While the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct was packed with free and paid content coming to the Nintendo Switch game soon, some series fans only had eyes for the Froggy Chair's return to Animal Crossing during the streamed presentation. The franchise community's love affair with the green, plastic furniture item began with its appearance in the original Animal Crossing for the GameCube and only grown in every entry since, making its absence in New Horizons pronounced.
After a long period of few free content updates for New Horizons, Nintendo announced a sudden flurry of features, mechanics, and an entire DLC expansion during the Brewster birthday stream. Coming to the Museum is Brewster's Café, a new location for visiting with online friends, villagers, and usually isolated NPCs, as well as the barista pigeon himself. This is arriving in Animal Crossing: New Horizons' final free update alongside a wealth of additions and quality-of-life changes, including farming, cooking, new storage expansions, and more. Releasing on the same day (November 5) will be the Happy Home Paradise DLC expansion, which will add even more content still in the form of an entire resort of designable homes and builds, in addition to some exclusive customization options. While the former update is free, Happy Home Paradise costs $25, but access is also included in the upcoming Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription.
Amid all the announcements, the return of the Froggy Chair was the main takeaway for some veteran Animal Crossing players during Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons Ver. 2.0 Update trailer. Rendered in the game's higher resolution and updated art style, the Froggy Chair made itself known while cheekily tucked away in a corner, and Twitter users ACPocketNews, UltimaShadowX, and WayOfTheQuay and many others spotted Nintendo's confirmation of the item's return and quickly expressed their elation.
Interestingly, series fan account stitches_fren was among a select, prophetic few to call the Froggy Chair's restoration ahead of the Animal Crossing Direct's broadcast, having shared a meme divining the fan response which came to pass after the Froggy Chair was teased.
The Froggy Chair looks a sight better in Animal Crossing: New Horizons than it did in its most recent New Leaf and Pocket Camp appearances, with its smooth vinyl appearing greener and more detailed than ever in its brief cameo. The fact that the Froggy Chair is apparently returning to the Nintendo Switch entry as part of its free content update rather than in Happy Home Paradise is also likely welcome news considering its long history and semi-recent attainment of meme status in the Animal Crossing community.
All in all, the Froggy chair's reappearance in New Horizons is a small piece in a massive content drop, but there's more to it than a classic piece of series furniture coming back. Oftentimes, Japan-based first-party developers like Nintendo EPD are slow to respond (if not altogether unresponsive) to global player feedback. The Froggy Chair's meme identity online and players' expression of sadness at its absence from the latest game at release hints at the publisher paying closer attention to its games' playerbases than in previous years. In that light, the return of Animal Crossing's legendary Froggy Chair could be quite meaningful for New Horizons' and other Nintendo games' futures.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for Nintendo Switch.