the announcement was, right? Not the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, not the hotel, not the Slumber Islands, not the quality of life features... No... The LEGO! Just kidding...

But when they started talking about "collaborations", I was freaking out. Ever since I had started my own island about four years ago, I've been waiting for them to bring back the Zelda items and villagers, because I was building things with them in mind. But for some reason they never bothered... until now.

Well, at first they had talked about classic Nintendo systems. In past Animal Crossing games, you had the option to play a variety of emulated games. But here it looks like it's only one select game per system and you will need a Nintendo Switch Online membership for it, which is oddly restrictive. The LEGO stuff also seemed weird at first, but then I remembered that there are actual Animal Crossing LEGO sets, so it's nice to have this both ways.

During that part I was getting a little anxious that they might be doing all sorts of weird crossovers again, like the Hello Kitty stuff, and not the one that truly matters. But there it was: contents from The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon will finally return! They do require you to scan amiibo, however, and only these two franchises are back.

A collaboration with Metroid would have been amazing as well, but maybe this will still happen and I'm just happy we're getting Zelda stuff again. I'll talk about that in a separate post, because there is a lot to cover here.

Now, I'm actually still playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons regularly, but this has changed from once per day to once per week. I had reached all my goals and finished my island to what I wanted it to be, so all that is left to do is plugging weeds, hoping for some missing crafting recipes and checking shops for items that I have yet to catalog. But these new contents will give me enough reason to start the game more often and I'm really looking forward to January 15th.

Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch 2

Today Nintendo has announced that Splatoon 3 will be getting a major update with new weapons and a returning map (Urchin Underpass), as well as enhancements for the Nintendo Switch 2. On top of that, they are making a Switch 2-exclusive spin-off to the series, Splatoon Raiders.

That's exciting news for Splatoon fans, but for fans of Animal Crossing this means that it might take years for a new game to arrive, since both series are (sadly) developed by the same team, Nintendo EPD5. This has been an issue for a while, where Animal Crossing: New Horizons could have done well with regular updates, which simply wasn't in the cards due to the development setup.

Considering that it's actually the second-best selling Nintendo Switch title, with a gigantic margin even, it's a questionable decision not to have a dedicated team for the franchise. Other franchises, like The Legend of Zelda, even get multiple development teams working on different projects in parallel, like Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom. Of course, Animal Crossing is a franchise where one game per generation is more than enough, where it is reasonable to let its developers work on other projects in the meantime. But Splatoon has also become quite popular and both series profit tremendously from regular content updates...

Now, the best we can hope for in the near future is that they will also consider making a similar update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Well, they said that version 2.0.0 was going to be the last major update for the game, but this was many years ago and I don't think anyone would mind if they are going to change their minds on this. Similar to Splatoon 3, this game isn't really a candidate for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, because you need it to stay compatible with the Nintendo Switch for the multiplayer stuff, so it would also have to be some free update, where all the new contents are accessible to everyone with the game.

As for what they could add to the game at this point, they could follow the example of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its Booster Course Pass. Here they took contents from the mobile game, Mario Kart Tour, brushed them up and brought them onto the Nintendo Switch. Why not do the same with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp? They have stopped development on that title as well and it's filled neat things that people would certainly like to have in New Horizons. Whether that's furniture, clothing, or even new fruits, there is a lot they could re-use here to add more value.

And let's not forget about all the things that never made the cut from New Leaf, like the Splatoon and Legend of Zelda guest characters, or being able to create your own galleries in the museum. Sprinkle some of the most wanted quality of life improvements on top and you will make a lot of fans happy. Let players create a second island on Nintendo Switch 2 systems and you will find people upgrade to the new hardware for this alone... With that in mind, it doesn't necessarily need a new Animal Crossing game on Switch 2, at least not anytime soon. They could just iterate New Horizons and make it the best it can be.

