The Legend of Zelda is a gaming series with many hit releases across different Nintendo platforms that are considered iconic. At the same time, even the Zelda series isn’t impervious to having a few big misses in its portfolio. Some of those missteps for the series happened on one of the worst game consoles of all time, the Philips CD-i. But one of the forgotten games from Zelda’s past may have been saved from purgatory and remade into a Game Boy port.
Zelda’s Adventure, a long-forgotten Zelda game that isn’t tied to the main series by Nintendo, has gotten a Game Boy port released on Itch.io by one indie developer named John Lay. On April 29th, John released the port of Zelda’s Adventure online, which caught the attention of many Zelda fans for how he approached remaking what was universally considered a terrible Zelda game. The port was made using GB Studio, with music composed by retro music composer Beastscribe.
Proud to release a complete port of Zelda's Adventure for the Game Boy.
Zelda's forgotten CDi game is now available to download!https://t.co/LOsk0DjrbS
Made with @GBStudioDev. Music composed by @beatscribemusic.@gbs_central, @DouggernaughtTV, @thedopster #gameboy #Zelda pic.twitter.com/fLQ5NvgAzO
— John Lay (@johnlay_) April 29, 2023
The port of the game is done in a similar style as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy Color. The original game was made as a side scroller and not developed by Nintendo, so it looks very different compared to the Zelda games of that era. So in keeping with the traditional visual style of the series and in a similar form to The Legend of Zelda Oracle games, John decided to go with that approach.
On his website, John gave some insight into how he made the game and his reasoning behind the port. “Zelda’s Adventure looked interesting and I thought it would be fun to play on a portable system. I chose the Game Boy because of the existing Zelda games on the system. The game sticks to the aesthetics of Link’s Awakening but also incorporates some features from Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. This is a complete port of the CD-i original and was developed in GB Studio, with a few modifications…I hope you enjoy playing the game as much as enjoyed making it.”
Zelda’s Adventure was originally released for the CD-i back in 1994. It was a game that mixed up the Zelda formula at the time, putting players in control of Princess Zelda as she tries to save Link from the forces of the evil Ganon. The game was universally panned by critics at the time and retroactively over the years by fans, as well as being disowned by Nintendo completely.
It’s possible that this remade version of the game, done in the same way as better Zelda games of the time, might expose Zelda fans to a part of the franchise’s history that could have turned out very differently. Anyone that was looking to play John’s Game Boy port of Zelda’s Adventure can do so through the Itch.io page.
Are you a big fan of The Legend of Zelda series? Will you be checking out this new version of Zelda’s Adventure? Post a comment down below and share your thoughts about everything!
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