For many players,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis a cozy way to escape the harsh realities of the world and design a dream home within a community of friendly animals. While the series is known for its cute, family-friendly appeal, Nintendo’s popular life sim has a history of incorporating darker elements hidden beneath its charming exterior. Once players start digging, they’ll realize the metaphorical rabbit hole for dark secrets inAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsand the series as a whole runs much deeper than one might expect.
Thanks to the creativity afforded by recent entries in the series, there is a subset of players who like to design their islands inAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsbased on horror moviesand other creepy stories, but these are purely fan creations intended to be shared via Dream addresses. The real meat of the dark side ofAnimal Crossingcomes from elements designed and implemented by Nintendo themselves. Although a lot of these secrets are fan speculation, they still imply some pretty sinister scenarios based on context provided directly by the games.
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Gyroids Might Contain the Souls of Deceased Villagers
Although they were added later in a post-release update toAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, Gyroids have been a series staple since the original title on the GameCube. While these strange, musical statues may seem like fun little treasures for players to dig up and collect, they could actually have a much more harrowing origin. Gyroids are based on Haniwa figures, ancient Japanese relics thought to be created as vessels to house the souls of the departed. As such, the existence ofGyroids in theAnimal Crossinguniversecould imply that the sounds they make are really the sounds of trapped souls desperate to escape.
The Animal Crossing Economy is Based on Child Labor
WhileAnimal Crossing’s Tom Nook is infamous as a loan-sharking tanuki whom players spend the game indebted to, his greed may be even more awful than originally meets the eye. He forces his nephews Timmy and Tommy to shoulder the weight of running an entire store as children in bothAnimal Crossing: New LeafandAnimal Crossing: New Horizonswhile Nook gets to sit back and reap the profits. TheStalk Market, another major pillar of theAnimal Crossingeconomy, is also run by the child Daisy Mae inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, further adding to the ring of child labor present in the series.
Animal Crossing Might Be Segregating Humans and Animals
On the surface, theAnimal Crossingseries is about building an idyllic life among animal villagers in a quaint little settlement. However, a small detail in theoriginalAnimal Crossingimplies that the player character is actually an unusual outlier among the general human population. A letter players can receive from their mother in that game suggests that the player has chosen to live with animals instead of humans, even asking the player whether they smell. This implies that humans and animals are segregated in theAnimal Crossingworld, despite being of equal sentience, and that prejudice between humans and animals is commonplace.
Aliens Have Been Watching the World of Animal Crossing
Unless they’ve been dealing with a bout of insomnia-inducedAnimal Crossingaddiction, it’s unlikely that most players will be pulling an all-nighter in the game. However, for those who do manage to stay up past 3 AM, a spooky surprise is in store if they check their in-game TV at precisely 3:33 AM. For one minute at exactly this time, the TV broadcast will be interrupted by what appears to be a gray alien. This creepyAnimal Crossingeaster eggconfirms the presence of aliens in the game’s world and even implies the unsettling idea that they’ve been watching the inhabitants of the planet for some time.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis available now for Nintendo Switch.
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