Nintendo has revealed their latest collaboration with Lego is Animal Crossing.
Nintendo of America has uploaded an 11 second teaser trailer on their Twitter. The trailer shows minifigures of Isabelle, Tom Nook, Kapp’n, Marshall, Rosie, Bunnie, Fauna, and Julian. They look to be surrounded by a forest with fake plastic trees and flowers, and they are designed with typical Lego minifigure proportions.
As a franchise, Animal Crossing started all the way back in 2001. While the game was considered a certified classic and a major influence to other life simulation games, it became a far more important title within the last few years of the pandemic.
Because of the unprecedented success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Switch, Animal Crossing is now considered one of the pillars of Nintendo’s tentpole games. Other pillar franchises include Mario, Zelda, and Splatoon, so Animal Crossing joins some prestigious company indeed.
Lego Super Mario is Lego’s most successful recent license toy set, and also its most ambitious. Mario, Bowser, Peach, and others are fitted with multiple technologies, including Bluetooth, LED displays, and scanner technology. With these, the Mario figures can interact with their Lego playsets, shouting and screaming appropriately to each item element that corresponds to an in-game element.
We don’t know if or what gimmick Lego added to their Animal Crossing playset, but given the serious investment Lego has made with Nintendo, it may be something equally astounding.
Nintendo has previously made their own toyline for Animal Crossing, with the 16 wave set of Animal Crossing amiibo figures. Unfortunately, the market bottomed out for the release of these amiibo, as they were sold to be used with the notorious Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. These minifigure amiibo, as well as the Animal Crossing card amiibo, remain relevant, as Nintendo has made them compatible with the latest game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
But now, Nintendo is looking for new markets to reach out with this property. This new toy set collaboration with Lego is a good way to find those new markets and new fans.
Lego Animal Crossing may not get around to making minifigures of every character in the series, but they may prove to be a new way for fans to play Animal Crossing. Whatever plans Nintendo and Lego have in mind, they certainly are looking to go beyond what the Animal Crossing amiibo were able to do, perhaps as a way to get non-gamers introduced and interested to the franchise.
