The Animal Crossing series began 20 years ago and has since produced five versions of the main game, and a handful of spin-offs as well. The most recent iteration is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is an island-based life simulation game. New Horizons recently received two huge item crossovers in the form of Mario items, and Sanrio amiibo cards. This seems to be a trend for Nintendo, so what other crossovers have the Animal Crossing games seen through the years?
Nintendo has been putting references to their other games in Animal Crossing since the original. In Dobutso no Mori (the very first game in the series, released only in Japan) when players inspected a cabinet they would sometimes be greeted with the message "You found 100 Rupees! But you can't use them here." This, and other references to the Zelda games were still kept when the enhanced version was translated and released internationally. The tradition still continues, as players can find Zelda items in other Animal Crossing games as well.
In all of the mainline Animal Crossing games, Mario items can be found. Though depending on the game, the way in which they are obtained changes. For example, in Animal Crossing: City Folk they only appear in game via the floating presents that players can shoot down with the slingshot tool. The Mario items in Animal Crossing are unique from others in-game, as they keep their 8-bit styles and shading. These retro items come with their own lighting mechanics and do not respond to the lighting in the room like other items.
Animal Crossing's Biggest Crossovers Explained
The Hello Kitty collection of items first appeared in Animal Crossing: New Leaf as part of the Welcome amiibo update, in which players could purchase amiibo and use them to summon villagers and other characters to their town. The player would talk to Wisp, a ghost friend that would magically turn into whichever character's amiibo was tapped on the 3DS. The character would then show up in their own RV and players could either invite them to live in their town, or get items from them that were themed after that villager. The Hello Kitty items were available only through Rilla's RV, who is a gorilla-villager sporting the signature Hello Kitty red bow.
The Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo update gave players access to a whole new set of characters that were not in previous Animal Crossing games. Because amiibo figures are a supported feature for many Nintendo games now, there are several instances of amiibo being designed for one game, but working with others. This includes amiibo that are designed for Super Smash Bros, being compatible with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. This gave players the option to summon villagers that were designed after Splatoon characters and even Zelda-themed villagers.
Other more subtle cameos include Louie, a gorilla-villager who resembles Donkey Kong and wears a shirt referencing Luigi, as well as a few dialogue options with NPCs. The most notable of these is Gulliver, who has a few references to other games when players speak to him. One dialogue option with Gulliver in Animal Crossing: Wild World involves him asking the player if they have seen a space fox or a bounty hunter that can roll into a ball, which are references to Star Fox and Samus of Metroid. Animal Crossing has had some truly memorable crossovers through the years, and it will be interested to see what new ones may happen next.