Like Mufasa in The Lion King, recent trailers uploaded to the Nintendo of America YouTube channel suddenly face a stampede of buffalo. Unlike The Lion King's, these water buffalo are specifically meant to be "kind" and "funny," their invasion sparked by a Reddit meme that has quickly taken on a life of its own.
This community gag appeared on my radar as I perused the comments on the new Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition trailer uploaded this morning. There's some excitement for the new content and updated visuals as this JRPG cult classic finally escapes the wreckage of the Wii U, but the top comments are all singing the same curious song.
"I hope they have the spectacular delicacy of water buffalos as a side quest," says kenzie117.
"The vast ocean is giving water buffalo," adds jbat762.
"As you can see the water buffalo goes to space in this entry," danboy12342 points out. And on and on and on.
Where did these water buffalo come from? Yesterday, January 8, Nintendo Switch 2 subreddit moderator MacksNotCool summoned the council for a meeting: "We're gonna pull a funny," he said. "We need your help."
The battle plan was simple: mosey on over to the latest Nintendo of America trailers and talk about water buffalo in the comments, in any way your heart desires, and then upvote any like-minded comments so they rise to the top. "This is not a hate event," the post stresses, and there should be no mention of the subreddit or the many Switch 2 leaks circulating online. No using multiple accounts to spam, either.
"This idea is instead kind (it's free promotion & an algorithmic push for Nintendo's YouTube channel), technically within the confines of Reddit's Terms of Service, and is entirely aware that this will not get a reveal out sooner," MacksNotCool wrote. "This is, however, still dumb, but that's why it's funny."
Why are water buffalo, specifically, the battle cry? "Someone posted a picture of size comparison between the rumored dimensions of the Switch 2 and a water buffalo," MacksNotCool explained in a Reddit comment. "Now people just force water buffalo into anything as a joke."
"Prank is completed until Nintendo uploads again," the orders conclude. "We keep repeating this until the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal event. That is the last video we will do this on and then we will stop."
This only started yesterday, but the stampede has already reached videos from two weeks ago, the herd rippling out like a shockwave. The newer the video, the more buffaloes in the comments. Xenoblade was thoroughly buffaloed in just an hour. Yesterday's Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club trailer? Buffaloed. Blade Chimera, the slick Metroidvania that I've been meaning to write about? Buffaloed. Donkey Kong Adventures, Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, Overwatch 2, Fortnite, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD – no trailer can escape the herd.
"HOLY CRAP GUYS IT'S WORKING THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!" MacksNotCool said in an edit to the original post.
I reached out to Mack to ask how things are going. "I am surprised at how effective this joke was," he says. "I did not know if it would work or not."
I asked if he fears the stampede he has created. "A little," he replies. "I tried telling people specifically to not use it for hate and so far that has worked out. However, it still has a little bit of mob mentality attached and that may devolve. That's the only thing I fear with this. The point was not to get the Switch 2 trailer earlier, the point was to do something silly.
"The first video technically that was planned for this was that Emio trailer from yesterday, however a couple people have decided to expand it a little. There is also a planned end to this which will be the Switch 2 trailer/presentation/whatever they decide to do but some may decide to continue."
All said and done, mission accomplished? "Yep," Mack said. "Mission accomplished."
Former Switch marketing lead says "as wild as these leaks are Nintendo is going to stick to their plan," not budging on Switch 2 date "no matter what."
