Recently we asked what would Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon look like on the Commodore 64.  This week we are asking, what would The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker look like on the Super Nintendo?  Thanks to a DeviantArt member, we don’t have to wonder what it might have looked like, we can see it.  The interesting thing about this piece is that it is really believable.  The creator also details some of the ways that Nintendo would have gotten around the limitations of the hardware.

The single piece of art is striking and elegant.  This is really what Wind Waker might have looked like had Nintendo tried to port it to their classic console.  As the creator, gilamasan, explains this is a travel scene similar to those in Final Fantasy four and six and Secret of Mana.  This scene shows off some major use of Mode 7 effects.

The boat, Link and the incidental items are all sprites while the rest is handled through Mode 7.  For those that do not know, Mode 7 is a special effect mode that Nintendo built into the graphics chips of the Super Nintendo.  Mode 7 allowed the Super Nintendo to do scaling and rotation style effects in the games.  This was a major selling point for the Super Nintendo when it was launched (and was showcased in Pilotwings and F-Zero).  The main competition to the SNES, Sega and their Genesis console, did not have hardware rotation and scaling.  These were added in the add-on Sega CD peripheral, which did not catch on with fans.

It is unknown how gilamasan envisioned the rest of the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to look on the Super Nintendo.  It is assumed that it would be similar to the aforementioned role playing games.  The action portion of the game would probably be overhead style, similar to A Link to the Past.

Source: DeviantArt via GoNintendo

Carl Williams

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