As for the next game, they will have to come up with something innovative here to set it apart from New Horizons and to also create an experience that wouldn't have been possible on the Nintendo Switch already, like how they made Mario Kart World an open world driving game. People will still be able to play New Horizons on their Switch 2s, whether it will receive a shiny update or not, and there needs to be more than prettier graphics to warrant a new game.

One idea would be to offer much bigger towns than in any game before, and also being able to join online communities, so you can live together with friends all over the world, not just the people in your household who you share a Nintendo Switch with. Being able to interact with others online was a massive seller during the covid pandemic and such a game would deepen this aspect. This would also be a huge incentive to invest into Nintendo Switch Online, which is what Nintendo wants us to do in any case.

However, if you've been on a community Minecraft server or anything similar, you'll know that there is the risk of such servers dying down quickly. And once you're the only one taking care of the town, it's easy to give up entirely on the game, because being alone in a multiplayer environment feels much lonelier than just playing in singleplayer. So, Nintendo would have to come up with a more dynamic approach here, where people can move to other communities (with all their belongings). In the end, living together with other players online should enrich the experience, without taking away from the classic charm. But it's just one idea.

Whatever the next game will look like, the most important thing is that they bring back the Zelda crossover contents. I'll never forgive them for leaving them out in New Horizons!

My Nintendo Switch Year 2024

Nintendo is offering your year-in-review statistics once again, but it's actually not as interesting as last year, because unlike in 2023 there is no way of seeing the play times of all the games that you've played during the year, only the top 3. And my top 3 doesn't really contain anything new from this year.

I've been still very busy with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the first half of 2024. But this already feels like forever ago, because we got a new Zelda game with Echoes of Wisdom in the meantime... It feels like I'm looking back at the wrong year. Though, I've spent only half as much time on the Nintendo Switch than in 2023, because it has been quite the busy year for me otherwise.

Luckily, you can also see how much you've played your games overall via your profile, even though it's rounded down to the nearest multiple of five, which you can use for new games in the statistic. So, I can compile a list that's a bit more comprehensive, with some links to the corresponding topics on this blog:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (192 hours)
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (98 hours)
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (57 hours)
   
4. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (55+ hours)
5. Game Boy Advance (40+ hours)
6. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (25+ hours)

Sadly, Echoes of Wisdom came in a close fourth – it would have been well deserved for the game to make it into my year's top 3. I don't even recall playing that much Smash Bros., though the new Spirits in the beginning of 2024 were an incentive to boot the game from time to time. And this ranking might change, because I was thinking about replaying Echoes of Wisdom in Hero Mode over the holidays. But Decembers don't exist in these yearly statistic by Nintendo.

My most active months, at least concerning the Nintendo Switch, were January and February. This is where I was finishing all side quests in Tears of the Kingdom, as well as searching for all those Hinox and Taluses for the medals and all of Addison's spots. And this took quite a while... I was left with completing the compendium, finding all Koroks, and discovering all recipes, which I did in April and May after a much-needed break in March.

Right after I had finally finished Tears of the Kingdom came two new Zelda highlights: the announcement of Echoes of Wisdom, already to be released in September, and the addition of Four Swords on the Game Boy Advance service. The latter let me finally experience the game in a four-player-set-up around June and July, but it also motivated me to replay both A Link to the Past and The Minish Cap on the same service.

The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition then came after, in late July, which is a title I keep playing from time to time. I usually participate in the weekly championships, trying to score an S-rank in all of them, but I don't overdo it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is another title that I keep playing, but this has died down from a daily to a weekly basis. During the year I finished collecting all insect and fish models, where now there is little left to achieve for me, other than filling out the Nook Shopping catalog, which is an insane task anyway and not worth the effort. But this will certainly stay on top as the most played game on my system, where it has been this virtual happy place for quite some time.

Anyway, there was a break in both August and November, where I had some other personal things going on. And between these two months my focus was on the new Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom, of course. It came out just at the right time.

