If you ever get bored at 3:33 a.m. on a Saturday (your local time), switch on your TV in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There’s a message waiting for you. An alien message.
No one knows what it says. Some have tried to decode it. But at that exact moment every Saturday morning, an alien with red eyes pops up on the screen to declare…something. The message lasts for about a minute before the TV returns to static.
Real-world liminal analogues
Aliens broadcasting messages across Earth is a pretty common trope in scifi, but we actually have one example of this happening in real life, sort of: Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command. Now, I’m not going to get into whether or not that was an actual alien message. As far as I know, “Vrillon” was never found. However, like other broadcast intrusions, what happened was that an individual hijacked a TV network one day and read a message, with a distorted voice, then mysteriously retreated back into the airwaves. The date was November 26, 1977, the place southern Britain. You can read about that here.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the Nintendo 3DS also featured a similar alien message on the TV during the same hour (though not necessarily on Saturdays).
I’m a fan of these kinds of easter eggs. 3:33 a.m.? The Witching Hour. The way Animal Crossing uses your own clock, and how the days are truly days, is a unique way to play a game. New Horizons specifically was a godsend to people during the lockdowns back in 2020. It released at just the perfect time for a lot of people to fill a sudden void.
And in the middle of the night, it does evoke that sort of quiet liminality that happens when the rest of the world is asleep. All the stores are closed, not much is happening, but you’re out there. And apparently, so is the truth.