Animal Corssing Painting
Image: Nintendo Life / Nintendo

Picture the scene: the year is 2020, the land is plagued by a global pandemic (the likes of which we have never seen), and while the world begins to fall to pieces right before your very eyes, you — like many of us — start to become increasingly interested in fishing, real estate, weeding, fossil hunting and, yes, art collection.

Unless you actually had the sudden urge to take up that eclectic mix of hobbies (in which case, boy do we have the game for you), it is most likely that you too were a sucker for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which proved to be a little pocket of comfort while everything else seemed very dark. Now that the world has begun to open up again, our Animal Crossing obsessions feel like a fever dream of an age gone by, but that hasn't stopped some fans from living the life that Tom Nook was so keen to sell.

One such player is @MayPlaysTV, a UK-based streamer who has taken on the admirable quest of visiting all of the pieces of artwork from the game in real life. He's been sharing the journey on his social media with fans across the world, and has made a pretty good start!

Now we all remember the stress of weighing up Redd's deals, attempting to decide whether his products were real or just one of his shifty knock-offs (although the particularly surprised Mona Lisa still has a special place in our hearts). Fortunately, May doesn't have to deal with any of that, as he is in the process of visiting galleries around the world to tick every official piece of art off the list.

With 43 different works spread across 17 cities in 11 different countries, this is no light undertaking — travelling Dodo Airlines with a Nook Miles Ticket can only get you so far, after all. Five months in and May has made an impressive dent in his quest, documenting 15 different visits so far. Each update on the journey has been documented on May's TikTok, with the series seeing him travel the world to visit the artwork and hold up his custom amiibo card in front of it as proof of visit.

For many of us, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will always hold a special place in our hearts despite our playtime potentially dropping from pandemic levels. May's series continues to show the joy of the game and has us very much wishing to undertake the challenge ourselves soon.

What is your favourite piece of art in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Let us know the times that Redd pulled through in the comments below!

[source twitter.com, via tiktok.com]