A recompilation PC port of the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening has emerged online, made "with almost exclusive use of AI."
PC ports of classic games through the act of decompilation and recompilation have been one of the best things to happen to PC gaming in the 2020s while everything else falls apart around it. Thanks to AI slop causing ballooning prices, a sheer amount of shovelware flooding steam, and just generally being all over the place, some have taken to classic games to avoid it. But unfortunately, the tech has infested the recompilation scene, with a ton of vibe-coded projects appearing online, like Banjo Tooie, Mario Kart Wii, and Donkey Kong 64 (which has a good version in the works too, as the devs reject vibe coding).
Even the non-vibe-coded projects are using it, with Crash Team Racing: Turbocharged – something that should be the most exciting release of the year – unfortunately using LLMs to write code, pushing it into a gray area for those who are not supporting any AI use.
In a Reddit post announcing the port, the developer Peiikai explains they've made a static recompilation port of the Nintendo Switch version of Link’s Awakening "admittedly with almost exclusive use of AI." They acknowledge that "AI usage is controversial," but add "something like this is way beyond my skill set and wouldn’t have been possible without AI," and that they are "guiding it as responsibly" as they can.
They continue, "If you disagree with the use of AI, I understand your position and likely agree with many of the points you could bring up," but this project was made for them to have "the ultimate way of enjoying the game myself," and say they are sharing it as "a courtesy."
As we get closer to modern releases – with Link's Awakening being available to purchase on modern consoles – it also feels inevitable that some publisher is going to take notice sooner than later. Nintendo has been quite steadfast in targeting Nintendo Switch emulators, and while this port requires your own dump of the game, all it takes is a person (or AI) to make a mistake for the Nintendo lawyers to come calling.
Thankfully, for those of you who want to experience Link's Awakening on PC without the AI, Link's Awakening DX HD, released almost three years ago, is an excellent version of the game's expanded Game Boy Color port – Link's Awakening DX – and is still getting updates to make it better years later.
