Many internet memes burn bright and fizzle fast these days, but the Rick Roll continues to persist 15 years after its origin. The bait-and-switch meme has been retooled, remade, and reuploaded to take unwitting internet users by surprise, and that includes bringing the meme to the island shores of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons took the world by storm not only for its timely arrival early in the Covid-19 pandemic, but also because of the addictive nature of customizing one’s island, villager, and home to their heart’s content. These qualities were taken into account when recreating Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up entirely within the game.
Initially created and shared by AlphaLoaf on YouTube, the Animal Crossing Rick Roll parody is surprisingly accurate to the original music video. Although many have likely been greeted by the first few notes of the song and simply clicked away, anyone who has actually viewed the video in its entirety will notice a lot of similarities, admittedly within the confines of what one can do with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Rick Astley himself is recreated impeccably, featuring both of his outfits and excellent recreations of the locales in the original video. A pair of villagers and another player character also make an appearance as the video’s back-up dancers. ‘Rick’ croons his way through the video as he and his co-stars dance, spin, and perform similar poses to their 1987 real-life counterparts. ‘Rick’ notably opens the video with a mischief reaction, as though the villager himself is well aware of the prank nature of the meme.
Of course, there are limitations on how precise this recreation can get, as AlphaLoaf had to work with the tools that New Horizons makes available to players. It also notably launched before the major New Horizons 2.0 update when players had fewer useful video making tools available to them, like the first-person camera New Horizons now has. But the video more than makes up for it with its surprising tag, which references another lasting and old meme, as well as a more recent one.
With myriads of players flocking to Animal Crossing: New Horizons since 2020, it’s seen more than a fair share of recreated memes and joke videos. Whether remaking clips from the now-defunct Vine social media video platform with Animal Crossing characters in third-party programs or rebuilding show intros, like The Simpsons, entirely within the game, players have found ways to tie in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to their favorite things. Though the game is rapidly approaching the second anniversary of its release, players may find ways to accomplish even more going forward.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for the Nintendo Switch.
