Despite launching as the most feature-rich and customizable Animal Crossing game ever, New Horizons is still missing quite a bit of content from past games in the series. Seasonal updates have reintroduced characters, furniture and other features, but there are still some things fans are waiting on. And while characters like Brewster and Kapp'n may be more obvious omissions, the absence of the Nintendo items that were present in every previous game is also notable.
From Animal Forest until Pocket Camp, Animal Crossing games included various items from other Nintendo franchises, such as the Arwing from Starfox and the Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda, as well as clothing and accessories like Peach's Parasol and Samus' Mask. Though they may not be the most important thing the game needs, New Horizons should bring these items back.
Technically, the Nintendo set isn't completely absent from New Horizons. However, the only items this time around are the Nintendo Switch and the ACNH Nintendo Switch, modeled after the console with pastel green and blue Joy-Cons that launched around the time of the game. However, New Leaf had over 50 Nintendo items that could be unlocked using fortune cookies purchased with the Nintendo 3DS' Play Coins. Not only did these celebrate characters like Mario, Link and Samus and the games they come from; items like the Virtual Boy celebrated Nintendo itself.
While the need for the clothing items and accessories is somewhat alleviated by fan-made custom designs that extend far beyond what past games offered, the lack of any items from past Nintendo games or the company's history is surprising. Obviously, Nintendo couldn't have predicted that New Horizons would explode in popularity as a much-needed source of escapism from 2020, but given how big the game is, it's weird for these items to be absent. Nintendo loves putting Easter eggs in its games (just look at the Yoshi doll in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening or the Samus helmet from Paper Mario: The Origami King's announcement trailer), and this could have been an opportunity to promote other Nintendo properties to millions of players.
With New Horizons continuing to grow through updates, it's still possible that the fire flowers, metroids and Triforces could return. With Halloween coming up, the outfits, accessories and masks would fit in perfectly as additional costumes. As for everything else, furniture items and other collectables would make sense in a Winter update related to Toy Day, Animal Crossing's secular Christmas substitute featuring the already teased Jingle. Nintendo items would be perfect gifts to receive from villagers or to give to friends. After all, who wouldn't want to open up a Yoshi egg or a Bill blaster during the holiday season?