Ever since the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 update released, a large chunk of the playerbase have become obsessed with the addition of Gyroids. The strange little creatures are a part of many players' islands now, with some dedicating entire rooms to displaying them.
Gyroids are a collectible introduced in the 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are many variants of Gyroids, and the singing ones are quickly becoming a favorite of the playerbase.
A video post on the Animal Crossing subreddit shows an entire room full of the newly-added Gyroids, all of them synchronized in song and dance. In the video, the multicolored creatures surround the player in the center of the room. The room itself is devoid of any furniture except for shelves on the back wall to hold even more Gyroids.
The 2.0 update added massive amounts of new content besides Gyroids, but for some the additions are proving to be too much; the Animal Crossing mechanic of guilting the player into coming back daily combined with the large amount of new content to explore could be difficult for some players to deal with. The guilt mechanic is iconic of the series, but perhaps leveraging the player's relationship with the fictional characters to cause a very real feeling of abscense is a somewhat manipulative way to go about player retention. At least the Gyroids tend to be much simpler than the game's other NPCs, acting more as an item than as a character.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Happy Home Paradise DLC brings even more exciting changes to the game, with the ability to customize interior design and have careful control over house layouts. The quality DLC is Nintendo's saving grace in a month of backlash against poor Nintendo 64 emulation offerings with its Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass. Nintendo's game output over the lifespan of the Switch has been excellent, but beyond major releases, the console can be troublesome for players looking to play retro games or reliably use online functions.
From connecting people during a global pandemic to widespread memes about a frog-shaped chair, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become an inescapable part of gaming culture within the past two years. New updates keep players coming back, and the DLC indicates Nintendo is far from done with the game. Perhaps even more Gyroids will be added in the future to rekindle player obsession with the collectible fire hydrant-shaped creatures.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch.