Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Bunny Day event is nothing new for the franchise, as the event has come around every Easter Sunday for both Animal Crossing: City Folk and Animal Crossing: New Leaf since 2005, but the Bunny Day event in the newest Animal Crossing game has a major change that may spell big things for future seasonal events in the game, that being that the event will go on from the first of April all the way until Easter Sunday on the 12th, something that has never happened before for Animal Crossing. Could this become a pattern for future seasonal events in the new Switch game?
For those unaware, Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched its incarnation of the Bunny Day event yesterday, on April 1st. This is rather unprecedented since Bunny Day has always been a one day event taking place on Easter Sunday, and while the actual Bunny Day still does take place on April 12th, the event has an almost two week lead up period beforehand. The familiar themes of egg hunts and the humorous mascot, Zipper all make a return in New Horizons, but this change could have an impact on the rest of the game's seasonal holidays.
Events in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Traditionally, Animal Crossing events only last one day (with a few exceptions), which admittedly is pretty strange compared to how other games tend to handle their seasonal events. Given that Bunny Day is the first seasonal event in Animal Crossing: New Horizons since launch, it can't be said for certain whether longer event times will become a pattern moving forward, but it would certainly be a welcome change, as players often find themselves short on time when trying to complete the day long events
Extending the run time of seasonal events such as these not only alleviates that problem but also allows developers to make more nuanced and enjoyable events. One can only fit so much in a day, and the way that these events line up with actual holidays during which people want to be spending time with their families exacerbates the problem. The other benefit of extending these events is that it removes the need for players to set their system clock to try and gain access to events, a practice which was used commonly despite Mr. Ressetti's complaints in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Seasonal Events Moving Forward
There are of course many other seasonal events which fans should expect to see throughout Animal Crossing: New Horizons' first year, most notably, Halloween, Naughty or Nice Day, and New Year's Eve, all of which may be positively affected by this change. Could Halloween's event last the entirety of October? Perhaps Naughty or Nice Day will also feature a 12 day build up to represent the 12 days of Christmas. Animal Crossing's New Year event is one of the few exceptions that actually lasts multiple days, since it occurs on December 31st as well as January 1st, but it is possible that this event will be extended forward to last into January.
Overall, these changes are more than welcome, as more time to enjoy the festive and creative events in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is always welcome. Fans should cross their fingers that this pattern holds true during the next event, and if it does it is more than likely going to be the new normal for not just Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but the Animal Crossing franchise as a whole moving forward. Until the next event though, players should simply enjoy the 12 days of Bunny Day festivities happening now.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch.