It’s the year 2026, nearly six years after the debut of Animal Crossing: New Horizons – a life-changing game for us stuck in the house at the time. Now, it’s got a big 3.0 update and a shiny Nintendo Switch 2 version to bring it up to speed.
Similar to the Welcome Amiibo update coming to Animal Crossing: New Leaf three years after its release on the 3DS, the 3.0 (sorry, there’s no fun name for it) update has brought us all running back and revitalized our island with some new commerce options and plenty of tourists to cater to.
The biggest draw of the update is the fancy new hotel, run by Kapp’n’s family, Leilani, Laila, and Grams. They’re back in the series after a hiatus, but finally, we can say hello once more, before helping them out by decorating all eight rooms of the hotel, and even finding lost guests to check in that roam the island.
The addition of extra villagers wandering the island makes it feel much more alive – considering we have two shops and a museum, and I’ve made an outdoor market and concert space-turned-funfair, it felt odd having just a handful of animals sometimes wandering around. Now, there’s usually one or two souls actually looking at what I’ve built. I do sympathize with those who have a themed village and have, for lack of a better word, ugly villagers now invading their pastel-themed plots.
It’s not all about tourism, though. Hopping into bed for a snooze allows you to access the new Slumber Village that Luna lets you set up. After seeing people go wild on TikTok making any number of cool new locations, I got as far as making one, running around, putting two villagers down… and then decision paralysis took hold, and I couldn’t figure out where to start or what to do. I will make a nice area, but I’ll be darned if I know how to begin. Maybe I’ll make a lizard-filled island and pretend it’s Jurassic Park.
Something that could help me out is the new Animal Crossing Zelda and Splatoon-themed items. Now, you do need an amiibo or two to unlock these (and the associated villagers), but chances are a lot of us have them hanging around. Granted, I’m a huge Splatoon and specifically Breath of the Wild fan anyway, but the items included in the 3.0 update are cool and good quality. I immediately invited Tulin to live in my village, even if his jock personality goes against most of my cozy, slow-life decor.
The new items include a decayed guardian – which still comes to life – a customizable goddess statue, and the Master Sword itself. I think I prefer the Splatoon collection, even if that also doesn’t match my cozy island theme. The clothing replicas of key Splatoon 3 items are funky fresh, and the Crab Tank is bloody cool. There’s now one outside Nook’s Cranny as a sort of ‘star product’… or shoplifting deterrent; you decide.
One item that I won’t be using, sadly, is the megaphone. Sure, it’s a nostalgic addition from the New Leaf days, but I never used it in the 3DS game due to crippling anxiety given by shouting a villager’s name while alone in my room and bad memories of my Nintendogs not hearing me or learning commands. I’ve seen plenty of posts showing how badly this thing works, too, so it shall stay on the shelf in the shop.
There’s also the range of vintage game consoles available now – allegedly, anyway, as I’ve yet to work out how to get them. Though while F-Zero and Dr. Mario are cool, I just want the minigames back from New Leaf. I’d give many a bell to play Desert Island Escape again, especially since we now inhabit a literal island.
Let’s look at the other side of this double whammy of upgrades, shall we? Alongside the 3.0 update, we got an official Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. For a mere $4.99, you can upgrade your game to get smooth new 2026 graphics and shorter loading times. This does make a difference, as loading up the game on an original Switch took a while.
The game does stay at 30fps, but performance is much better. Granted, my island is rather busy, but it started almost lagging on my original Switch. It wasn’t choppy, but it got noticeably slower. With the Nintendo Switch 2 update, this no longer happens, so I’m free to run through my giant farm at my own pace.
Mouse controls also make an appearance here. It’s nice to see they’re included, and will make designing intricate posters and t-shirts much easier, but I don’t use it for decorating rooms due to the original controls being ingrained into me after nearly six years.
While I doubt I’ll spend another 900 hours in New Horizons – that was thanks to a combination of the game’s release during the week of the first COVID lockdown, furlough from a retail job, and Nookazon popping off – this has inspired me to update my island with a dig site by the museum, decorating the pier and beach around the museum, and add more activities for the visitors to ignore.
I think I’d rather have paid for the update rather than the Switch 2 upgrade, but either way, here we are in the year 2026 with a swathe of new content to revitalize one of my all-time favorite games. Perhaps I’ll see you soon while trading furniture or hopping through themed Slumber Islands.