This is all just for the Nintendo Switch, where otherwise I'm also gaming on the PC quite a bit. In March I was going back to Unreal Tournament 3  and currently I'm enjoying the original Unreal Tournament once more, where I have returned to a personal project from five years ago, the console map pack.

Also in March I've got into Lonely Mountains: Downhill, which is another title that I keep playing from time to time, with 64 hours by now, according to Steam. So, if I had played this on the Nintendo Switch instead, it would have been in the top 3 before Smash Bros. Ultimate and Echoes of Wisdom. It's very enjoyable if you're looking for something simple to play in-between. And I will continue playing this in 2025, for sure.

Last but not least, after my GBA nostalgia trip during the summer I checked out TUNIC for the first time, with 37 hours on Steam. If you like classic Zelda games, then this is also something that I can highly recommend.

Animal Crossing x Sea Life @ Berlin

Nintendo has currently a cooperation with SEA LIFE going, where they are doing a crossover with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. One of the locations is Berlin, from July 18th to September 8th, and since there is rarely anything Nintendo-related happening where I live, we decided to go there for a weekend trip

This crossover is generally a nice idea, since you have such aquariums in the game's museum. And there is of course some overlap of the fish that you have in the game and at SEA LIFE, so that's interesting to experience. But it was overall quite underwhelming, both the aquarium attraction and the Animal Crossing: New Horizons event, which may be due to the location.

The SEA LIFE in Berlin doesn't have all to much going for it. At the end there is a tunnel that leads through a tank with stingrays and other fish inside, which is very impressive, but otherwise it couldn't really compete with the aquariums that I saw in certain zoos, especially since everything was quite small.

And as for the Animal Crossing crossover, it wasn't bad, but it was lacking effort. You have a stamp rally as part of the event, which is also something that you do in the game's museum, so that was clever. During the tour you'll find these stamp stations in the form of posters on the wall with certain villagers. These were usually clustered with two at once, so you didn't really have to look for them. As a nitpick I have to mention that some of the stamps weren't properly aligned with what was shown on top, which was annoying if you wanted them to be correctly rotated.

Each station also had a poster with Blathers, who gives some information about one of the fishes or sea creatures that you can find both in the game and in SEA LIFE, where they give you a quiz sheet for that. You had to fill out a seven letter word and each poster came with a letter, but we knew the solution after the first one already. (It started with "S", can you guess it?)

And then there were some questions about the stuff that Blathers tells you, which were easy to answer... except for the first one. There they wanted to know how heavy carps can get, but we had to google this information to find out, because it wasn't stated anywhere. Other than that, it was clearly made for the entertainment of small children, but that's okay. It also wasn't required to answer any of the questions, that was just for your own education.

Then you could find Gulliver in one location, floating on a boat, while some guy or gal had to pose in an Isabelle costume, where it was hilarious how much the people loved this. See the first photo.

If you got all stamps and the easy-to-guess secret word, you could score some small merchandise at the end. You get a post card of the event and then you could pick from four different items. They had a sticker sheet, a cleaning cloth, some cheap luggage bag, or a SEA LIFE wristband for those who don't care about Animal Crossing. Well, you can see what we've picked above.

The biggest disappointment then was the shop. We saw that the same event in Paris had this big booth at the end with all sorts of Animal Crossing merchandise, where I was prepared to bleed some money here. But all they had in Berlin were some plush toys and LEGO sets... Eh.

So, overall I wouldn't recommend this event, at least not for Berlin. And this is ignoring all the controversy around SEA LIFE and most zoos, where you might want to boycott them in general and for good reasons. And to be honest, I don't think I would have ever gone there without the Animal Crossing: New Horizons stuff, so this little event was a big incentive for us. Can't say it was worth the trip, but we were also meeting with an old friend of mine afterwards, so we had a great day nevertheless.

