Published Apr 20, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT
Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more.
In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now.
He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com
Animal Crossing: New Horizons players can access yet another freebie this month thanks to Nintendo. The series itself is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, as the first game launched on the N64 back in April 2001. We've already seen a number of upcoming Animal Crossing merchandise, but for anyone hunting for digital freebies, Nintendo has you covered — provided you're a Nintendo Switch Online member, of course.
The announcement comes via the official X account for Nintendo, which shows off a fun new free item that celebrates Animal Crossing turning 25. The first game on N64 only released in Japan, so it's a pretty cool way for fans in the West to ring in the anniversary, even if they never played the original Doubutsu no Mori. You can read the full post from X down below.
Animal Crossing's 25th Anniversary Is Here
Since the series is turning 25, Animal Crossing is celebrating by offering the original box art of the N64 game as a Custom Design. To get it, you'll need to download this freebie from the Custom Designs portal and be a Nintendo Switch Online member. After that, you'll be able to slap the N64 Animal Crossing design onto stuff in your own game.
The original cover showed K.K. Slider and his guitar in the lower left-hand side of the box, with the title displayed in green on a bright yellow background. The upper-left corner had a couple of in-game screenshots and the N64 logo. The new Custom Design doesn't have quite that level of detail, but it is fun to squint at the white blob at the bottom and know it's K.K. Slider, or to spot the N64 logo colors in the top-left corner.
Are You Still Playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
For many fans in the West, the GameCube Animal Crossing is the first game in the series they ever played, so nostalgia might not be all that high for an English-speaking audience when it comes to the N64 game. However, New Horizons is arguably the best Animal Crossing game of all time, and it still has a huge audience, so there's probably a lot of people who want to grab this Custom Design regardless.
Even though it released in 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons remains one of Nintendo's most popular games on Switch. We've thankfully gotten various updates since launch, so we're not simply having to rely on Custom Designs to tide us over until the next Animal Crossing game arrives. Still, this N64 box art design is really cool — and getting it for free makes it even cooler.
Released March 20, 2020
ESRB Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
Developer(s) Nintendo EPD
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Engine Havok
Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play no
Cross Save no
Expansions Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise
English (US) ·