Following its 25th series anniversary update on April 13, Animal Crossing: New Horizons version 3.0.3 has gone live. The Nintendo Switch game is the latest entry in the beloved Animal Crossing series of life simulators, where players take control of a lone human living their day-to-day life in a neighborhood of animal villagers. Whether you want to befirend your neighbors, pay off your loan, or build the greatest house on the island, the low stakes and adorable aesthetic won the hearts of many. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in particular, did so well that it became the best-selling entry in the series and the second highest-selling Switch game overall.
While it’s been six years since New Horizons came out, Nintendo hasn’t kept updates to simple bug fixes. Back in January, the game released its version 3.0 update – the first real content update since the Happy Home Paradise DLC in 2021. Adding a new gameplay feature with the hotel and hotel tickets as well as new furniture and amiibo villagers, the update coincided with the release of a Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade pack. More recently, the 3.0.2 update of New Horizons added a new item, to celebrate the Animal Crossing franchise’s 25th anniversary: the leaf statue.
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0.3 Makes the Leaf Statue Permanently Available
Players who didn’t actually pick up the game during the Animal Crossing series’ anniversary might be worried they missed out on the leaf statue, but version 3.0.3 has added it to the Nook Shopping catalog so it can be purchased by anyone at any time. Nintendo’s patch notes made sure to clarify that even players who didn’t get the statue during the anniversary will still be able to buy it from the catalog. Shaped like the series’ signature leaf icon, the player can interact with the leaf statue to make it glow. Along with making the leaf statue permanently available, version 3.0.3 fixed a bug where items in home storage or the hotel catalog wouldn’t display properly.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Even in patches as small as this, it’s always nice to see a game receive support for so long. Since New Horizons also follows a real-world calendar and clock, it can be easy to miss limited-time items and events if you don’t have the time to play or simply forget to. Making the leaf statue permanently available, even if it’s a small gesture, is an appreciated one. Fans probably shouldn’t expect any more updates on the level of version 3.0, though; even though it was available in both the Switch and Switch 2 versions, the fact that it launched alongside the upgrade pack makes it clear that 3.0 was a special occasion meant to bring more attention to the Switch 2 update for New Horizons.
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The leaf statue isn’t the only thing Nintendo did for the anniversary, either; the soundtrack for the GameCube Animal Crossing was uploaded to Nintendo Music on April 13th as well. Now that the anniversary is a few weeks passed, though, it’s worth wondering if Nintendo might ever put the GameCube version in the Nintendo Switch Online catalog.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0.3 Patch Notes:
- The 25th Anniversary item leaf statue is now available for purchase from the Nook Shopping furniture catalog.
- Even players who have not previously obtained the leaf statue will now see it in their catalog.
- The price of the leaf statue has also been adjusted with this update.
- Fixed an issue where images for some items would not display when opening your home storage or the hotel room decoration catalog.
- Released
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March 20, 2020
- ESRB
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Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
