A rejected idea in New Leaf was to allow the player to pan for gold.

During the conversation with Rover when moving to town, Rover mentions that he hasn't been on a train since 2002. This is a reference to the year of release of the North America release of Animal Crossing, the last time the player moved into town via a train.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there is a tapir named Luna who runs the Dream Suite, where characters go to dream about another's town. She is a tapir because tapirs relate to dreams in Japanese mythology.

When you speak to Gulliver for the first time in the game, he says, "This sure is a fuzzy pickle!" which references EarthBound's photographer.

In the game, Kapp'n sometimes talks about cucumbers. This is because Kapp'n is a Kappa from Japanese folklore. Kappas are seen as very mischievous creatures, but if you give them a cucumber, they are said to leave you alone.

During some conversations with Gulliver, after agreeing to help him remember what country he was headed to, he mentions Ricco Harbor, a location from Super Mario Sunshine. In another conversation with him, he will at one point state how small your town's port is. He will then talk about another port he visited called Isle Delfino, the main setting of Super Mario Sunshine.

The character Gulliver makes a few references to older Nintendo games. One of these references is about the side character Bobbery from Rougeport in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

In the Tourism Trailer for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there is a character in the front wearing a shirt that says "NTDO 1889". This is a reference to Nintendo's founding in 1889.

Hidden in the game is Totaka's Song, a short 19-note melody commonly hidden in the games that the composer Kazumi Totaka has worked on. The song is found in Club LOL and is part of any song that DJ KK is playing.

On the official UK website, clicking on K.K. Slider in the background will play Totaka's Song.

The monkey villager Champ was originally intended to appear in New Leaf, but was replaced by the new character Flip, who is also a jock and a monkey, for unknown reasons.

Sitting under the Town Tree and waiting for a moment will cause a list of the town's accomplishments, villagers, and other facts will scroll on the screen like credits.

According to an "Iwata Asks" interview, the reduction of Mr. Resetti's duties to an optional event (where they could only see him by developing the Reset Surveillance Center, which only appears as a Public Works Project after resetting the game once) was not only to mirror the Japanese government's budget revisions, but also because Resetti was considered annoying by many players, and made younger ones cry on some occasions. Yet, he still appeared due to the amount of positive attention towards him from the fanbase.

If three holes are dug around the player while near a certain part of the river, the camera will shake violently and allow the player to trip into the river and walk around if they are wearing a King Tut's mask or has bad luck that day. This can be done to allow public works projects to be put into the river or ocean, as well as flowers to be planted there.

At 3:33am on Sundays, and Mondays, a UFO will interrupt the white noise static that is shown on TV, followed by an alien delivering a message. The alien broadcast lasts for a minute before going back to static.

When travelling to the Wi-Fi Tropical Island, Kapp'n will whistle Totaka's song after about 3 minutes if the internet connection is slow.

When you talk to Gulliver he will mention The Overthere, a reference to Chapter 7 in Super Paper Mario.

If you watch TV early in the morning, you may see a short exercise program. This is a real exercise program that is shown every morning in Japan called "Raijio Taisou", or "Radio Exercise".

During early development, Isabelle didn't have a real name, but was instead referred to as simply "Secretary" (ひしょ, Hisho). In the Japanese final release, her name is Shizu (しずえ), likely as a reference to her breed of dog, a Shih Tzu.

A new day in the game begins at 6am. If the player is playing when this happens, Isabelle will make an announcement telling everyone to get up, and a loading screen will come up. The game will then save, and teleport the player to their house.