Despite skyrocketing in popularity last year with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Animal Crossing series has been a beloved Nintendo property since 2001. Over the course of its existence, the franchise has featured crossovers with many other Nintendo icons, but a fairly obvious name is yet to grace the AC universe. After all these years, it's finally time for an Animal Crossing and Donkey Kong crossover.
Animal Crossing's crossovers have varied in size and quality. For example, Animal Crossing: New Leaf featured a variety of different clothing and furniture options from various Nintendo franchises, such as the Master Sword and Samus' helmet. Last March's Mario update for New Horizons was one of the more substantial crossovers the series has ever done. It might have mostly just added Mario-themed furniture and clothing as usual, but the amount of content combined with the functionality of the Mario warp pipe, made it seem like a step above previous crossovers. However, a Donkey Kong collaboration would have the potential to be even bigger. Not only would everyone's favorite Kong fit in perfectly within the world of Animal Crossing, but now is also the ideal time to finally give DK the love he's been missing over the past couple of years.
2021 marks Donkey Kong's 40th anniversary, and the franchise desperately needs some love. There's no better way to revitalize the series than by exposing it to Animal Crossing's massive fanbase. New Horizons shattered sales expectations when it launched, and while it's not quite as popular now as it was last year, it still has a large following, and throwing DK into its world would no doubt help get more eyes on the characters.
2021 Is The Perfect Year to Give Donkey Kong More Love
A Donkey Kong crossover with ACNH makes sense from a logistical standpoint, but what would it actually look like? The fact is, Donkey Kong arguably fits into the Animal Crossing universe better than most other Nintendo franchise, since its cast of characters are already animals like ACNH's villagers. The crossover could feature little touches, such as adding in DK's tie as a clothing option, or giving players the ability to decorate their island with bananas or barrels from the series, but it also has the potential to be so much more.
Donkey Kong, as well as other Kongs, could show up in New Horizons and not at all feel out of place. Players could potentially travel to an island to partake in mini-games with Donkey Kong similar to how the game incorporated Rover and his May Day island. And while that would undoubtedly be an awesome bit of fanservice for Donkey Kong fans, Nintendo could take the idea even further, by allowing DK and other characters to become fully-fledged villagers. The Kongs would fit into the world of New Horizons so perfectly, it would be a shame to not have them appear in at least some capacity.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Donkey Kong would be a match made in heaven. With Donkey Kong celebrating his 4oth anniversary this year, there would be no better time than now for Nintendo to make it happen.