My Nintendo Switch Year 2023

Nintendo lets you view your year in review for the Nintendo Switch now. I've never shared this before, but thought that I should make the extent of my addiction public to create awareness. In all seriousness, there is no big surprise here, since I've been quite busy playing Zelda this year, as you can see. I'm also still regularly playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, mostly just a daily check for anything new, but this accumulates.

May is looking crazy, I wonder what happened there? Well, the combo of rushing both through Breath of the Wild again and starting Tears of the Kingdom was overly excessive. I won't ever do that again, but this was a special circumstance with a new Zelda coming out that gets unannounced connectivity to the previous title, which I had only completed on the previous system... Luckily, I had already started one month earlier with fixing that mistake, which is why I had so much activity there as well.

You can also observe how my motivation hit a low in late summer, though I've also been on vacation for about three weeks during this time, where I haven't played much. But I really was burnt out from playing the same Zelda world so much and I can still feel that. October then saw a big boost in play time again, but this was really a mix of things, including Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. But it's also where I have made the last larger steps in Tears of the Kingdom, finally wrapping up the story in November.

Anyway, here is the list of every game that I've played for more than ten hours on the Nintendo Switch in 2023, with links to the corresponding articles on this blog, in case you want to read more about the experience:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (374 hours)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (171 hours)
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (135 hours)
   
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (61 hours)
5. Fire Emblem Engage (56 hours)
6. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (47 hours)
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (44 hours)
8. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (25 hours)
9. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (16 hours)
10. Metroid Prime Remastered (16 hours)
11. Death's Door (12 hours)
    

I've started the year with replaying both Link's Awakening and Death's Door on the Nintendo Switch, two of my favorite Action Adventures that are just short and sweet. Then came Fire Emblem Engage, which I still I have to finish, but this is true for absolutely every Fire Emblem game in my collection. And I had made some good progress, before I got interrupted by Metroid Prime Remastered and Bayonetta Origins in March and early April, which were both very wholesome and a good excuse. The latter is even my sleeper hit of the year.

The Booster Course Pass is really what made me play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe so much throughout the entire year and I hope that this might continue in 2024, but probably not. If there's no more new content, it won't be able to compete with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the multiplayer department for me, which I keep playing because I like the gameplay and I truly want to get better at the game, so it was mostly just practice and no novelty.

Switched to the Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED

Last month I had purchased the Tears of the Kingdom Edition of the Nintendo Switch OLED, but I didn't bother with setting it up until today, because I was busy with other things, like playing Breath of the Wild on my old Switch. But now that I've officially started Tears of the Kingdom, it was finally time to setup the corresponding console to play the game in style.

Well, I also waited for the new carrying case and the official screen protector from Nintendo... The latter was a total bust, however. Originally, I had a good experience with it for my old Nintendo Switch, where you open it up in the middle and this makes it much easier to apply without any air bubbles. But... this time it has like a line over the middle because of this, which now goes over the whole screen and is really annoying. So, I will have to replace it soon, I guess.

This whole process is also something I absolutely hate when purchasing new devices with a screen. Why can't they come with a screen protector factory installed? Then you would be good to go right away and you would only ever need to install one yourself in case the pre-installed one gets damaged. It's just very bad customer experience, just so that they can sell these things extra (only bundled with a case, mind you, which is a joke). This isn't even a Nintendo exclusive problem, it's the same with phones, tablets, and everything with a screen.

Also, the whole system transfer was much, much simpler with the Nintendo 3DS. Here it's not even a system transfer any longer, you can only transfer users and their save data. Everything else needs to be re-downloaded and you also have to get your settings right again.

Plus, if you have been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there is this whole dilemma that your island is tied to your console and you need an extra tool to transfer it. But of course you can't open the same software with the same Nintendo Account on two different consoles at the same time, so you need to make a new user for it...

It's like Nintendo's goal was maximum inconvenience with all of this and I'm not all too happy right now, even if this shiny new Switch looks very shiny. I will need to get a new background light, though, because the blue Sheikah Slate light feels now outdated. I hope there will make a green one with the Zonai interaction symbol from Tears of the Kingdom... Like with the keychain thingy.

