That's what I thought would be the case when the game was announced but nope, some new Dodo characters run the airport. Much like Tortimer in New Leaf, their role may not be relevant anymore but they can still have a presence in the game.

Ideally they just bring back all the ones in New Leaf including Desert Island Escape, but perhaps having up to 8 players complicates things. That one mini game where you hit a robot thing for instance? With 8 people I think it will be less about hitting it and more about getting in each others way. D:

Well they could always add another remote car to hit for that hammer RC car game. 

I think if those mini games were in the game at launch they would have covered it a little during direct but there was no word.  Perhaps they'll add them in later as free DLC.  They didn't add the 3DS and Wii U mini games to New Leaf till that amiibo update.   However they should have something like the island tour games at launch.

Okay well I'm trying to get this thread going but nobody appears to want to participate or share their friend codes on here. I'll be getting game first thing tomorrow morning.

For the rest of you I guess keep counting down...

I'll stop posting anything in the countodwn thread after today, and likely not anything more since I 've already posted for the final day.  I'm still waiting to see how the game works and figuring out whether I want to go online with the game or what.  I never have with an Animal Crossing game (I've always preferred playing with roommates in the real world) but this new iteration will probably open my eyes to a whole new way to play.  

So from here on out, I'm sure as people start playing and enjoying the game that this thread will become a great place to meet up and discuss.  Keep up the good work...and happy playing!

Thanks. I loved the countdown thread, but was kind of worried that both threads would compete once the game launched. 

91, very nice score on Meta.
Game seems fantastic.

I caved and got the game digitally. It'll be ready for tomorrow morning. I'm a physical media guy, but the less I have to go out during COVID-19, the better.

The game is very good. One complaint reviewers had was the slow start. I am guessing this is mainly for review purposes because they haven’t been able to see the full game. But I have found the game in all its chore like tasks in a limited space is quite amusing. The main loop is completing quests, which gives the game a similar feel to casual mobile games. Animal Crossing is probably the most major non-freemium casual franchise in existence.

And by casual I mean a game that generally encourages limited play sessions over long periods of time. This doesn’t mean you can’t play for hours at a time, many casual games - including Nintendo’s first game marketed as casual (Brain Age) has stuff that you can binge play on, but the point of casual gaming is to keep players engaged for months or years, and not to emphasize necessity for binge gaming. Also, casual is not the opposite of a “hardcore gamers” since the “casual” element is about the necessary play session length, people can get fairly hardcore into casual games - Animal Crossing is one such example, but nearly every casual game has its hardcore base.

I've only played Animal Crossing: New Horizons for about two hours, but the slow start is nothing new. It's par for the course of the series. I agree that Animal Crossing actually makes menial tasks very fun and rewarding. Stardew Valley is like that in some ways too, as is Chibi-Robo for household cleaning. 

Animal Crossing is one of those games I want to play on a binge, but it's not really designed that way. At the very least, it's not designed that way at the start. New Leaf took 600 hours of my time, more than any game. New Horizons might end up in the same boat.

I bought it, and have played it for a couple of hours, but I'm already out of stuff to do. I'm sure things will pick up in the coming days, though.