Summary
- One tenacious New Horizons fan recreated some key story moments from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the latest Animal Crossing game.
- The author described the video as "so much work," but noted they'd like to remake the rest of TOTK in New Horizons as well.
One extremely dedicated fan has managed to recreate some of the key moments from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Besides serving as a testament to the author's tenaciousness, this impressive achievement also underlines the incredible design flexibility that Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers to players.
Recreating scenes from popular media is a favorite in-game pastime among many fans of titles like Animal Crossing, which offer players immense creative control over their surroundings. In one of the latest examples of this trend, someone recreated the most iconic Twin Peaks moments in Animal Crossing: New Horizons back in early 2025.
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Continuing this pattern, one dedicated fan has recently shared a similar tribute to the latest mainline Zelda game, even going as far as to make a whole new YouTube channel for it, aptly called ACV-TotK. With a runtime of over seven minutes, their video has enough time to reimagine quite a few Tears of the Kingdom story moments in great detail, testifying to its author's attention to detail.
Zelda: TOTK Movie in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
ACV-TotK's video mostly focuses on the opening hours of Tears of the Kingdom,, starting with Link and Zelda's journey to the mysterious ruins beneath Hyrule Castle. While the player had to get a bit creative with their portrayal of zombie Ganondorf since New Horizons doesn't feature anything that looks remotely similar while still being creepy, the overall result is still extremely authentic, to the point it's unmistakably a recreation of the newest mainline Zelda game.
The fan video also includes a succinct retelling of Link's Great Sky Island exploits at the beginning of Tears of the Kingdom. Parts of the video combine footage from both games, while making liberal use of TOTK's musical leitmotifs and sound effects. Reflecting on this achievement, ACV-TotK—who goes by "PumpkIntestines11111" on Reddit—described the video as "so much hard work," though they did not specify how long it took to produce.
Regardless, this Tears of the Kingdom recreation is yet another example of the extensive customization options available in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While the franchise has long emphasized home decor and character customization, New Horizons is the first entry to feature a fully editable map with robust terraforming tools. Whether because of this shift or another reason, the game achieved historic success—selling 47 million units by the end of 2024, thus more than tripling the lifetime sales of the series’ second-best-selling entry, New Leaf. Given this trajectory, it's plausible that the next Animal Crossing title will continue as a full-fledged decoration game in the vein of New Horizons.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- March 20, 2020
- ESRB
- Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Expansions
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
