The de-make is a burgeoning genre in the world of fan games. These unique projects take an established video game title, usually one from a long-running series, and re-imagine it with the graphics and gameplay of older or less powerful hardware. A Nintendo 64 game could be re-imagined as an NES or Game Boy title, or a GameCube game could be re-imagined as a Super NES or Game Boy Advance title. With the recent release of high-profile de-makes like Prime 2D (a 2D re-imagining of Metroid Prime) and Yarntown (a 2D re-imagining of Bloodborne), we wanted to gauge interest in Legend of Zelda de-makes developed or officially endorsed by Nintendo.

The Zelda series is no stranger to fan-driven de-make projects. YouTube’s Nintendo Wire has released a series of popular Zelda de-make animations, as console Zelda titles are re-imagined for the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, or Atari 2600. And in 2019, visual effects artist The Regressor released a de-make trailer for Breath of the Wild‘s sequel that presented the upcoming title as a Nintendo 64 game. Nintendo and the Zelda team have even dabbled in de-make pursuits, as the developers of Breath of the Wild tested the game’s mechanics in an NES-style 2D prototype.

So, with the idea of Zelda de-makes already gestating out there among fans and Nintendo’s own, do you think there’s a strong market for official, commercially released Zelda de-makes?

I personally would love to see Nintendo re-imagine 3D Zelda titles in a 2D style reminiscent of A Link to the Past or The Minish Cap. While it would take some work to translate their game worlds to a lesser dimension, the presentations and core progression systems of games like Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Twilight Princess are not completely incompatible with the 2D Zelda formula. Save for some characters and scenarios, Ocarina of Time is almost a 3D re-imagining of A Link to the Past already; the game could easily be retrofitted to look and feel like an SNES adventure. And I’d buy the heck out of it.

But what do you think? Would you buy a Legend of Zelda de-make officially developed by Nintendo? Is there a strong market for such de-make projects? Do you think Nintendo would even humor the idea? Join the debate in the comments below!

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