31 Animal Crossing Features That Never Returned

Today, I’m taking a look back at 31 Animal Crossing features and events that never returned since appearing in the original Nintendo GameCube game. These are in no particular order. Scroll down to read the list, or watch the full video here:

1. Coin Toss

On New Year’s Day, players and villagers alike can toss a coin into the wishing well for good luck. Get in line and make a wish!

2. Treasure Hunts

Villagers will occasionally hide an item, buried somewhere in town. They will post a hint on the bulletin board, either telling you which acre to look for it, or maybe just the row or column of the map. Free furniture is always a good thing!

Update for 2020: Treasure hunts returned in New Horizons, but they work differently. Instead of being posted to the bulletin board, a villager will ask you to find a buried item and they give you a time limit (say, six minutes) to find it.

3. 15 Villagers

New Leaf and City Folk allow a maximum of ten villagers in town, while Wild World only allows eight. But the GameCube game allows a whopping 15 villagers! Fortunately, the town is also bigger, so it doesn’t feel crowded.

4. Daily Glowing Spot

The random glowing spot will appear once per day for each character. Dig it up for an easy 1,000 bells (and sometimes more).

Update for 2020: The daily glowing spot has returned in New Horizons.

5. Lighthouse Duty

In January and February, Tortimer will go on vacation. If you meet up with him near the wishing well, he will ask demand you to turn the lighthouse on each night while he’s gone. These times are the only times you’ll be able to enter the lighthouse, and it’s a pretty cool thing to do. If you successfully turn the lighthouse on every night, Tortimer will reward you with a lighthouse model (in January) or chocolates (in February).

6. Morning Aerobics

From late July to the end of August, you can find Tortimer, Copper, and some villagers at the wishing well. They will be participating in morning aerobics. Attend 14 times to earn the aerobics radio, which allows you to perform aerobics in your own home!

7. Outdoor Gyroid

I’ve previously written an entry just about the outdoor gyroid, so I won’t delve too deeply into it here. But aside from saving your game, the gyroid does offer some other helpful features. He allows you to display a pattern on your door, or you can teach him a message to repeat to any visitors. He can also store a few items for you…or you can sell them to other human players.

8. Ask Villagers for Jobs at Any Time

When you need to earn a little money (or something you can sell to earn money), it’s helpful to be able to ask for jobs at any time. They may not always have a job for you, but they often will. Maybe they’ll ask you to make a delivery, pick up an item, or write them a letter. Sometimes, they’ll even ask you to find a ball for them to play with.

9. 10+ NES Games

A number of NES games are included in Animal Crossing. There are eight that can be obtained through normal gameplay: Balloon Fight, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Excitebike, Golf, Pinball, and Tennis. Two others can be obtained from the island–Baseball and Wario’s Woods. Additional games were distributed via codes early on, and even more still can be unlocked with e-Reader cards or cheating devices.

10. Washing Gracie’s Car

Gracie has returned in each Animal Crossing game, and even her car returned in Wild World (just not the same car). But the GameCube game is the only one in which you can wash her car to earn exclusive Gracie clothing. It requires some button-mashing, though.

11. Item Trading…That Doesn’t Require Internet or Local Play

Later games had internet abilities and the portable games also supported local play. But the trading system in GameCube requires neither of those to function, and it can be used indefinitely…long after internet trading is no longer supported on later systems. A password system is used that makes a unique code specific to the name and town of the player you’re trading with. The only downside is that some rare items can’t be traded this way.

12. Cherry Blossom Festival

Later Animal Crossing games have cherry blossom petals that fall from the sky in early April. But they don’t have this three-day festival. Here, villagers will eat, drink, laugh, and dance as they enjoy the sights and sounds of springtime.

13. Islander

New Leaf has an island, but it lacks a permanent resident who lives and owns a home on the island. The GameCube has just that; my islander happens to be the Egyptian cat named Ankha.

Update for 2020: Technically all villagers are islanders in New Horizons. But there is not an islander that lives separately (outside of your town) in New Horizons.

14. Island Bungalow

The island bungalow is a house on the island that you can use and decorate as you wish. You may want to use it as a tropical resort…but I just use mine for extra storage.

15. Gold Trees

By burying a shovel in the aforementioned daily glowing spot, a golden sapling will appear. If the tree lives and reaches maturity, it will produce a golden shovel. But perhaps more importantly, the tree will permanently remain gold. The gold trees add some color to your town, and it’s something gamers won’t find in later games.

16. Have Multiple Towns

In later games, you can’t have multiple towns unless you buy another copy of the game or buy another system (depending on the version). But on GameCube, all you need is an extra memory card to create another town.

