Nintendo will never remake Zelda: A Link to the Past in HD-2D, so a fan is doing it instead

Credit: JoggingThruThe6 / Reddit Published Oct 13, 2026, 1:47 PM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. Sign in to your XDA account Summary This impressive-looking HD-2D remaster of Zelda: A Link to the Past features a tilted 3D look, weather, a day/night cycle, NPC schedules, and dual-screen support. Its creator hasn't set a release date yet, so it's unclear when it will release. For the project to survive, it needs to avoid offering copyrighted assets for download. When I cover retro game recompilation/decompilations at XDA, I usually try to be pretty selective, and in most cases, the game actually needs to be playable or, at the very least, groundbreaking in some way. This Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past HD-2D remake I stumbled across on Reddit definitely breaks one of those rules since it seems to be very early in development. However, it's undeniably cool, and something Nintendo will likely never actually release itself. Of course, it's important to note that this project is being made with AI assistance, like so many other recent old-school game PC ports. According to JoggingThruThe6, they've "been working on this for the past few days" and the video was just "tossed together to quickly highlight some things." They've been testing the port on their AYN Thor, a dual-screen, Android-based handheld, but recorded the video with the game running on their Mac. The port aims to retain the overall visual style of the SNES classic, but with a slightly tilted perspective that makes it look more three-dimensional, weather effects, a longer, more detailed intro sequence, and even a day and night cycle. Other new features include NPC schedules, better enemy AI, and a dual-screen mode. The trailer shows off a very brief look at the game, but it's hard not to be impressed by the port, even in this early state. It's unclear when this HD-2D remake of A Link to the Past will release Keeping copyrighted assets out of the mix is key to its survival JoggingThruThe6 says they're looking for artists to collaborate on the project. They also mention that they're "not sure" when they'll consider releasing it. Whenever the port does drop, hopefully its creator leaves all copyrighted Nintendo-owned assets out of the mix, because the Japanese gaming giant's army of lawyers will almost certainly go after them. The best approach is to require players to use their own Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ROM that they've ripped themselves or acquired elsewhere, given this protects it from a legal perspective and ensures it won't get instantly pulled from the internet the moment it launches. In other retro game PC port-related news, a Super Smash Bros. port is on the way that's made entirely by humans and not AI.