Dreams are home to many things. They hold beautiful things that leave your heart aching upon awakening, but they also hold dark and dreadful things that send your heartbeat racing as you shoot up in bed, trying to remind yourself that it’s all just a figment left behind in dreamland. Because of Link’s Awakening, there will always be a connection between the Zelda series and dreams.
A recent update for Nintendo’s newest mega-smash hit Switch title Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows you to go visit another player’s dream island and experience all of the adventure and thrills that that player has designed. Some players choose to combine Tom Nook’s island-themed lesson in capitalism with The Legend of Zelda. While there have been many great islands like this, I’ve found none quite as amazing as Daega’s New Hyrule.
Upon entering the dream code (DA-9114-1462-2579) and drifting off, your villager awakes on a bed in the middle of New Hyrule. Taking a few steps away from this starting point, you’ll soon be met by your first sprinkling of Zelda. Daega of New Hyrule has made expert use of pixel art to decorate the ground of his village in multiple areas. You’ll walk across the giant green rocks from A Link to the Past only to meet a familiar scarecrow, and intrepid explorers will find a familiar grumbling, grump as well as one of the legion of old men taking a midnight stroll outside of his 8-bit cave.
My favorite example of Daega’s foot-height pixel art lies in an area reminiscent of the Lost Woods. Familiar flowers and bushes from A Link to the Past litter the ground as The Hero of Legend stands before the Blade of Evil’s Bane, praising your villager’s inquisitive nature and adventurous spirit.
As masterful as Daega’s pixel art is, their masterpiece is in the use of various houses on the island to recall different games in the Zelda series. As you enter the various abodes, you’ll find yourself met with clues both obvious and obscure. I honestly preferred the rooms that got my puzzle-solving juices flowing because examining each little detail, and trying to decipher what game was being referenced only reinforced the connection to the Zelda series. Daega’s ability to create these subtle hints and leave the rest up to the player to piece together shows artistry not always present in New Horizons’s dream islands.
Upon entering one such house, I was met by a polished, temple-like floor and three pedestals that held star fragments corresponding to the colors of courage, power, and wisdom. My daughter immediately tied these to the virtues of the Triforce, but I took my time and soon came to a realization that they felt absolutely spiritual. I couldn’t help but have my villager use the surprised reaction as I realized what game this room was from.
A different house was absolutely cluttered with all kinds of items. I slowly worked my way around the different wares (someone really needed to make a sale) in pursuit of the door to the back room. In contrast to the jam-packed room I had just left, this room was extremely sparse, having no furniture, only art. What vile painter had left these masterpieces hidden alone in this house? My pondering quickly came to a close as I hit upon the answer. Feeling emboldened, I sidled up to the packed walls in the previous room and slowly worked my way to another domicile.
Upon entering my daughter’s favorite of the houses, I found myself lost in the woods with a familiar ocarina sitting quietly on a log stool, inviting me to sit and play for a while. Heading north, south, east, or west leads you to a variety of different regions. The heating and air conditioning bill in this house must take quite a few Bells!
As you make your way around the island, you’ll also run into a few familiar, Hyrulean faces. Rather than spoil too many of the surprises, I’ll only mention my favorite of these villagers: a princess who gives you a command familiar to Zelda fans.
Beyond these actual villagers, you can also see a creatively designed Goron in one of the houses. In this case, Daega designed a dress down to the smallest detail to look like the familiar, rocky friends and displayed it on a stand in a room decorated with wallpaper that looks like dripping magma. This particular creation blew my mind. I would have never thought to use a dress to replicate a resident of Death Mountain, but that just goes to show the difference between Daega and I. They are an Animal Crossing artist, and I am not.
After spending entirely too much time exploring New Hyrule, I knew it was time to go back to my own island which my daughter ironically named Koholint. My villager awoke splayed out on the bed, sad to have left New Hyrule but happy with the knowledge that all of its mysteries (many of which I’ve left for you to discover) are a sleep and dream code away.
