Animal Crossing: New Horizons' next update will be a Mario celebration

Animal Crossing: New Horizons patch notes
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The next Animal Crossing: New Horizons update is set for March and it will officially be Mario time.

With the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale update settled into the game and the special event itself coming up in a few weeks, the official Nintendo Twitter account has confirmed what's next on the, well, horizon. Nintendo first teased the crossover in September, as part of the same big series of 35th anniversary announcements that revealed Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and Super Mario Bros. 35.

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Nintendo said at the time that the update would add new Super Mario-themed furniture to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in March. It hasn't shared any more specifics about what furniture the update will add, or if there are any other festivities planned for the special occasion, though the teaser image includes a Super Mushroom and a Power Star. We wouldn't bet against it falling on Mario Day - Mar. 10 - either.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons originally came out in March of last year, which means the Mario update will bring the game full circle in terms of the calendar. While we'll have to wait and see if Nintendo adds any more all-new holiday events, it has promised that New Horizons will still get regular updates all throughout 2021, just as it did in 2020.

Nintendo recently confirmed that special Valentine's Day items are headed to New Horizons in time for Valentine's Day - and players found out that dancing can save you from wasps (temporarily).

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.