Animal Crossing Island Hop is a series of streams that follows Brandon Jones as he takes a tour of the islands of fellow Allies and community members in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch.
History[]
The stream officially premiered shortly after the game's launch during EZX Digital, the four-year anniversary celebration of Easy Allies.
Starting with Part 8, Animal Crossing Island Hop started using a K.K. Slider version of the Easy Allies theme song titled "K.K. Allies" as the intro for the streams. The song cover was composed by community member Kevin Gillet and was first submitted in the March 2020 Easy Allies Community Showcase.
After over 20 weeks of Animal Crossing Island Hop and 135 community islands, the finale was streamed on August 29, 2020.
On March 20, 2021, Brandon hosted a special '1 Year Later' stream on the anniversary of the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The stream included a tour of Bloodworth and Isla's islands as well as a general look back on the past year of updates.
Island Tours[]
Allies[]
In the first Island Hop stream, we were introduced to the islands of several of the Allies that started playing the game after launch. All of the Allies joined together online to explore each of the islands together.
The following Allies' islands were toured on stream.
| Ally | Island Name |
|---|---|
| Kyle Bosman | Galore |
| Ben Moore | Foxhound |
| Isla Hinck | Lente |
| Daniel Bloodworth | Skellige |
| Bradley Ellis | Gold Saucer |
| Brandon Jones | Elandar |
| Amanda Troop | Troopical |
Community Members[]
Following the Ally island tour, over 160 island submissions were sent in by the community for Brandon to visit on stream. He began streaming at various timeslots to accommodate the availability of community members in different timezones and spends 10-15 minutes at each location. Over time, some prior island submissions dropped out while new ones were added to the list. Overall, Jones visited 135 community islands in the 21 weeks of the Animal Crossing Island Hop.
Streams[]
Below is the list of Animal Crossing Island Hop streams to date.
| Stream | Description |
|---|---|
| Part 1 | Brandon gets together with all the other villagers among Easy Allies and heads on a tour of each other's islands during EZX Digital. (March 24, 2020) |
| Part 2 | Brandon loads up on friends and goes island hopping in Animal Crossing: New Horizons during EZX Digital. (March 26, 2020) |
| Part 3 | Big money! Big prizes! Jones plays a game within a game as he heads to more islands of our creative allies in the AC community. Things get unexpectedly creepy this week with a surprisingly accurate depiction of Bloodborne's Yharnam, and some sort of axe-wielding spring festival that almost goes too far. (April 4, 2020) |
| Part 4 | The colors of the season are in full bloom as we fly to another set of ally islands. In a fresh pair of Peter-Pan-tights and a new cowboy hat, Brandon tours a flower-packed star garden, hops and climbs over surprisingly creative elevation shifts, treads across an active game of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and jams to some hot karaoke beats in an underground nightclub. (April 8, 2020) |
| Part 5 | Dressed as Indiana Jones, famed fossil-digger Brandon seeks adventure in another set of our community's islands. The weather and time of day changes more than ever as each getaway takes us to another corner of the world. Fresh flowers along inviting pathways lead to creative living spaces that honor that which we cherish most, like Final Fantasy IX and two very specific cats. (April 14, 2020) |
| Part 6 | In this week's trip around the Animal Crossing world, Brandon tries to correctly identify another round of internet memes, anime portraits, and video game references. With a recently acquired wand he can wear a different costume to each island and still have room for a batch of wonderful presents. (April 23, 2020) |
| Part 7 | Jones spends a good portion of his extended travels this week in the rain as he discovers Ben's worst nightmare, finally spends some time in an ally's museum, jams on several different musical stages, watches one islander vanish into the future, and finishes up with a bizarre visit to an island that refuses to be identified. (April 29, 2020) |
| Part 8 | Now that we're this far into our weekly hopping ritual, our community of islanders are getting pretty confident in how they've styled their islands. One resident lets us handle the tour ourselves (while still chatting with us), another locks us out of the property completely (but not intentionally), and several people in other time zones open up their stores for a bit of light shopping. (May 9, 2020) |
| Part 9 | The extended vacation continues as Jones grabs presents, switches outfits, and tours a batch of new islands from our community. One is a veritable flower paradise full of potential souvenirs, and another is named after Ian Fleming's home (and has a fresh tuxedo waiting just outside the airport). There are so many new things to see and never enough time to admire them. (May 15, 2020) |
