As the latest anniversary passes forThe Legend of Zeldaseries, fans are showing appreciation to the decades of games with all sorts of community events, celebration mods, and fan art. One player in particular has taken inspiration from the more recentBreath of the Wildto add to the growing collections of fan content, much of which being centered aroundZelda’s 35th anniversary.
The fan, who goes by pixelpunkz on Reddit and Twitter where the art has been posted, gets their name from a strong skillset in creating pixel art pieces, most notable of which in the past had been a “Pride Pokemon” series. Now, the artist has taken these skills a step further, recreating a moment that manyThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildplayers may run into while playing the game in tribute 35 years ofZelda.
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In this latest piece, pixelpunkz has depicted a scene in which Link deflects one of the powerful shots fromBreath of the Wild’s Guardiansright back into its own eye. The whole thing has also been rendered in a 2D pixel art style, somewhat reminiscent of older titles in the series, with some commenters even calling out the similarities withLegend of Link. However, while the pixel art does simplify the graphics, the piece still maintains the game’s vibrant art style, with Link in his Champion’s Tunic popping brightly off the screen as he fights off an intricately detailed Guardian Stalker.
Going beyond simply recreating the Guardian Stalker and Link in this 2D, pixel style, the artist also created a believable UI and HUD that arecreated version ofBreath of the Wild’s mapmight look like if brought into this perspective. Then there’s the way that the shine of the Guardian’s attack lighting the area, and Link himself, that adds an impressive level of death to the piece. When everything comes together, it could look like a screenshot from a title with full Nintendo polish on it, as opposed to being something as simple as fan art.
This type of fan art is enough to make some fans want to see a 2D version ofBreath of the Wildappear on the Switch, at the very least as a mini-game, or as side-content bundled withBreath of the Wild 2. For now, artists like pixelpunkz have players covered in living out parts of that experience with some high quality snapshots of what this type of title might be like. Then again, Nintendo did previously use a top-down version akin to the originalLegend of Zeldato test the Switch exclusive, so if this type of quality work gets enough attention, it could provide the incentive needed for a full release.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis available now for Switch.
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