One fan manages to create a demake of one of The Legend of Zelda series' critically maligned Philips CD-i entries, Zelda's Adventure, onto the Game Boy handheld. Fanmade demakes have been a consistently appearing concept within video game communities, where fans wonder what a modern game would look like if it was constrained to the hardware of an older platform. Fans have shown off what games like Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and even Resident Evil 4's remake would look like retrofitted onto older tech. Sometimes fans will remake a game that was much less successful, like the infamous The Legend of Zelda Philips CD-i games.For those unaware, these were three exclusive games released in the 1990s under a deal between Nintendo and Philips. The first two were side-scrolling platformers in a similar vein to Zelda 2 on the NES, while the third one, Zelda's Adventure, was a top-down adventure similar to the first NES game and Zelda: A Link to the Past. Without supervision from Nintendo however, they were all criticized for being incredibly mediocre and ugly looking. While Nintendo would rather keep these games condemned by history, there are some fans interested in the Zelda CD-i games, critically maligned as they are. One fan made a demake of the third game to fit on the Game Boy.This was created by John Lay, an Irish indie game developer who released this demake for absolutely free on the itch.io website. Unlike other games in the series, this title sees Princess Zelda saving a captured Link from Ganon. According to Lay, the concept was interesting enough that he thought it'd be fun to play on a portable system. As a result, he chose the Game Boy as the intended platform, with the aesthetics of Link's Awakening and features of the Zelda Oracle duology.
This demake is a complete port of the original CD-i game, being developed with GB Studio, a retro game creator that can specifically make Game Boy titles. An accompanying video that Lay posted to Twitter showed comparisons between the two. The work that went into this is impressive, giving the game a retro feel, with little loading in-between rooms. Fans can play this remake of Zelda's Adventure either through a browser or even on the original Game Boy hardware.
This isn't the first time that a developer took to remaking a game from the Zelda Philips' CD-i trilogy. One fan remade versions of the previous two entries, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon in 2020, which includes widescreen, subtitles, and revamped gameplay. It's likely that Nintendo won't ever acknowledge these games intentionally, but fans are dedicated enough to keep the memory of these games alive.
The Zelda's Adventure demake is available for free via itch.io download.
Source: MyNintendoNews