| Part 10 | This week, the presents are plentiful and there are free DIY recipes as far as the eye can see. As Jones takes in the generosity and curiosity of our talented community of islanders, he encounters an arena for intense Go matches, a beachfront bathroom, a hopping puzzle with fabulous prizes, and a life-size hockey rink that's ready for the big league. (May 24, 2020) |
| Part 11 | Oh, drumsticks. At first there aren't any gates open to receive Jones (after posting his list of eligible allies way too late). But then the skies clear up and he flies to an island he only thought he visited before, an island that experienced a power outage during the initial visit, a wholesome tribute to three very jolly basset hounds - all while being chased across time and space by a man from the future! (May 30, 2020) |
| Part 12 | Wiping some old names off the list, a new batch of islanders enters the scene. Although only 3 islands are visited this shorter episode, it's still an emotional journey with a parade of neighbor introductions, empty animal wedding scenes, the painful relevancy of a retired EZA-show graveyard, and flaunted stacks of money trees surrounding the inconspicuous Calcopolis Tower. (June 20, 2020) |
| Part 13 | While the local neighbors participate in a bug off, Brandon takes off to visit another lineup of islands from our community. This week Captain Hook and their bunny friend run us through their neighborhood, one villager challenges us to solve an intergalactic mystery, we travel across the globe for some summertime snow, and a member of Team Rocket hooks us up with some Star Trek merch. (June 27, 2020) |
| Part 14 | After 14 weeks, you might think there won't be many things to surprise us in Animal Crossing. But this week, we catch our first Sun Fish following a rain-soaked swim in the ocean, find ourselves in a bug-filled lava cave, get more than a dozen presents, play more instruments in one episode than ever before, steal 10,000 bells and then lose it gambling, and find the island with by far the most hops. (July 3, 2020) |
| Part 15 | It took over a hundred different islands to get there, but we finally made it to Disneyland, or at least one ally's interpretation of it. Also on this week's itinerary: a beach full of flowers, dinner and piano by candlelight, a trip under the sea with Black Cat, and a gruesome scene at the legendary Overlook Hotel. (July 18, 2020) |
| Part 16 | E3 was cancelled this year, but that doesn't mean someone can't recreate it in Animal Crossing! In this episode we visit the "booths" of the 3 major publishers, grab a few cocktails at the High Tide Tiki Bar and some tasty cakes at the Seaside Diner, and experience an island with perhaps the largest number of individual items this series has ever seen. (July 25, 2020) |
| Part 17 | We try not to pick favorites from each week, but one islander this week has been hustling hard to earn some kind of Island-of-the-Year award. As amazing as it is, Brandon has to go elsewhere to pick up a King Tut mask, root for the Dunport Gulls and visit their gift shop, and follow a case that's not all it's quacked up to be with Ducktective Daniel. (August 1, 2020) |
| Part 18 | This week's hop is a test in bravery. With the help of our friendly community we conquer a fiery ninja challenge, invade a medieval casino, run across beds of flowers in the shape of the Canadian flag and the EZA logo, and take a leap of faith off the pier at the High Dive Bar. (August 8, 2020) |
| Part 19 | This hop starts small but leads to astonishing discoveries. We go from hopping off diving boards big and small and meeting new neighbors while picking up DIY recipes, to stepping aboard an island made to look like a pirate ship and crossing a cult that worships the great Nook from Buffalo Bill's basement. (August 15, 2020) |
| Part 20 | Anything worth doing in Animal Crossing is worth doing while looking good. With the help of our community islanders this week, Brandon throws on several of his cowboy personas, races across dinosaur laced streets as an alien, attempts a death-defying leap into the ocean past some fireworks while wearing a strawberry hat, and is forced to remove his shoes for the first and maybe last time. (August 21, 2020) |
| Part 21 | Things get scsry (no we didn't spell that incorrectly) in the final Island Hop. One of our islanders builds their first PC, one stomps some cockroaches during a thunderstorm, and another takes us for a swim after jamming on the dance floor. But it turns really spooky-dooky when we visit a funeral home complete with a basement morgue. (August 29, 2020) |
| Halloween | After a month of candy collecting it's time to check out our neighbor's costumes and makes some trades for all the Halloween gear we can carry. It's a jolly tour of one of Animal Crossing's most anticipated holidays of 2020, complete with a trip to Amanda and Isla's islands. (October 31, 2020) |
| 1 Year Later | Animal Crossing New Horizons is officially one year old! For a game with 365 days worth of activities, there are lots of tiny details to celebrate. To mark the occasion, Jones catches up on the islands of Isla and Bloodworth, takes a stroll through a majestic surprise Dream island, and shares memories with our community. (March 20, 2021) |