Ever since Nintendo revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening would be getting remastered for the Switch, many fans have started to become quite nostalgic once again for the Game Boy entry. For one fan, this seemingly led to them imagining what each of the 3D iterations of Zelda would have looked like had they been released on the classic handheld itself.
Over on Reddit, u/strimes32 shared a new piece of fan art that they worked on that reimagined exactly this. With the caption reading "If the six main 3D Zelda games came out on the Gameboy Color in 1998..." this Reddit user recreated the opening title screens from all of the 3D Zelda entries starting with Ocarina of Time and ending with the most recent inclusion, Breath of the Wild. From the looming Moon hanging over Clock Town, to the howling of Wolf Link seen in the opening title screen of Twilight Princess, this art shows off every 3D entry in all its newfound 8-bit glory.
What I think I like the most about each of these pieces of art is how accurate the color palette for each is. Seeing all of these entries side-by-side in this manner also just goes to show how unique each of these 3D entries in the Zelda series are compared to one another. While they might follow similar gameplay formulas, each Zelda game is really distinct from one another, especially in terms of tone.
My favorite of the six images here though has to be that of Ocarina of Time. Maybe I just say this because OoT is already my favorite Zelda game--and favorite game of all time, for that matter--but I think that of the six images presented, this seems to be the one that I can actually imagine being on Game Boy Color. In fact, here's a 16-bit rendition of the game's iconic opening theme to help you better imagine what it would have been like on GBC.
You can check out the full piece of art attached in the fan art below. Which of the six do you like the most? Be sure to let me know down in the comments.
If the six main 3D Zelda games came out on the Gameboy Color in 1998... from r/zelda