Nintendo uploads musical performance of 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' theme song

A tweet showing Japanese musicians performing the theme song while in quarantine has gone viral with more than 106,000 likes

The musicians behind the 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' theme song. 

It's the first soothing and calming thing you hear when you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. One of the biggest video game releases of the year, Nintendo has now uploaded a video showing the wholesome theme song being performed by the musicians who created it.

Consisting of Eric Miyashiro (flugelhorn), Tetsuro Toyama (acoustic guitar/ukulele), Mataro (percussion), Takashi Ebinuma (double bass), Saburo Tanooka (accordion), and Nobuyuki Aoyagi (mixing engineer), who recorded the official theme music for the Nintendo Switch game, the musicians got together virtually during quarantine to record a new rendition of the tune.

The tweet from Tom Nook (everyone’s favourite debt collector in the game) showing the performance has now gone viral with almost 35,000 retweets and more than 106,000 likes in 24 hours.

Since being released on March 20, the game has found success all around the world. It's also been known to be popular with celebrities such as Elijah Wood, Brie Larson and Mark Hoppus among others.

It's the fifth release in the Animal Crossing series, which first premiered in 2001. The fourth iteration, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, debuted in 2012, meaning fans have had an eight-year wait for the latest addition.

The popular game, which has a 9.1 rating on Metacritic, can be played on the Nintendo Switch and is a real-time life simulation that allows players to live a relaxed life in the outdoors, and meet up with friends online in the game, which is helpful considering we're still urged to practise social distancing.