Labor Day 2016

Today is Labor Day in the U.S., and Isabelle was at the event plaza to hand out picnic baskets for the occasion.

Isabelle: It's a picnic basket! Please take it in celebration of the nice, relaxing Labor Day!Here you can take a closer look at the picnic basket, as seen on my fireplace.

The picnic basket I got from Isabelle on Labor Day, as seen on my fireplace.That reminds me that I need to redecorate that sleek furniture room with a new theme. I have something in mind, but it probably won’t be done anytime soon.

Pashmina asked me to collect signatures for a petition called Mandatory Snack Time. I’ll never get re-elected mayor if I come out as anti-snacks, so I knew I had to help the cause!

Pashmina: Oh! I need to run something by you. I'm collecting signatures for the Mandatory Snack Time issue!
Relax, there won’t be a tax on snacks.

And at the top of the waterfall, I found a lost book.

A lost book on the ground near my brick bridge at the top of the waterfall.I went around asking my villagers about the lost item. I couldn’t find Molly or Bob, but I asked everyone else. Or at least I thought I did.

Later on, Beth opened up her gate so that I could collect signatures in her town. I forgot to take a picture of the completed petition, but her animals were quite helpful and they eagerly joined the cause.

When I was done, I opened my gate for Beth to get a picnic basket from Isabelle. We also posed at the Labor Day face-cutout standee.

Beth and Jeff angrily pose in face-cutout standee for Labor Day.I tried displaying a dorado I caught in the river earlier, and it poked through the faceboard somehow. Maybe I can stand here and cook it.

I show off my dorado, which pokes through the Labor Day face-cutout standee.I returned the completed petition to Pashmina, and she thanked me by giving me a rococo chair.

Pashmina: People really got behind the ol' Mandatory Snack Time issue!Then, I knew I had to track down Bob and Molly to return the lost book. I figured they must be on Main Street, and indeed they were. Molly was in the Emporium, but the book wasn’t hers. So I searched the museum for Bob, and eventually I found him in the art gallery. Surprisingly, the item wasn’t his either!

So that meant I must have missed someone! I had to start all over, asking everyone. Beth helped me track down my villagers. Big Top? Not his. Still not Pashmina’s. Still not Hamlet’s. Or Julian’s, Aurora’s, Rolf’s, or Daisy’s. The only one left this time was Agent S. And thankfully, it was hers. At last.

Agent S: Hey! I've been looking everywhere for my book!
And I’ve been looking everywhere for you!

She rewarded me with a dapper tee. 😮 Seriously? I had to ask 17 villagers for this, and all I got was a lousy t-shirt? I need to stop picking these things up. It’s just not worth it. Even though it’s not usually this difficult to find the owner.

Anyway, I hope you all had a nice day. Just as a reminder, Friday Night Forest is this week! I’ll be bringing back something I used to do in ACCF, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise for my guests until they arrive. But it’s not a race and it does not involve pitfall seeds. No more hints now. 🙂

Luna told me that Lily from Verona recently visited my dream town. Thanks for stopping by! See you next time!

Down With Gulliver

As I was working a shift at the Roost, a pig named Kevin came in for coffee. I was wondering why a pig would be named Kevin, and then it hit me. Kevin Bacon!

Kevin: All right! Let me take a little slip...I’ve been ordering a few items for next week’s Friday Night Forest, and I was starting to run out of storage space for them. But then I realized, I had some gold roses in there. So I moved them down to my beach, where they’ll be safe, and out of the way.

I noticed Gulliver on the ground while I was there. Since I had an extra pitfall seed on me, I buried myself close to him. I don’t know why, I just thought it would make an interesting picture.

Struggling in a pitfall on the beach, next to an unconscious Gulliver.Beth made a short visit to town so that I could drop an item off at her other town of Arrested. While there, I helped pull some weeds and dig up some buried fossils before she kicked me out.

Later on, in Forest, I headed up to Club LOL to catch some live music. K.K. played K.K. Country for me and my old buddy Kidd. But Kidd seemed more interested in looking at me! At least at first.

