Breath of the Wild demake demo found on an AliExpress DS flashcard
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild marked a huge step for the Zelda series, taking the beloved franchise and throwing it into a new and untested open world format. With much critical acclaim to the game’s name, it should be no surprise to see a huge variety of fan projects and mods. Though some have been shut down by Nintendo themselves, including the fantastic randomizer from Waikuteru, others continue to flourish, the Retro Wild project to reimagine the game’s version of Hyrule in the style of Link’s Awakening being the first to spring to mind.
Earlier this week, a relatively obscure demake of Breath of the Wild for the DS surfaced on Reddit. Included as a ROM on a flashcard purchased via AliExpress, this demo features the entirety of Hyrule, as well as a themed model of Link. Though all you’re able to do is run through the low-poly world, the scale and accuracy of it remains quite impressive. Perhaps more impressive is the fact this demo has gone completely under the radar for western audiences, despite videos on bilibili dating as far back as February of 2019.
For those just interested in taking a cursory glance, a short video of the demo has been uploaded by YouTuber JustJasen. The ROM itself does appear to be floating around online if you're wanting to dig deeper, though I wasn’t able to find a direct link myself. No information is available on the developer of the demo, but given the amount of time that's passed since the original bilibili videos, it should be assumed no further progress was made on the project.
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