Crossover isn’t new to Nintendo games. When playing Link’s Awakening, we noted the Mario influences. Similarly, Zelda characters, along with other Nintendo franchise stars, regularly engage in Super Smash battles. It got us to thinking: What if the Legend of Zelda met up with another of our favorite games, Animal Crossing New Horizons? [1] Not in a brawl; we’ll leave that concept to the Smash Brothers. Instead, let’s imagine a game in which Zelda characters inhabit the Animal Crossing world. And for purposes of narrowing the possibilities, we focus on New Horizons.
Obviously, the island representative must be Link. After all, in ACNH, the island representative is the one who does all the work. Need to build a new museum? The island representative donates the exhibits. Need to build a bridge? The representative gathers the bells necessary to pay the costs. Yeah, we know, allegedly other villagers contribute, but if we waited for the villagers to fund a bridge, we’d still be vaulting across streams. And let’s not forget that the villagers expect the island representative to return lost items, settle intra-island squabbles, and accept their castoff clothing in trade for Link’s shiny new items.
Island Representative: It’s so Link. After all, who’s been handling Hyrule’s to-do list for millennia?
As we consider other casting crossovers, we have no choice but to assign Princess Zelda to Isabelle’s duties. It pains us, we admit, to imagine the daring (when she’s not sleeping) Princess Zelda making the morning announcements on the island PA system. But somebody’s got to do it. And we find Isabelle just about as bossy as Zelda when it comes to telling us – umm, Link – what to do.
To round out the Big Three, we need someone to assume the role of Tom Nook, the island developer. Known as Tom Crook by many, he isn’t the lovable old racoon he purports to be. A half-million bells for expanded closet space? Shoot, it makes Hestu’s Korok seed demands seem a pittance. He’s a villain, to be sure. Thus, we install Ganon as the evil developer of the new island of Hyrule.
What about Blathers, the island museum curator? Here we suggest Zelda’s father, occasionally known as the Old Man. After all, Blathers hangs out in the museum, dispensing wisdom, and is terrified of insects. (We can’t say for certain that the Old Man is likewise entomophobic, but the dispensing wisdom part is spot on.)
Self-effacing retailer Beedle stands in for Timmy and Tommy. The Able sisters’ tailor shop? Clearly we’re going to be selling armor there, not just kimonos and tee-shirts, so the choices are legion. Perhaps a rotating cast of shopkeepers overseen by Kilton.
With the main cast settled, Link the Island Representative is ready to enjoy paradise. That is, he would enjoy paradise, if not for those pesky villagers….
Princess Zelda: Good morning! It’s 9:25 am on Tuesday, the 1st day of March, a brisk Rhinoc day. Today we have a visitor at the Campsite. Let’s give our guest a big Hyrulean welcome. And with that, I’ll get back to sleeping!
Inexplicably wearing a comedian’s jacket (albeit green), pilot shades, and a small silk hat – must have been on sale at Kilton’s – Link emerges from his home. It’s the best one yet, with more rooms and more furniture than his humbler abode outside Hateno Village (and clearly an improvement over the treehouses of previous games). Link being Link, however, the interior décor is still plain: log furniture and simple Hebran rugs, except for the recently added golden toilet, which brought his Hapless Home Academy score up 10 points.
Link checks his mail – egad, that Gerudo woman is still sending him flirty invitations to dinner! – before trundling off to Hyrule Island’s campsite. He hopes for a Cranky or a Snooty Villager to diversify the island’s personality.
Holy Triforce, the visiting camper is a Golden Lynel. This one must be a Cranky Villager.
Golden Lynel: Hello, my name is Lionel. I’m looking for a place to roam around terrorizing folks. Forget High Card, Low Card. Want to play a game of Charge and Destroy? If you win, I’ll give you my used curry brush.
Donning Majora’s Mask, which might be cheating but hey, this is a Lynel we’re talking about, Link wins the game. Chat ensues in which Lionel the Lynel professes his dearest wish to move to Hyrule. Unfortunately, all plots on the island are taken. Link hopes to oust the Jock villager, a Yiga who keeps appearing out of thin air to harass the poor Peppy villager, a Korok named Tufi, which sends Tufi into hiding time and again, requiring Link to be perpetually looking under rocks and chopping down trees. Besides, the Yiga is annoying with his constant flexing of muscles while holding an aerial pose. With this scheme in mind, Link sends Lionel on his own side quest to find a home site.
To Link’s dismay, Ganon, the island developer, suggests booting a Sisterly Goron named Gorock to make room for the visiting Lynel. Accordingly, Gorock is summoned at a very rude hour.
Gorock: Link, buddy! Here, take this giant boulder! I bought an extra, wouldn’t you know it? I insist you have it. And haven’t I warned you about running around in your Tingles armor? You’ll catch your death of cold! Say, why don’t I come visit you at your house? We can play High Card Low Card!
(What is it with these Gorons and their perpetual good humor, even when being roused before breakfast or shot out of a cannon? Link decides that Ganon’s suggestion of booting Gorock just might have merit. Gorock exits stage left. Lionel moves in and promptly starts a fight with his nearest neighbor, Hestu.)
Link wiles away the day collecting seashells, picking flowers, catching crickets, and throwing bombs into the ocean to catch fish. (Hey, this is a crossover game, so some literary license is allowed!) Night falls, and as Link strolls the island seeking kinder, gentler adventures than he is used to in Hyrule, he is suddenly attacked and stung by the Moldoroch scorpion boss. This being Animal Crossovers, however, he is not punished with a glaring GAME OVER sign. He’s simply returned to his house from which he once again emerges, ready to gather more crickets and perhaps pick some pumpkins to throw at Lionel…
Sigh. We rather like this crossover idea. Lord knows it sounds easier than the Hero’s Path we normally tread in Hyrule and its environs! More on that in a future post.
[1] Clever readers will note that there have been minor Zelda crossovers into the Animal Crossing world already, in the form of a Peppy Horse Villager named Epona and a past appearance of Wolflink. We take this a step further. We always do.