Animal Crossing ➔ Classic NES Games

Despite seeming like it should be a series that stretches back to the days of the Game Boy, Animal Crossing’s first appearance in the West was the GameCube’s Animal Crossing: Population Growing (a tagline no one on planet Earth ever noticed or used). But even more surprising is that the 2001 game was a prototype for Nintendo’s Switch Online, which is to say it was an incredibly convoluted way to play a very small selection of Nintendo Entertainment System games.

Via Tom Nook’s Lottery (because there is no capitalist scumbaggery to which Nook will not stoop), you could gain access to original Nintendo classics like Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Golf, and Tennis. And Excitebike. Or Clu Clu Land. And even Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Pinball. All to play on a NES in your island home.

But that wasn’t everything. On the island itself you could stumble upon Wario’s Woods and Baseball. And by various Nintendo offers and giveaways it was possible to get Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Clu Clu Land D, Punch Out!!, and Soccer. Third-party giveaways and e-Reader cards also added in Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda

It’s perhaps a little bit sad that what were considered freebie bonuses 20 years ago are now officially stuck behind a paywall on Nintendo’s current systems. And it certainly makes you look at that Nintendo Switch in New Horizons in a whole new way, right?