Link’s Awakening is Re-Imagined as an Atari 2600 Game in this Fan Animation
Posted on April 08 2019 by Rod Lloyd
The folks at Nintendo Wire have been hitting it out of the park with their series of “de-make” animation videos, as they show off what certain video games would look if they were released on relatively older hardware. We’ve seen the team re-imagine Breath of the Wild as a Game Boy Color game and Ocarina of Time as a Game Boy Advance game, just to name a few. Nintendo Wire has gone even further back with their latest de-make video, presenting 1993’s Link’s Awakening as an Atari 2600 game.
This latest addition to Nintendo Wire’s de-make series is perhaps the craziest we’ve seen. Link’s Awakening — which is coincidently expecting a Nintendo Switch remake later this year — is transformed into an early 8-bit title, not unlike the Atari 2600 classic Adventure. Link is a single green block, Koholint Island is a series of multi-colored mazes, and the game’s soundtrack is suitably lo-fi.
Even though this version of Link’s Awakening is drastically different from what we saw on the Game Boy, I still found myself recognizing specific areas and screens. Even with the nondescript visuals, I was able to identify Madame MeowMeow’s house (and BowWow) and Toronbo Shores. Nintendo Wire certainly deserves a lot of praise for their attention to detail… while having few details to work with!
What did you think of the animation? Were you able to recognize parts of Link’s Awakening amongst the blocks? Let us know in the comments.
Rod Lloyd is the Editor-In-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, overseeing the news and feature content for the site. Rod is considered the veteran of the writing team, having started writing for Zelda Informer in 2014 as a Junior Editor. After ZD and ZI officially merged in 2017, he stepped into the Managing Editor role and has helped steer the ship ever since. He stepped up to lead the writing team as Editor-In-Chief in 2023.
You can reach Rod at: rod.lloyd@zeldadungeon.net