17. Customizable Inventory Screen*

I’ve mentioned this tip before, but it’s a nice little feature to have (even if it’s not super useful). Just drag any shirt down below the last inventory spot to use that shirt’s design as the background of your inventory screen.

*Correction: This feature did return in Wild World, it’s just done in a different corner of the inventory screen. I guess that’s how I missed it. My mistake. If you’d like a replacement feature so the list still reaches 31, the island has a flagpole you can use to display a pattern. (see GIF). Sorry about the mistake!

18. A Statue of You

If you fully pay back all of your loans to Tom Nook, he will erect a statue in your honor near the train station. It even looks like you!

19. Drop Multiple Items at Once

By selecting multiple items with the X button, you can drop up to nine items at once. Curiously, the later games don’t have this feature. It would be particularly useful when dropping money bags for a trade, for example.

20. Kickable Balls

Soccer balls, basketballs, and volleyballs. They can be found around town, and villagers will sometimes play with them. And why not? They’re fun to kick around!

21. Journals

The journals and diaries in the game not only allow you to write notes, but they also show you the dates of upcoming events and the days that you’ve played the game. The journals are a helpful thing to keep in your house at all times.

22. No Forgeries

One of the most frustrating things in the last few Animal Crossing games is to finally track down a painting you need, only to find out it’s a forgery. Bogus! But the GameCube game has no counterfeit works of art. They’re real, and they’re spectacular.

23. Farley

Farly isn’t really a feature or event, but he is a NPC (non-playable character) that hasn’t returned since GameCube. If you don’t remember him, there’s a good reason for that. He only appears one time, and only for a few seconds…when you earn the golden axe for maintaining a perfect town.

24. Catching Wisp’s Spirits

We’ve seen Wisp in City Folk (and New Leaf, after the Welcome Amiibo update), but only on GameCube do we get to search out his spirits. Use your net to catch all five of them, and Wisp will give you a reward. You can choose to have him pull your weeds, paint your roof, or give you an item. If you choose the last option, he will give you an item that’s not already in your catalog. He even gave me one of Gracie’s exclusive shirts that I needed!

Update for 2020: Wisp’s spirits have returned in New Horizons. Wisp no longer offers to pull your weeds, however.

25. Killing Snowmen

This is definitely not the most useful feature on this list. But it can be fun! Especially if you’ve built an imperfect snowman who gives you the cold shoulder. You brought Mr. Frosty into this world, so why not take him out? 😉 Don’t worry, he’ll still (somehow) send you a gift in the mail, even if he’s no longer living.

26. Sale Day

Each year on Sale Day (also known as Black Friday or the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.), Tom Nook sells a bunch of grab bags. The price will be the current year (2017 bells in 2017, etc.), and each bag contains three items. This is a good opportunity to pick up some handheld items like pinwheels, since they can be hard to come by the rest of the year. Crazy Redd is also guaranteed to show up on Sale Day…complete with a cool glitch.

27. Three-Tier Towns

Most Animal Crossing towns have two levels, an upper level and a lower level. But some will actually have three tiers. It’s basically a novelty, as it’s not super useful…and may actually be harder to navigate than a regular town. But if you’re trying for a unique town, a three-tier town is one way to do it.

Here is a map of Threed, my temporary town which is now gone. I started up the game without any memory cards plugged in, and it took seven or eight tries before I came upon a three-tier town.

Update for 2020: Three-tier towns have returned in New Horizons. In fact, basically every town has three tiers, unless you alter the layout of your island to purposely remove a layer of cliffs.

28. The Dump

The dump is the place you can find clothing, furniture, and other items that other animals or people have thrown away. It was replaced with a recycle bin in Wild World and City Folk. But walking into the dump was quicker and more convenient than going into town hall and then checking the bin.

29. Monthly Raffles

You earn raffle tickets throughout the month with most purchases (excluding small items like tools, seeds, and stationery). The last day of each month is Raffle Day. That’s when you can redeem five raffle tickets for a spin of Tom Nook’s wheel. If a white ball comes out, you lose. But if he spins out a colored ball, you win one of three prizes for the month. Good luck!

30. Outdoor Windsocks

These signs of spring appear in early May each year. They’re not useful at all, but they do provide some unique scenery each spring.

31. Sports Fair

The four-event sports fair is held twice a year. It consists of aerobics, a foot race, the ball toss event, and tug-o’-war. The aerobics are the only one you can technically participate in, but it’s fun watching the other events as well. During the foot race, you can keep talking to a runner to prevent them from winning. 😀

I hope you enjoyed this list. How many of these things did you know about? Which ones would you most like to see in a future game? Please leave a comment below!

And be sure to watch the video version of this list to see each of these things in motion. Have a great day!