Nintendo promised that the free Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates would keep coming in 2021, and it has already delivered on that promise. A new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now, and while the most interesting aspect of the update won't be available until next month, it does add some new items to the life simulation game for fans to add to their collections.

Anyone that downloads the Animal Crossing: New Horizons January 28 update will get Maracas as a free gift in their mailbox. The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Maracas are so players can better celebrate the upcoming Festivale event, which will go live in the game on February 15. The Festivale event, for the uninitiated, will have players catching colorful feathers with their nets, and having a dance celebration with returning NPC Pave the Peacock.

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The Maracas aren't the only new item coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons with the update. Players can also add a Mr. Resetti statue to their collection, along with various items meant to celebrate the Super Bowl. Collecting these new Animal Crossing: New Horizons furniture items should keep players plenty busy while they wait for the Festivale event to roll around on February 15.

Looking ahead, Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans have even more content to look forward to. While details are scarce at the time of this writing, Nintendo has confirmed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting a Super Mario-themed update in March. It remains to be seen exactly what the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Super Mario update will entail, but it's a safe bet that it will add more items to the game based on the Super Mario franchise.

It will be interesting to see if Nintendo will keep releasing new Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates after the Super Mario update drops in March. After all, March will also be Animal Crossing: New Horizons' one year anniversary, and so it stands to reason that Nintendo may be looking to move on to something else. Maybe it will start working on a sequel, or maybe it will look into releasing Animal Crossing: New Horizons paid DLC that's a little more substantial than the free updates, though all of that is just speculation at this time.

The regular Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates have helped keep the game popular since its launch last year, and it looks like it will remain the Switch's best-selling game for the foreseeable future.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

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