#animal-crossing

#animal-crossing

While New Horizons' next major update, which brings the life sim game to version 3.0, was originally slated to launch on January 15th, it's now available to download. To be clear, this is not the paid Switch 2 upgrade for the game, which adds features like 4K visuals, 12 player online sessions, and mouse controls using the Switch 2's new Joy-Con controllers.

There has been a demo renaissance in the last few years, and we couldn't be happier. Demos have been a part of video game history for a long time, but whether or not they've been good for sales has been up in the air for quite some time. Fortunately, in the last couple weeks we've gotten a Dragon Quest 7: Reimagined and Final Fantasy 7 demo for Switch 2.

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons modification, uploaded to the site GameBanana on Saturday (4 January), gives the cartoon Shih Tzu larger breasts and buttocks as well as a thinner waist. Activist and author Parker Molloy highlighted the fan-made addon in a seemingly bewildered post on BlueSky, asking: "Why, though?" Her post received such significant backlash, including a flurry of transphobic death threats, that Molloy not only deleted the post, but her entire Bluesky account.

Anime Village Online will allegedly feature cross-platform multiplayer and arrive sometime in 2027. Who's making it? The developer is listed as Wisnu Sudirman. According to a LinkedIn page bearing the same name, that person is a recent graduate who lives in Indonesia. Anime Village Online isn't their only hustle either. They're also apparently making a game called Rooted: Survival, with store page art that makes it look like an AI-generated rip-off of The Last of Us.

The cute animal villagers largely enjoy a blissful experience, but a new AI hack has the town feeling that Tom Nook--the raccoon who basically controls the local economy based on bells as currency--is a tyrant who needs to go down. Software engineer Josh Fonseca created this Animal Crossing hack (via Ars Technica), and he explained at length how he pulled it off in the accompanying YouTube video.

But discovering the addresses was only half the problem. When you talk to a villager in Animal Crossing, the game normally displays dialogue instantly. Calling an AI model over the Internet takes several seconds. Willison examined the code and found Fonseca's solution: a watch_dialogue() function that polls memory 10 times per second. When it detects a conversation starting, it immediately writes placeholder text: three dots with hidden pause commands between them, followed by a "Press A to continue" prompt.

It's officially Animal Crocsing season, as the Crocs x Animal Crossing collection is now live and ready to order. Like its other collaborations, Crocs has taken the essence of the Animal Crossing games and applied them to its signature clogs, resulting in a colorful pair of shoes. If you'd like to grab a pair, Crocs is offering its Animal Crossing clogs in both adult women and kids sizes, with pricing varying between the two--$55 for kids, $85 for adults.

Amazon is offering a significant discount on the K.K.'s Concert at the Plaza Lego set, bringing the price down to $34.81 from its original retail of $80, saving buyers over $45. This makes it the only kit currently available at such a substantial discount in the Animal Crossing lineup. With just a limited time for this price drop, it’s a captivating offer for both Lego and Animal Crossing fans.

To participate in the May Day event in Animal Crossing, talk to Tom Nook at Resident Services for a May Day Ticket and then find the maze.