Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct - Hidden Details

Just this week we received a meaty Animal Crossing Direct that gifted us a glorious 20 minutes of footage. Whilst they did go over a tonne of information in the Direct, there certainly are a lit of hidden details hidden in the background of certain scenes. We've decided to compile everything we could find in one simple place!

To help make things easier, we've include timestamps in brackets at certain points of interest, so if you want to check some of these things out for yourself, just head to the Timestamp in the Direct.

First off, we'll start with all the new tools and handheld items we've noticed.You probably already noticed the Fan, so we'll negate that here, as well as the standard tools, but did you also realize there's a lot more variants of tools this time around? By this point, you're probably already familiar with the Flimsy Tools and Standard Tools that have appeared in previous games, so we'll just go over the new variants we spotted. Two images for the game showed off an oddly shaped Star Net, and a Striped Net. It's also worth nothing Flick and C.J. both have unique Bug Nets and Fishing Rods respectively, but it's not yet known whether or not you can obtain these in game. 

We also spotted a number of different colored Shovels lying around the town, coming in Yellow and Grey, though we don't know if these will be functional or just for aesthetics. However, given the types of Nets we've seen the players using, we'd assume these Shovels can be used, as well. There's also the Magic Wand item Celeste gave the player, that let the chose from 8 unique outfits.

Something also worth nothing, is that the Standard Watering Can is shown to water multiple flowers at once (1:09), where in previous games this mechanic was exclusive to the Silver and Gold variants. It's possible that now with the inclusion of the Flimsy Watering Can that the Standard one saw an improvement. A render on the website also confirms that Golden Tools will be returning. There's also a number of consumable food items, such as lollipops and ice creams we've seem Hamlet and Bunnie (1:09) holding.

We're purely speculating here, but the fact we can see a Yellow Shovel, Black Watering Can, and a Green/Purple Fishing Rod, it may be possible to customize tools with your favorite color...

We've already reported how a number of new flowers will be introduced in this game, namely the Gerbera, Chrysanthemum are Hyacinths. We've glanced over every image and video we've seen to take note of what colors these new flowers will come in.

We were able to see the Gerbera will come in White, Orange, Red and Pink. The Chrysanthemum will come in White, Red, Yellow, Pink and Purple, and the Hyacinths will come in Blue, Red, White and Yellow. We think it might also come in Orange, but since the lighting for the scene was night time, it's hard to tell.

We're not a biologist by any means, but we did spot a few new Fish and Bug species. From the fish we were able to at least identify a Betta and Mahi-Mahi. We can also spot what we assume is a Remora swimming with the Shark Though we can't say the same for any bugs. We did see a new Dragonfly, the Damesfly, being caught, and we think  we can spot a new Butterfly next to the house (12:55), and another being caught (13:48, 16:57). Though in a shot at The Museum (18:15) we were able to spot at least 12, possibly 13, butterfly species flying around. In New Leaf, including Moths, there were 11 Species, so it seems we're likely to see another Butterfly or two - especially since the photo of the Bug page of the Critterpedia seems to show a few off! Be sure to let us know if you've spotted any new critters!

We've already seen an Official Render for K.K. Slider, but when they show off the amiibo functionality, it seemed to imply DJ K.K. wouldn't be in the base game as the player was unable to chat when scanning in his amiibo. We also got another minor glimpse at K.K., but we don't know why his alter ego, DJ K.K. seems to be MIA... Lebelle has also changed her name back to simply Label.

Now, for those eagle eyed viewers, some people have noticed some peculiar happenings in the backgrounds of certain shots, that only happen for a split second. A gravestone was spotted, as was the infamous Bell Tree. The glowing spots from the GameCube title were also shown for a split second, and when shaking a tree during the Winter, an ornament fell off that the player picked up.

A couple other things we noticed are also very minor, such as a Map appearing at the start of the game and in the Airport. Every photo of this Map shows the exact same one, so it's not unique, but it does show a second Island up near the top... We're not sure if this is meant to indicate Photopia, or another entirely new Island...

On the topic of Maps, we also got another glimpse at the Island Map, which showed the character limit for naming your Island will be at least 10 characters. Also, when Wisp is scared, he seems to scatter back into Spirits, indicating his role will be similar to his appearance in the GameCube title rather than his amiibo tie-ins with New Leaf.

The last thing we noticed, was when viewing the NookPhone, there is an additional page of Apps. Adding up all the blank spots, potentially means there could be up to 18 unique Apps for the NookPhone.

We think we managed to spot everything new, but could have easily missed something. Please let us know if you notice anything else that's been hidden away in the background. Animal Crossing: New Horizons released on March 20th, 2020 for Nintendo Switch. Be sure to follow BidoofCrossing on Twitter and Tumblr to stay up to date with the latest Animal Crossing and Nintendo news!

Update: We have spotted a Halloween themed shop, which based on the layout, believe to be Nook's Cranny. It's possible certain shops will be decorated to coincide with certain events