Animal Crossing: New Horizons has plenty of items that players and villagers can interact with. Players can turn lights on or off (even in fish tanks), several instruments can be played, and some villagers will even sit on the pet peds when they visit. These kinds of interactions can make the game feel more alive and add to the overall charm of an already adorable cozy game.

On the other hand, there are some items and furniture that really feel like they should be interactive, but are not. At best, the lack of interactivity makes the game feel less immersive. At worst, it can leave players feeling bamboozled when they buy an item thinking it'll be usable but end up extremely disappointed. In many of these cases, it feels like a serious oversight to not have them be interactive.

10 Lawnmowers Don't Actually Mow The Grass

There Should Be A Fast Way To Clear Weeds

Weeds are a major annoyance in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. New ones sprout up all over the island at random every day, and it can be a pain to clear them. Gardening is also not the smoothest experience, since every flower needs to be picked up individually to move it and the inventory fills up fast.

That's why a lawnmower would come in really handy for players who just want to cut down all their weeds and flowers and start over. Unfortunately, the lawnmower, like many other potentially useful items, is entirely for show. Pushing it forward does cause it to make a little lawn-mowing sound, which is certainly cute but not very useful.

9 The Swimming Pool Is A Glorified Ornamental Pond

There Is No Swimming In The Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is one of the special items that can be ordered with Nook Miles from the catalog at the town hall. It costs 5,000 Nook Miles and is a popular outdoor decoration since it adds 0.5 points to the island's rating and has a cute rounded style. The pool would look even cuter being used by villagers and players on a hot summer day.

In reality, the pool is nothing more than an ornamental pond. Players can lounge around next to it and enjoy its presence, but they can't actually go into it. This is a shame, even if the pool is so small that only one villager would fit in it at one time.

8 The Hose Can't Actually Be Used To Water Plants

Using A Watering Can Is Sometimes Tedious

Even if Animal Crossing: New Horizons had a working lawnmower, gardening would still be a bit of a hassle. To ensure that flowers, weeds, or food plants (like pumpkins) grow at regular rates, players need to water them all one at a time using a watering can. Some fans have suggested introducing a sprinkler system into the game in the past, but there's already one item in the game that would be a huge help if it were actually functional.

The hose reel is a decor item that can be purchased from Nook's Cranny for 1,400 Bells. It comes in six different colors to match any outdoor aesthetics and has the potential to be extremely useful for gardening. However, the hose, like many other items in the game, is just a decoration that looks great in garden-themed areas. It's just too bad that it can't be used to water plants more quickly.

7 Villagers Can't Ride Bicycles

Players Get Silly With The Bikes

Animal Crossing: New Horizon islands are fairly large, so it would be great to have some way to get around them faster. Fortunately, there's a bicycle in the game. Unfortunately, players and villagers can't ride it. The bicycle, like many items that should be functional but aren't, is for display purposes only, as many disappointed players have discovered.

Players have found silly ways around this, like the Reddit post by potato_gajinka, which shows their character laboriously pulling a bicycle around the island. The post is titled, "Don’t you just love riding bikes on your island," and the comments are full of players lamenting the lack of bike-riding in the title.

6 The Ring Toss Is Just For Show

Playground Equipment Creates The Illusion Of Fun

An outdoor playground is one of the most popular elements players like to include in their Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are plenty of outdoor furniture and items that can be used to make a playground, with benches to sit on and playground equipment to climb on. Aside from the benches, though, none of these items are functional.

The ring toss game is one of those playground items players can't actually use, but there are other non-interactive games. The adorable elephant slide cannot be slid down, the jungle gym can't be climbed, the sandbox is off-limits, and the tricycle sits forever un-ridden. As many players also like placing gyroids in the playgrounds in place of "children," it often ends up looking a little bleak, with a whole empty playground full of games and a few kids huddled in the corner, using none of them.

5 Hot Tubs Are Only Usable With A Glitch

Fans Gleefully Glitched Themselves Into All Sorts Of Items

It's not possible to use the hot tub in ACNH, or at least not officially. Fans were beyond thrilled to discover a glitch that allowed them to get into the hot tubs. Originally, the glitch let players get into various objects like hot tubs, a Reddit okayshima_ shows. Plenty of other items were glitched into by other players like juliagreenillo on Reddit, who managed to get their character embedded in a vending machine, a locker, a popcorn maker, and a phone booth.

The glitch was thought to have been patched out, but it was rediscovered by another player, using a different method this time. The amount of joy that fans got out of soaking in the in-game bathtubs makes it clear that Nintendo should just leave the glitch in as a feature. All players want is to be able to enjoy a nice hot virtual bath in peace.

4 Basketball Hoops Don't Lead To Any Exercise

This Hasn't Stopped Players From Building Great Courts

Sporty villagers are a staple of the series, always going on about getting gains and working out. These villagers would feel right at home shooting some hoops with the realistic basketball hoop and ball that can both be purchased from Nook's Cranny. The basketball itself can be interacted with, up to a point. Clicking to interact with the ball will make it bounce up and down, and sometimes villagers will be spotted dribbling the ball.

However, the ball can't actually be moved anywhere other than its starting spot, so it's not possible to play a basketball game. The hoops, as expected, are just for show. This hasn't stopped players like using custom designs, so that even if the ball can't be moved, at least the space will look like a real game.

3 The Teacup Ride And Other Carnival Rides Are Expensive Decor

They Often Lead To Disappointment

The carnival games are both the most exciting and fair chunk of Nook Miles, and get players' hopes up as they expect villagers to use them.

As such, it's all the more disappointing that the teacup ride and the other attractions cannot actually be ridden by the player or villagers. There are countless Reddit and other forum threads of fans trying to find out if villagers can go on the rides, and being extremely disappointed to learn that they, in fact, cannot. Many fans would be thrilled to see their favorite villager having a go spinning around in a giant teacup, but in New Horizons, this just isn't possible.

2 Hot Springs Look So Inviting

Pocket Camp Villagers Can Use Their Hot Springs, Though

In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which has since been replaced by AC: Pocket Camp Complete, a lot of the decor and furniture is actually perfectly usable. Players often get to see their favorite camper friends using the items they've placed around the campsite, creating delightful moments and breathing life into the game.

One item in particular that Pocket Camp villagers can interact with but New Horizons villagers cannot is the hot springs. In a screenshot shared by juanmonmaria on Reddit, several villagers can be seen enjoying the hot springs on a rainy Spring day in Pocket Camp. The scene is incredibly cozy and shows how alive the game could be with more interactive items. The hot spring in New Horizons, by contrast, is wonderfully cozy but can't be interacted with in any way.

1 The Arcade Machines Will Never Have High Scores

But The Pinball Machine Is Functional

There are enough arcades and ardace-themed furniture in ACNH that it's possible to design an entire arcade room in the player's house. There are about a dozen arcade-related items, including three different arcade machines, a gacha, a crane game, and even a fooseball and ping-pong table.

The arcade machines are one of the many items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that feel like they should be interactive but are actually for display only.

Of these, the only arcade-themed furniture item that's actually playable is the pinball machine. Players can interact with the pinball table, sending the ball bouncing around inside the machine and they can even move the flappers. It would be so fun to be able to play with the other arcade machines or even play a game of ping-pong with another villager. Still, the arcade machines are one of the many items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that feel like they should be interactive but are actually for display only.

Source: okayshima_/Reddit, juliagreenillo/Reddit, Donkeygame/Reddit, juanmonmaria/Reddit, potato_gajinka/Reddit