Who needs Nintendo when you can just build Zelda in Minecraft?

Even though Nintendo keeps a tight grip on its games (up until it decides to cast them into the void forever), ingenious PC users keep finding ways to translate the many, many bonafide gaming classics it owns onto our platform of choice. This time, a YouTuber going by the totally unpronounceable handle of C1ous3r has created a facsimile of the original Legend of Zelda (via Kotaku) entirely within the confines of Minecraft, without downloading additional mods or resource packs.

C1ous3r's process for achieving this remarkable feat was… involved, to say the least. On top of straight-up building the game's overworld from blocks, they used all sorts of tricks to emulate the 2D, 8-bit style of the '80s original, like overlaying a model of a two-dimensional Link on top of Minecraft's wearable carved pumpkin. If you increase the size of the model enough and stick that pumpkin on your head, voila, you look just like Link from a bird's-eye view.

It's not a flawless reproduction. It would have taken an age to actually recreate each of Zelda's myriad enemies, so C1ous3r just made a few of the most common ones instead. Plus, the enemy AI proved to be difficult to implement thanks to Minecraft's inability to generate random numbers, meaning they had to create a weird, circuitous workaround to get those pesky octoroks to perform complex manoeuvres like turning around.

But whatever quick-fixes they had to implement, C1ous3r's final product is remarkably impressive. It's hard to believe that you're looking at something that is still, essentially, Minecraft. You can't play it yourself just yet, it'll only be released if and when the video above gets 5000 likes. I don't think that should be too much of an issue, though.

It's not C1ous3r's first foray into using Minecraft to make games that decidedly aren't Minecraft. They've also made Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. I reckon Zelda is the most impressive one yet, though. Now all we need is Minecraft Mother 3 and I can sell all my Nintendo consoles for good.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.