Legend of Zelda Hack Finally Puts Zelda In The Starring Role

Hey, remember how a dad hacked a copy of Donkey Kong, so his daughter could save Mario as Pauline, instead of the other way around like usual?

When Kenna W saw the story, it got her thinking. And with some help from her boyfriend, they took the original Legend of Zelda and produced the following:

The co-creator explains on her blog her motivations:

"For me, I played my first Zelda game when I was pretty young, and at the time, I thought the game did star Princess Zelda. I figured I'd get to play as a magical battle princess that saved her kingdom. The game was fun, but I was bummed out that I never got to play as Zelda. But like I said, I'm an adult now. There's no one to stop me from eating candy before bed and there's nothing standing in the way of me creating the games I want to play."

So not only does the hack help to empower one of the most famous and longest running damsels in distress, but it's perfect for those who are still, to this very day, confused as to why Zelda isn't the star of the show, despite her name being in the title.

Kenna goes on to explain how the mod was created, by detailing the tools used, including advice to those who wish to customize sprites in the game themselves. Like the following:

"Take care to REALLY make sure you've really hunted down every instance of the tiles you want to edit. Link's "Large-Shield walk cycle" appears in two completely different parts of the code and Zelda's "Standing" and "arms raised" animations are on two different lines."

Though most interesting of all is the feedback she received from friends that she showed the mod to:

"My friends have all had very strong emotions to the switch of Zelda and Link — all positive so far. A male friend of mine said he teared up when he saw Zelda holding the sword over her head. (he's a sweetie) A friend posted a link to my blog with a "Because if Miyamoto won't, we will." Another friend told me she couldn't wait for her baby daughter to be old enough to play as Zelda. Many friends told me that it made them excited and happy. Not in the cute-ironic way, but really happy."

The mod is available in the form of a patch, which can be downloaded here. Sorry, but you'll have to supply your own Legend of Zelda ROM. Though Kenna provides instructions that are quite clear and concise.