About Animal Crossing, my old Switch might go to my mother, who has been enjoying New Leaf quite a lot lately, after she got a New Nintendo 2DS from me a couple of years ago, right before it was discontinued. I'm not sure she would actually want to switch to the new game right now, but let's see... Would be nice if it stayed in the family, since this Switch has seen some good action for the past two and a half years.

The Dodolint Chronicles

What is my most played game on the Nintendo Switch? What do you think? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity? Well, not even close, where it's actually Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as the above screenshot indicates. I've started playing this game over a year ago and have been playing it on a daily basis ever since, which accumulated to hundreds of hours by now. It has even surpassed the amount of time I've spent with Hyrule Warriors or Breath of the Wild on the Wii U, so this is one of my most played games ever.

And a lot has happened during this time, where I want to share some of my progress with you. I've completed Critterpedia, provided everything to the museum except for one piece (the Robust Statue), participated in all events, got photos of all my villagers so far, shaped my island the way I want it to be and raised it to five stars.

The game gives you a lot of goals to go for, but it in the end it's all about what you want to achieve, similar to games like Minecraft. But it's a lot more contained thanks to the real time mechanics, which makes it the better choice for me right now. One of my ongoing projects is to breed all possible flower variants from scratch, while I'm always busy with collecting and crafting all recipes, as well as cataloging all the things, ordering all insect and fish models, and completing all Nook Miles achievements.

But for me those activities are all just excuses to keep playing the game, which I enjoy a lot, where my island became a virtual second home to me and part of my daily routine. I wouldn't want to miss it, which is saying a lot from someone who couldn't have been bothered with the Animal Crossing series before. But the possibility of changing the landscape really sealed the deal, where it made this game so much more interesting to me personally. And with that in mind let's take a look at...

Dodolint Island

Don't expect anything too fancy, since I'm not someone who puts form over function. For me a lot of my island design went into making everything easily accessible and supporting my overall goals in the game. I also don't like to build things that have no real purpose, where I don't want to create scenery that looks great on Instagram, but is otherwise just in the way.

That being said, I do want to feel at home, so it's not radically optimized and I put in quite some effort to make everything cozy for myself. So, I was trying to find a good balance between gameplay and design. Frame rate is another deciding factor, where it can go down quite heavily with lots of flowers, wheat, and such. And I want to avoid that.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the map of my island, Dodolint, in its current state:

You can compare this to the map visible at the end of my post from one year ago to see how much has changed since the beginning. There is still a bit of my original island in there, but most of it has been terraformed. I've also uploaded my first Dream Island today, in case you want to check everything out yourself. Simply search for "Dodolint", it should be the only island with this name out there.

The island is split into two halves, where the west side is almost entirely on a plateau with my farm on it. My house is directly in front of plots for the nine different types of produce in this game, where you have a silo and a "stable" right next to the house as some decoration. This part is loosely inspired by the original Harvest Moon for the Super Nintendo and GameBoy Color, which I loved quite a bit back in the day and where Animal Crossing: New Horizons became my replacement for this type of game, especially after it has introduced more crops with the big 2.0 update. It's much more relaxed, of course, but this makes it all the better.

Harvesting all the crops fills about half an inventory for nearly 60.000 Bells. It's not that much, but more than enough in the long run if you keep selling regularly. Plus, I keep going for the money trees, which I plant next to the silo for some 30.000 pocket money at the start of each day. And by now I don't really need more money anyway, where I have over 42 million on the bank.

To the south of the crops you can find my flower breeding area with everything sorted into eight/nine colors in a tic-tac-toe pattern. I'm still missing a few flowers and the final boss will be the blue rose, but I'm patient.

