New Horizons player’s Mario Party island took 3 years to make

Animal Crossing: New Horizons player adanteallegro has dedicated their entire island to the game Mario Party 2, and it’s absolutely incredible. The detailed build includes homages to three different boards from the game, as well as several of its minigames.

Many players have returned to New Horizons after a long hiatus due to the recent dual release of the life sim’s 3.0 and Nintendo Switch 2 updates. The Mario items heavily utilized in this build, however, were introduced in a 2021 update, but the 3.0 update did make it so that players could purchase these special items without linking their Nintendo account to the game.

User adanteallegro shared their build on Reddit this week, stating in the post that the entire endeavor took them approximately three years. Inspired by their love of Mario Party 2, the player built three boards to explore, modeled after Horror Land, Pirate Land, and Western Land. The build also includes 17 different minigame-themed areas, including Bowser’s Big Blast, Cake Factory, and Honeycomb Habit. For players who wish to visit the island themselves, the Dream Address is listed in their post.

In a written interview with Polygon, adanteallegro estimated the entire endeavor took approximately 300–400 hours, first committing to the idea around the time of the 2.0 update in late 2021. “I figured that there was no rush and I could just work on my island a little bit at a time,” they said — that is, until Nintendo surprised everyone with the 3.0 update announcement, which kicked the project into high gear.

Besides the epic scale of the build, the hardest part of the island for them was the item limitations. Though the Mario set was very helpful, it didn’t encompass all that they needed, requiring some extra creativity. “For example, there’s no Shy Guy item in the game, so instead I used the tin robots in their place,” they said. “I think the funniest example out of all of these is what I chose for the Day at the Races build: A castle wall, a cube light, a humidifier and a black alarm clock for the Thwomp, Whomp, Boo and Bob-omb.”

After traveling to the island via the Dream Address myself, I must say it looks even more impressive when exploring it yourself. There are so many amazing small details, like umbrellas in Horror Land custom-designed to look like the eyeballs that roll around there, and the layouts of the three board-themed areas are so meticulously accurate to the Mario Party 2 boards, it’s no wonder it took them three years to complete. One of my favorite details I discovered was an area displaying signs of Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Wario with presents underneath — presumably rewards for when friends come over to play, which this island is absolutely perfect for.