Since Animal Crossing: New Horizons' release, many users have imagined wonderful creations for other players to visit and explore. But trends change regularly in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and now it seems the current trend is to make an island look as run down as possible.
In the subsequent months following the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, numerous users have created many different creations and projects in the form of custom clothing, items, and island towns. In fact, during the game's infancy, one talented user managed to recreate the picturesque town of Onett from Earthbound. Since that time, the game has gone through various trends and memes. Though, this current one is rather strange, at least comparatively.
Right now, some Animal Crossing players have taken on this challenge and are making their islands look much rugged and worse-for-wear than one would typically expect from Animal Crossing: New Horizons islands. One might think that this is due to Halloween being right around the corner. Therefore, some players might be looking to outfit their island with a spooky and foreboding aesthetic. However, next to none of these islands have utilized any of the assets that came included with the recent Animal Crossing: New Horizons Halloween update.
For example, Twitter user YoFriendo has created a desert themed island with shabby market places made out of scrap metal. In the screenshots included in their tweet, there's no villagers, no Nook's Cranny, nothing to indicate that this is still an Animal Crossing island. If anything, the island looks like something straight out of Mad Max.
Another user, forbiddenforest, created a cyberpunk themed island with an incredibly industrial aesthetic. The design is very reminiscent of movies like Blade Runner. Cement paved roads, trash littered everywhere, broken windows; none of this is expected from a game that's as cute and inoffensive as Animal Crossing.
In any case, these two are only the tip of the iceberg. Many others have begun to create islands with similar aesthetics and it honestly is impressive work. Honestly, these islands are a testament to the variety and freedom of choice Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides players in terms of how they choose to approach the game. One player even managed to recreate Silent Hill in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, further adding to the dark, run down aesthetic some players have started to apply to their islands.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.