Without the use of a single mod, one skilled Minecraft superfan and YouTuber spent nearly a month recreating the original Legend of Zelda inside the blocky survival game. Using a load of command blocks, custom textures, and in-game tricks, the end result is an impressive creation that you can easily play in Minecraft without having to download any mods, resource packs, or external tools.
Before we go any further, let’s clear up something here: When we talk about mods in Minecraft we are specifically referencing things that add new features or gameplay mechanics to the game via third-party, fan-created tools or software. And that’s not what YouTuber C1OUS3R used to recreate The Legend of Zelda in Minecraft. Instead, they edited textures, exploited in-game features, and used only vanilla command block functions to recreate the classic NES game inside vanilla Minecraft. And it’s wild just how much the end result looks like Zelda.
In a video uploaded earlier today, C1OUS3R showed in detail how they were able to pull this off. Their desire to avoid using third-party mods or resource packs made their task much harder, limiting what they could do. They could swap out textures or add in custom models, but graphics alone wouldn’t create an authentic NES Zelda experience in Minecraft.
For example: In Minecraft, you can sprint and jump. You can’t do this in The Legend of Zelda. So C1OUS3R had to figure out a way to block the player from doing either action without just using a mod or resource pack. To stop people from jumping they counterintuitively gave the player a really powerful jump boost status effect, which breaks jumping and prevents players from doing it. Getting rid of sprinting was a bit more complicated. As powerful as command blocks are they can’t affect sprinting, so instead C1OUS3R applied the blindness status effect to the player, which stops the affected individual from, you guessed it, sprinting. However, it also applies a weird effect to the screen. So the YouTuber had to also edit the shaders located in the map’s resource folder to turn off this effect. All that just so the player can’t jump or run!
As for how he was able to get Link moving around in the game, he swapped out the pumpkin helmet model for Link and used in-game effects to make the player invisible, so it looks like you’re controlling the famous adventurer and not a Minecraft character wearing a Link hat. But getting movement working was more complicated than that, and also involved spawning in-game armor stands that were used to detect where the player was facing to change the in-game Link model. How does that work exactly, well, I totally understand it completely but uhh…look over there, a bird!
Anyway, this isn’t the first time C1OUS3R has recreated a classic game in Minecraft under these same restrictions. They recreated Sonic The Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros in Minecraft, too. You can actually download and play the maps for those right now.
Sadly, this new Legend of Zelda-in-Minecraft creation won’t be downloadable until the video showing it off hits 5000 likes. But seeing as the Sonic video got over 15k, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long to try out C1OUS3R’s latest Minecraft project. And because there are no mods used, all you’ll need to do is download the map file and play. Just don’t expect the full game: This project only goes up to the first dungeon’s boss, and ends there. Still impressive, but you won’t find Ganon in C1OUS3R’s game.
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Meanwhile, C1OUS3R has big plans. On Reddit, he’s recently talked about how he wants to create a video game engine inside Minecraft. “It’s much easier to understand rather than something like Unity,” they wrote. “I believe Minecraft has the ability to really help people get into game development.”
So pretty soon everything will just exist in Minecraft, which at least sounds a bit better than the metaverse shit big tech companies are trying to sell us all on right now.
