Earlier this week, social media went aflutter as a dev decided to throw together an unofficial Link’s Awakening remake, which of course, Nintendo didn’t like. The Japanese gaming giant is known to go great lengths to protect its IPs at basically all cost.
As reported by IGN, the game was uploaded to Itch.io by linksawakeningdxhd, putting up a PC version complete with widescreen support, HD visuals, and 120fps scrolling. That is to say, it was rather quickly found by dedicated Nintendo fanatics looking for their next Zelda fix. Granted, it didn’t seem like the person behind the remake was all that interested in better it, whether that’s because they knew it would just get taken down once it hits even the slightest bit of popularity or it’s possible the dev just isn’t as invested in the project as many would hope.
Basically, as soon as the game was finished, it was radio silence from its developer, and now it’s taken down due to copyright woes. It is worth pointing out that while many can point at a ton of projects Nintendo has stopped, this Link’s Awakening remake does come after the Japanese dev’s own remake back in 2019.
This is all to more or less say that the developer knew it was only a matter of time before Nintendo’s lawyers came a-knocking and they just weren’t gonna have that.
Well, the Link's Awakening port got taken down. Something curious I would like to point out, this port came out of nowhere, we don't know who made it and the author shipped it with assets including source code.
Whoever made it this knew what they were doing all along. https://t.co/OU56BbaiY3 pic.twitter.com/NTsyaUl2tw
— VinÃcius Medeiros (@VinciusMedeiro6) December 15, 2023