To the north of my house is the "Fruit Forest" with enough trees of every foreign fruits for three stacks each. There are also some ponds there and an upper-level river area. The latter was one of the main reasons why I wanted my farm to be elevated over the rest of the island, because certain type of fish only appear there and not in the bottom-level river. As I said, a lot of my island was designed around gameplay goals.

Fishing as whole is a topic of its own, where the rare pier fish are simply ridiculous. I probably would have never found out about them if I didn't look things up in the wiki. Catching all the bugs and insects was more enjoyable, but there are also some crazy rare beetles in July and August, which felt like another final boss in this game. Though, there is this weird phenomenon where you won't find a certain rare creature for days, but then suddenly you will get two or three of them in a row... Which does help with getting all the models, where you need three in total.

Other than the many fruit trees, where I use the domestic apple trees for decoration in some places, there are exactly 22 hardwood and cedar trees on my island, so each time you shake one of these trees something will drop from them. The cedars are all placed in the campground mountain area to the north. And the hardwoods trees are all around the village on the east half of my island.

Speaking of, the village itself is split into two halves as well. There is a beach promenade in the south with four housings in a row. The service center and the shops are located above of them, where you have this little shopping mile at the center of my island. And the museum got its own temple-themed peninsula.

The northern half of the town is my version of Kakariko Village, based on A Link to the Past and partly A Link Between Worlds. It's not an accurate reconstruction and it's not supposed to be, so it doesn't have all the houses and some of the houses are in different locations. But I've tried to capture the look and feel of the original.

When I started playing New Horizons, I didn't want to recreate any video game environments at first, but I had the Zelda villagers from New Leaf in mind when I've designed this part of the island. So, I knew that I wanted this to be a Zelda-themed village – I even started calling it "Kakariko" before anything was built there. But I really liked using the hedges, where this was a very good fit for the classic Kakariko, so one thing led to another, and eventually I ended up with my own version of the town from A Link to the Past. That's a lot of Super Nintendo love on my island.

Sadly, the Zelda villagers, who were supposed to live here, haven't seen a return in New Horizons yet and probably never will. Which leads us to the next big topic...

Villager History

By now I've had a total of 17 villagers on my island, so there was a bit of coming and going. But since I try to collect lots of photos from everyone, I've kept most of them over a longer period of time. Four of my villagers are even still there from the very beginning. Here is a list with all replacements:

• Billy
• Fuchsia → Cranston
• Anabelle
• Pekoe → Ankha
• Deli → Julia
• Tex → Gayle → Henry
• Vic
• Eloise → Pashmina
  
• Drago → Mitzi
  
• Tipper
  

Billy and Fuchsia were my starter villagers. Deli, Tex, Vic, and Eloise were villagers who I've gotten randomly from new housings. And the rest were villagers that I have found on Nook Miles islands, where I simply liked their designs or whatever. The only exception to this is Henry, who came to my island via the campsite. During that time I didn't have a smug villager on my island and I also liked the idea of getting a frog, so I let him move in. There was some fun to be had here, where at one point I got him to ask for an actual frog as a pet and I also gave him a frog outfit... I just couldn't help it with his smug smile.

Later I came up with the requirement that I should always have all eight personality types present on my islands, because things can get quite repetitive if I don't. So, I would only let villagers go if their personality existed a second time on my island and if I already got multiple photos from them. Version 2.0 made the latter a lot easier, where they kept spamming you with their photos for a while. Nintendo fixed this later on, where you now have to wait at least ten days before they can give you their photo again. But that's still better than before, where it took 64 gifts to reset.

Billy is the villager who has stayed on my island the longest so far, where I have this hate / love relationship with the guy. He always refused to give me his photo, where I only got a couple, while every other long-staying villager gave me at least ten so far. But he's also one of the biggest joke characters with his jock personality, mainly because his hobby isn't fitness, but "play". He talks about doing sports, but he never does. You can usually spot him sitting somewhere, eating a donut. Meanwhile, you could see all my other villagers doing sports, except for him. He is all talk and no action, but I find this funny.

