If you’ve been longing for an official remake of the original Legend of Zelda on the NES, then chances are you’ll have a pretty hefty wait on your hands. Thankfully, then, you can at least assuage your pain by checking out the latest gameplay video of an unofficial remake from fan Lloyd Empty (thanks, Wccftech). It’s been up for a little while at this point, but hey, it’s never too late to highlight excellent projects like this.
Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, the video showcases the game from the beginning, albeit with some interesting alterations to the structure and dialogue. Link will no longer receive a sword from the Old Man; instead, you need to venture into the basement and solve some simple puzzles before you can get yourself equipped.
Empty has been working on the remake for several years at this point, so what’s particularly interesting is that you can go back to some of his older videos and see just how much the project has progressed and evolved. It looks pretty great. Granted, there are some janky animations here and there, but visually, it looks remarkably similar to Nintendo’s own Switch remake of Link’s Awakening, released in 2019.
Looking at the finer details, Empty has been utilising Unreal Engine for this project alongside tools like FMOD, Blender, and Gimp. In what is likely an effort to avoid Nintendo’s wrath, Empty has also clarified that the game will not be released as a playable demo, so folks will simply have to make do with the video for now.
