A player of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has gone viral after staging the murder of their fifth in-game husband using a creative island design. Players of the Nintendo hit are encouraged to build and shape their island however they please, which hasn’t only led to interesting town, farm, and movie-inspired ACNH builds, but also roleplaying scenarios in which users devise their own stories and plots.
Since its launch in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has developed a devoted community dedicated to sharing their designs and ideas for others to recreate within their own games. The title’s many items and design tools offer lots of creative freedom for users, meaning fans can bring to life everything from their own unique ideas to reimaginings of TV shows and even other games characters and settings. Some players have even gone on to create their own histories and storylines using the game for roleplaying, whether setting up scenes heavily based in storytelling, or imagining dark backstories for Animal Crossing villagers.
Redditor and Animal Crossing player dingycollar has staged an inventive story on their island, which sees their fifth in-game husband become the victim of a terrible “accident,” leading to his death. The player has used the Rescue Mannequin item as a representation of their deceased partner, placing it in front of one of the game’s luxury cars to recreate a car crash scenario. Adding an extra layer of depth to their viral image, the player is seen looking at their husband with a surprised expression. This, combined with the post’s humorous caption of “My poor, dear 5th husband! Such a tragic ‘accident’…” sets the scene for a serial spouse killer, perhaps out to earn as many Bells as possible through marriage. The funny post has been a success on Reddit, amassing over 25,000 upvotes at the time of writing.
My poor, dear 5th husband! Such a tragic ‘accident’.. from AnimalCrossing
The Animal Crossing Rescue Mannequin item has been used in other viral posts prior to this one, with fans finding lots of hilarious and creative uses for the unique piece. The mannequin has become a popular choice for roleplaying, as seen in dingycollar’s image, while other players frequently use it in place of corpses for spooky builds and graveyards. The item makes for an interesting design choice, as it’s modeled after a real human, unlike the playable human character who has a more cartoonish style.
Using Animal Crossing for roleplaying offers new levels of immersion that go beyond designing homes, providing ways of storytelling that aren’t inherently part of the core game experience. Fans like dingycollar demonstrate how a player can turn their island into a world of stories with just a little imagination, and while Nintendo has confirmed ACNH has had its last major update, it’s hoped that smaller releases could still be coming – perhaps ones that introduce further unique and exciting items for storytellers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
