In addition to playing “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” and other video games, Danny Trejo has frequently worked as an actor in the interactive medium. His video game voice credits include Raul the Ghoul in “Fallout: New Vegas,” Umberto Robina in “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories,” and a cameo appearance in “Far Cry 6.” He voiced a character bearing his last name and likeness in the street-fighting game “Def Jam: Fight for New York” and has popped up a couple of times in the “Call of Duty: Black Ops” series.
Perhaps Trejo’s most unique game appearance came in the 2010 PlayStation Move motion-control street-fighting game “The Fight: Lights Out.” Rather than simply recording voice lines for the game, the actor filmed a whole series of dimly lit full-motion-video cutscenes in a warehouse, in which he aggressively instructs the player on how to do things like punch and headbutt. It’s not exactly a great game, nor is it one of Trejo’s best on-screen performances, but it is absolutely one of his strangest.
Nintendo isn’t normally the kind of company to give first-party game cameos to major celebrities. There may not be a place for Trejo as an actor in the “Animal Crossing” series (the speech is all gibberish), but if he’s still playing “New Horizons” four years after its initial release, it seems he’s content simply being a fan. And if Tom Nook comes knocking and asking for more bells, he may meet his match with Machete.
