While Animal Crossing: New Horizons recently passed its third anniversary in March, the title continues to trend among the most popular social simulation games. The long-running franchise has seen massive success since the release of the first Animal Crossing on Nintendo 64 in 2001 and is still going strong. Unfortunately, the next Animal Crossing game has not yet been confirmed, but when it does debut Nintendo could address one of the biggest mysteries of the franchise.
The next Animal Crossing will likely see a whole new generation of players alongside its long-standing community. If the rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 are true, Nintendo could be waiting on the console's release before it announces another Animal Crossing game. The franchise is well-known for its vibrant atmosphere and adorable animals, though certain mechanics in the game make the existence of some of these villagers quite confusing.
The Unaddressed Mystery in Animal Crossing
Since the series began, fans have noticed that there are many things in Animal Crossing that don't make sense. For example, there is only one human in the entire game, unless you go to a friend's island or have a co-op island, whereas everyone else is an animal. This concept is never really explained, but some have theorized that the players might be part of the last remaining humans in the world.
While that is already confusing in its own right, Animal Crossing also allows players to have a rare Animal Crossing villager, a hamster, along with a decorative hamster. Typically, users can buy the hamster cage from Nooks Cranny for around 870 bells, but it's also a furniture item in the hamster villager Flurry's house. The existence of both a pet hamster for villagers alongside an actual small hamster within the cage has been a cause for confusion for some.
On top of this, fishing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes with its own similar questions. For years, players have asked why they can catch an octopus in the ocean while also having octopus villagers such as Marina, Octavian, and Zucker. Players can even display an octopus in their homes on the fish-drying rack which could have rather dark implications. The issue of sentience in some creatures and not others is truly bewildering. Is it okay to give a frog from the river to a frog villager or will this secretly terrify them?
If that wasn't enough puzzling information, insects in the Animal Crossing universe appear to be just insects, though Nintendo has not explained why that is. There's a large roster of bugs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons but it doesn't appear that any of them have personalities or greater intelligence. Some have made the hypothesis that sentient animal Villagers evolved from what used to be normal animals, with one Reddit user u/Prestigious_Cold_756 writing that in the museum's fossil section "there's this 'path of evolution' on the ground that connects all fossils" wherein if the player follows this path they will find a "glass wall that depicts silhouettes of some of the villager's species, with the final spot being empty..."
If the evolution theory is correct, perhaps the next Animal Crossing title could detail the process more clearly in order to put players at ease. If this is never explained, it could be that users are doomed to feel forever uncomfortable about eating a cooked Turkey Day meal while standing in front of Franklin, who appears to be a turkey as well. Regardless, even if Nintendo does not clear up one of the biggest mysteries in the game, fans are still likely to flock to the next installment with the same enthusiasm as always.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.