Out of all my original villagers, Vic is probably the one who grew the most on me. I just like the cranky personality in general and he's a viking bull, so what's not to like here? He also scored first place in a ranking where all the villagers were measured by their fighting ability. And that made him feel extra special to have, not going to lie. Saying good-bye to him will be by far the hardest...

But Vic lives at the "Cucco Den" in Kakariko, where in the end I want this to be Knox's house, the chicken knight. Sterling, the eagle knight, should then be his buddy and neighbor, who will then replace Billy as the jock, who happens to live right above Vic right now.

Everyone will be replaced eventually with the exception of Tipper, a cow who I had found on a Nook Miles Island early on. Her house and look was simply perfect for the milk bar in Kakariko, so I will probably keep her forever. Plus, she would have been the perfect neighbor for Epona.

Originally, I had Ankha in mind in her stead as my final snooty villager. I wanted her to live in the ancient themed peninsula at the southeast corner of my island, but this is where my museum then ended up, so I decided to remove her from my future island plans. But I've still found her via a Nook Miles Island back in June, so she is currently an inhabitant of Dodolint as well, but only temporarily. A guest of honor, so to speak.

 

Future Crossings

If Nintendo ever decides to bring back the four Zelda villagers (Wolf Link, Medli, Epona, and Ganon), I will use amiibo and amiibo cards to set up the final arrangement, which includes Knox, Sterling, Lucky, Coco, and Phoebe for the rest of the inhabitants.

Wolf Link, Medli, and Epona will live in Kakariko together with Sterling, Knox, and Tipper. Ganon is an outcast who will live next to his loyal, but unreliable Gibdo henchman, Lucky. Finally, Phoebe will cover the big sister personality, while Coco simply looks cool. I like the cranky and normal personalities the most, where I won't mind having two of them present in the end. Mitzi is actually one of my favorites right now, but I also want to get Lily at some point as a "girlfriend" for Henry. (She visited my island via the campsite one day and Henry was singing right in front of her tent, it was hilarious. But I couldn't invite her in at the time, because I just got Mitzi.)

Speaking of personalities, each one has a sub-type for different dialogues in the later friendship levels. I'm also trying to get some variety here, just to experience it all eventually. But I truly wish that the next game will mix things up a bit more and make the hobbies a bigger part of the personality. For example, instead of "jocks" there should be "competitive" villagers, where their hobby decides what they like to be competitive about. A competitive villager who likes to play may be obsessed with video games, while a competitive villager with the fitness hobby will be your traditional jock personality.

And something like the Zelda and Splatoon characters should have sets of completely original dialogues that you won't get from anyone else. Right now you really only have eight different characters with dozens of skins and one alternate set of dialogues, which can get boring after a while, because it's all just the same.

I would also like the next game to be less of a time waster. Yes, it's supposed to be laid-back, but this doesn't mean that the game should be unnecessarily slow and inconvenient whenever possible. The game loads your entire island just for the title screen, only to load it again right after, effectively doubling the loading times in the beginning. Proper bulk crafting and purchasing options would be nice to have. And the breaking tools can go to hell, where I'm saying this as someone who doesn't mind the breaking weapons in Breath of the Wild.

Anyway, that's it for now... I will keep playing and eventually I will share my progress a second time. However, if Nintendo never brings back the Zelda contents in New Horizons, because version 2.0 really was the last update (and not just the last "major update"), then there won't be much relevancy to this blog, I'm afraid... It's also quite disappointing, where the 2.0 update brought a lot of stuff back from previous installments, just not the things I wanted the most.

But I still have a little bit of hope left. Right now Nogami's development team is busy with Splatoon 3 anyway and maybe they will return to Animal Crossing: New Horizons afterwards to make some smaller updates, where they could start by re-introducing the Splatoon villagers as a promotion. The Zelda villagers could then follow with the sequel to Breath of the Wild (or The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD re-releases, where those would be a better fit).