Retro Nintendo Games Are Returning To Animal Crossing (Sort Of)

You have undoubtedly noticed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is poised to receive another significant update early next year, along with a Switch 2 Edition featuring the anticipated improvements (Mouse Mode, hooray). Yet amidst all the Bells and whistles revealed, you might have overlooked the announcement that classic Nintendo games are also making a comeback in the series. Hooray!

Indeed, you’ll once again be able to enjoy 8-bit and higher-bit classics in Animal Crossing, just as you could in the original title back on GameCube! However, there are certain stipulations.

As per the announcement, there will be a new resort hotel introduced on the pier in the 3.0 update where you can assist, and by boosting its “island brand recognition,” a souvenir shop will begin to stock fresh items. On one of the tabs labeled ‘Special,’ a variety of retro Nintendo devices will be available, including the Ultra Hand, the Love Tester, and an array of charming Nintendo consoles. Yaaaaas.

Purchasing these with the new currency allows you to place them in your room as you would expect. However, if you maintain an active NSO subscription, you can access “a select classic game on each system.” Ice Climber, Clu Clu Land, and Dr. Mario (for the Game Boy) are featured in the clip.

The showcased consoles comprise a Switch 2, Famicom, NES, Famicom Disk System, Game Boy, Super Famicom, and a US SNES, so it appears we’ll be covering at least 16-bit this time!

For those who missed it, the first Animal Crossing featured a variety of NES games, such as Donkey Kong and Excitebike, that players could obtain and actually experience in the game long before Virtual Console arrived, making retro titles on your prevailing Nintendo system commonplace.

Thus, retro games are back in AC! However, only one per system, and likely not the classics you were wishing for.

Of course, there’s no need to be disheartened since all the games are available in a more straightforward manner via NSO itself. Nonetheless, we somewhat hope Nintendo might choose to let you enjoy all the games in the NSO library through this Animal Crossing framework. Pointless? Certainly. But delightful? Absolutely.

In other news, an array of exciting collaborations with other Nintendo games will see Zelda and Splatoon items appearing in New Horizons.

Do you think they might include N64, the forthcoming Virtual Boy, or GameCube as well? Is there a scenario (bear with me here) where we could engage with the original GC Animal Crossing NES games within the original GC Animal Crossing in this Animal Crossing?

Whoa. Let us know which games you think they will make available for the other systems below.