Bunny Day was the first holiday event celebrated in Animal Crossing: New Horizons last year. Animal Crossing has always been known for its holidays, and most of the events in New Horizons have been charming. Typically, seasonal events involve collecting a new form of material and crafting holiday or seasonal-themed items for your island, offering a prime opportunity to redecorate and keep things fresh.
Festivities are usually also accompanied by a real-time event in-game, where players can interact with a seasonal NPC character. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is seriously lacking in the permanent NPC department, so new faces are normally welcome and appreciated. There's always something to look forward to in New Horizons.
Seasonal and holiday events on Animal Crossing are normally met with a positive reception, but that wasn't the case for last year's Bunny Day celebration. Bunny Day has now become infamous among Animal Crossing fans, who have remained apprehensive about the upcoming holiday. Thankfully, however, Nintendo listened to fans' concerns and made some important changes to the Bunny Day celebrations. This year, it should be much more enjoyable.
Last Year's Bunny Day was Too Long and Zipper Never Left
There are three main reasons why fans didn't respond well to last year's Bunny Day: the length, the NPC, and the eggs. Bunny Day was twelve days long last year, significantly longer than most holiday events. Because Animal Crossing moves in real-time, twelve days is a very long time for players. Unless they time travel by changing the date and time settings on their Switch, there's no way to skip ahead or escape the never-ending festivities. However, the length wouldn't have been a big deal if not for other issues.
Most Animal Crossing celebrations warrant a visit from a new NPC, ranging from Jack the Jack-o-lantern to Pave, the dancing peacock that visited for Festivale. As one might expect, Bunny Day also has a designated NPC: Zipper the rabbit. Zipper is a yellow rabbit who's cute enough, but there's something noticeably off about him.
Zipper was introduced in Animal Crossing: City Folk, so he's not new to the franchise. The biggest reason why fans think Zipper is creepy is because of the literal zipper on the back of his outfit- looking at it will cause Zipper to get defensive. This heavily implies that Zipper is someone in a bunny costume, whose identity remains unknown.
Last year, Zipper was on the island for twelve consecutive days. Even a slightly creepy NPC can be fun for one day, but twelve starts to get into overkill territory. Players felt like Zipper overstayed his welcome on their islands and were all too happy to see him leave when Bunny Day festivities had concluded.
Bunny Day's Eggs Inhibited Player Progress
The final (and most important) reason why fans didn't like Bunny Day is that there were just too many eggs. Bunny Day introduced six different types of eggs that can be obtained by completing ordinary tasks on the island, such as chopping wood or shaking trees. Collecting the different eggs enables players to craft special Bunny Day-themed items.
The problem was, these eggs were everywhere. They were abundant to the point of inhibiting players' progress on their actual island, which is a big deal. The game revolves around obtaining materials to craft items, improving the island's appearance by landscaping, and collecting fossils and fish to donate to the island museum. Not being able to do these things is incredibly limiting, and that's exactly what happened last Bunny Day. It felt like every single fish, tree, stone, and balloon ended up being an egg.
Also keep in mind that Bunny Day happened last year when most people had recently purchased the game. Players who've built up a 5-star island, have everything they need, and have expanded storage to store surplus materials wouldn't be as affected by the number of eggs, but most players were new at this time. As a result, managing egg inventory became extremely difficult and new Animal Crossing fans were held back for the duration of the event.
What's Different About Bunny Day This Year
Thankfully, Nintendo has made some small, but impactful changes to Bunny Day this year. Bunny Day hasn't gone away, and neither has the questionable NPC, but it's much more relaxed this year. Now, the Bunny Day celebration only lasts about a week and will conclude on April 4, which means that fans who still don't like Bunny Day won't have to experience it much longer.
Zipper is also much less invasive this year. Instead of being on the island every day, Zipper appeared on the first day eggs became available to explain the event, and he won't appear again until the last day. On April 4, he will be available to pass out DIY recipes and exchange eggs, but players don't have to worry about hosting the yellow rabbit 24/7. There's still something off about him, but that's part of what makes him such a memorable seasonal NPC, and Nintendo doesn't need to alter his appearance or personality.
Finally, Nintendo fixed the egg issue by drastically reducing the egg spawn rate. Like most seasonal materials, they can be easily obtained if fans are willing to invest a little bit of time, but players are still able to go about their day-to-day tasks. Fossils and fish can still be found, and not every rock and tree will have eggs.
The egg collecting in New Horizons is still imperfect, with many recipes requiring the same amount of each type of egg even though some are much more common than others. It's still a huge improvement, however, and the eggs can always be stored for next year.
With these changes, players are already enjoying Bunny Day more, and it seems to fall more in line with the types of events fans have come to expect from New Horizons. Instead of being invasive and disruptive, it's a nice little addition. Fixing the major complaints about Bunny Day made the holiday much better, and while some players might still have bad memories from last year, they should consider giving it a second chance — although they probably still don't need any more eggs.
Nintendo also added five new Bunny Day items that players can purchase at Nook's Cranny: the Bunny Day Tree, Bunny Day Planter Box, Bunny Day Candy, Bunny Day Topiary, and the Bunny Day Garden Flag. These items cannot be crafted, but players with a fully upgraded Nook's Cranny will find them in the store's seasonal section.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.