Daily Debate: If Nintendo Developed a Zelda Game for Arcades, What Should it Look and Play Like?
Posted on February 17 2024 by Kristen G. Rosario
Growing up, one of my favorite places to go to any time I would visit the mall was Tilt Arcade. No matter if I was broke, or had the money to try my hand at just one cabinet, it was always a joy just to be there. The lights, the sounds, and the noises you could only hear at an arcade are what truly stands out from my experiences there. Nowadays, arcades have become more of a novelty than a go-to hang out spot. One of the last times I even went to an “arcade” of sorts was my local Dave & Busters.
While I was there, I discovered that Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was converted into an on-rail shooter game, wherein you play through each of the mansions busting ghosts using a realistic Poltergust. While I didn’t exactly do the best when playing the cabinet, I still had an entertaining time overall. There was even a time prior to that where I played an arcade version of Mario Kart that featured playable guest characters like Pac-Man. It was so surreal to see that after all of these years, Nintendo was letting a couple of their properties return to the arcade scene.
Since nostalgia has gotten the better of me in recent years, I thought about what would happen if the Big N themselves took the Zelda series and brought it to the world of arcades. However, I wouldn’t just want them to do with what they did with Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and simply convert a game from the franchise into an arcade format. I was thinking of something more along the likes of Castelvania: The Arcade or even Halo: Fireteam Raven, where they had their own plots based within their respective franchises.
The simplest answer for a Zelda-style arcade game would be something akin to Link’s Crossbow Training. The title already has the foundation for an on-rail shooter arcade cabinet, so you can have the weapon controllers for the game be whatever ability Link wields. It could be based between the events of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and have it be centered around Link trying out a new prototype weapon from a race like the Gerudo or Sheikah clan. Link would go around each and every region of Hyrule testing out the weapon, eventually leading to a final confrontation with one of the forms of Ganon.
A more unique choice would be doing something that has a core similar to that of not only the 1984 Namco arcade classic, The Tower of Druaga, but the 1985 Atari title Gauntlet. For those unaware, games like The Tower of Druaga and Gauntlet were action RPGs where you played noble warriors tasked with climbing/tackling a specific structure in order to defeat the main villain. Each level was maze-based, so you would have to navigate your way through every floor as you battled monsters during your climb.
Converting the original concept from The Tower of Druaga and Gauntlet into something Zelda-related wouldn’t be that difficult of a problem. There’s only a small release window difference between those two titles and the original The Legend of Zelda, so they’re already on similar wavelengths. I could see it be something like a two-player maze-like dungeon crawler where you can play as either Link or Princess Zelda. Perhaps a powerful fairy has been captured by Ganon, and now you are tasked with climbing his infamous tower in order to save them.
You can also throw in a lot iconic enemies and mini-bosses from the series, while even adding a few new surprises. Each floor can have a similar task like with The Tower of Druaga and Gauntlet, where you have to find complete a certain objective within each floor maze in order to progress. Maybe every few floors or so, you run into a shopkeeper of sorts and there you can buy upgrades for your gear using the rupees you gathered throughout your climb. Visually, the entire game could be done in the style of what we’ve seen from the remake of Link’s Awakening as that’s an appealing style that I would love to see get another chance.
If Nintendo developed a Zelda game for arcades, what should it look and play like? Is there any specific arcade genre you would like the series to tackle? Let us know in the comments below!
Kristen G. Rosario is an Editor who joined Zelda Dungeon back in September of 2015. His current goal is to become a full-time video game journalist, hoping to eventually gain a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. While he pursues that dream, he not only takes care of his adorable dachshund Angel, but also helps run a YouTube channel with his brother. The Zelda series is a quest he hasn’t fully completed yet, but hopes to get there one day.
