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VG247 - 2026-04-14 10:15:30 - Sherif Saed

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a new item to celebrate 25 years of the series

 

New-Old Leaf

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a new item to celebrate 25 years of the series

The allegedly finished game might finally, truly be feature complete with the addition of an anniversary item.

image Image credit: Nintendo image News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor
Published on April 14, 2026

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has received a surprise patch today to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the life sim series. The update, version 3.0.2, is available across the Switch and Switch 2 versions of the game.

The patch brings a single new addition to New Horizons - a leaf item. Everyone gets it, too, so you don’t have to do anything special to acquire it.

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After installing the patch, simply head to your in-house mailbox to claim it. The mail includes a hearty message to fans who supported the series for years, featuring an appropriate Nintendo N64 stamp.

The Leaf Statue, as it’s referred to in-game, lights up when placed.

image Image credit: Nintendo

April 14, 2011 marks the release of the original, lesser-known version of Animal Crossing in Japan. The game was initially released as Animal Forest (Dobutsu no Mori) on the Nintendo N64, before later making its way to the Nintendo GameCube in December of the same year as Dobutsu no Mori+ with some extra features.

That same, original design of the package is also available for display in your game. The rest of the patch notes are entirely about various bug fixes, so not much more there. You can see the full change log on Nintendo’s support website.

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