Kidd stares at me as K.K. performs at Club LOL.I returned to the beach to wake up Gulliver, and he told me he was headed to an island that was known for giant heads carved out of rocks. That is Easter Island, and Gulliver will be sending me a Moai statue from there tomorrow.

Gulliver: This place is an island! Yup, an island in the middle of the ocean, which is where I'd put an island!And in my central park, I found Pashmina resting on my town’s metal bench. I let her sleep, just to be nice for a change.

Pashmina sleeps on a metal bench.

My most recent dream visitor was James from Pineton. Thanks for stopping by!

Update: I apparently forgot to mention this, but my bank account balance has recently topped 80 million bells!

Mobile Homes, New Villagers Coming

Nintendo posted a new Nintendo Direct video this morning, and it had some new tidbits of Animal Crossing information. For one thing, Nintendo will be releasing 50 new Amiibo cards…all of which are villagers who were not previously in New Leaf! The examples shown are Hopkins the bunny, Ellie the elephant, and Boyd the gorilla. Scan their cards and you can enter their mobile homes!

Mobile homes in the New Leaf update coming autumn 2016.The mobile homes will be decorated with furniture that you can order, including some new items. In Hopkins’ mobile home, you can find some Nintendo store items (including a Game Boy TV) that we saw as DLC in Happy Home Designer. And of course, you’ll be able to ask these villagers to move into your town. The cards will be released on December 2nd.

Hopkins' mobile home (in the updated New Leaf version) includes a Game Boy and Nintendo items seen as DLC in Happy Home Designer.

Even though the update is free, Nintendo is also publishing a new version of the game that has the update pre-installed. It will be called Animal Crossing: New Leaf: Welcome Amiibo, and it will come with one free card from the new series. It will be released this holiday season.

There’s more to the update, but Nintendo isn’t spilling all of the beans just yet. They have a mini-Nintendo Direct video coming later this fall to discuss the update (and likely the Animal Crossing app) in more detail. The Japanese version of the Nintendo Direct is reportedly coming on November 2nd. It’s likely that America’s Direct will be around the same time.

My Thoughts

I’m really curious to see who the 50 new/returning villagers will be. I would really love to see Hank and Emerald return. They are two of my favorite villagers from the GameCube game that haven’t returned since. But there are other old villagers I’d like to see too, such as Chico (I used to dance to K.K. Faire in his house on GameCube) and Hornsby, who had the memorable catchphrase of schnozzle. So I can’t wait to see the full list.

The fact that they’re adding dozens of new characters, and other features we don’t even know about yet, indicates that it is going to be a significant update. And I have mixed feelings about that. Yes, I am looking forward to trying out what’s new. And it will likely re-ignite interest in the 3+ year old game.

But if they’re putting all this effort into an update, it’s looking even less likely that a new Animal Crossing is coming anytime soon. As cool as the update will be, I’d rather see them working on a new game for NX. Of course it’s possible they could be working on that too, but that might not be realistic.

Back in Forest

Yesterday, Bob asked me for a new catchphrase. I told him to say “on my paws.” He hasn’t made any particularly funny statements using it just yet, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

Bob: "On my paws," huh? I like the sound of it... From now on, it's all on my paws all the time!
Does that mean you’re going to walk on all fours?

Julian was talking about the flower clock and how it smells like real flowers. Even more interesting, he said that the short hand tells the minutes, and the long hand tells the hours…of his love! I’m afraid to ask what that means.

Julian: The short hand tells the minutes of the day, and the long hand...tells the hours of my love!Daisy asked me for a river fish when I was standing right by the river, so it was no trouble to catch something for her. That something turned out to be an eel. It was a bit amusing seeing her holding it as it wriggled around. She enjoyed it, and she rewarded me with an office desk.

Daisy: Is this eel for me? It's so neat!I visited Julian again tonight, and he was telling me about customized furniture. He suggested that I get a silver throne just for him to sit in when he visits.

Julian: For example...a silver throne suited for whenever I visit!Bob told me he was going to move out of town on September 6th, but of course, I changed his mind for him.

How do you all feel about the update? Excited for the new villagers and mobile homes? Who are you hoping to see make a return?