Zayn Malik has spoken about his love of Yu-Gi-Oh! after taking part in a Master Duel tournament.

After weeks of teasing, the former One Direction star was unmasked as the celebrity duelist Nocturne during a livestreamed Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel event at the end of last month.

“Yeah, I’m a big, big Yu-Gi-Oh! fan. I’ve been into Yu-Gi-Oh! for a long time, since I was a small kid, so it’s an honour to be here, to do this, and it was very exciting,” he said during the tournament (via Billboard) before showing off his childhood collection of cards.

Now in a new interview with IGN, Malik has revealed how much of his musical career has been inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh!.

“I wouldn’t say Yu-Gi-Oh! necessarily influenced my music sense,” he admitted. “But the sentiment of the entire show is [that] if you work hard and your intentions are in the right place, you can prevail. And that’s definitely something I took in my life.”

“I always like to pretend I’m the protagonist in my own version of an anime and I’m going to overcome,” he continued. “I think that’s something people could take from Yu-Gi-Oh! in general. When I’m writing, even though times are difficult, it doesn’t mean you can’t overcome it with a lot of hard work and perseverance.”

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He went on to reveal that he got into the franchise by playing Yu-Gi-Oh! on his GameBoy Advance SP but has also enjoyed more recent titles as well. Malik then offered developers “a few pointers” for future Yu-Gi-Oh! Games. “I don’t how you guys feel about it, but I’d like to see the actual character come out of the card more rather than it just be a cutscene. So you see the character on the battlefield and then maybe, when you actually attack, the two characters actually fight like they’re doing in the anime.”

Speaking at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel event, Malik also teased “some pretty big announcements, so if you’re interested in my music at all, I’ve got some cool news coming pretty soon.” He also jokingly referred to his next album as “Yami Yugi” after the protagonist in the anime.

Earlier this year, Zayn Malik played his first ever solo show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire in support of his country-inspired fourth album ‘Room Under The Stairs‘.

In other news, an upgraded version of the PlayStation 5 is coming out later this year.