Today marks the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remaster and to celebrate, Nintendo has released eight Zelda-themed courses for Super Mario Maker 2. The courses, made by course designers at Nintendo from around the world, each take on different Zelda titles and give them the Super Mario Maker 2 treatment.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remaster takes the GameBoy era classic and gives it a whole new modern coat of paint. It marks the first proper Zelda game to release on Switch since Breath of the Wild and the first to launch after the release of the excellent Super Mario Maker 2 earlier this year. Nintendo has taken that opportunity to run with the "remake" idea by reimagining Zelda in Mario Maker 2.Â
The eight courses each take a different approach to turning Mario into Zelda. Some try to directly emulate dungeons or sections from Zelda games while other take the spirit of Zelda to create puzzle-packed courses. Many of the courses end in fun boss battles. Each one serves as a little crash-course on tight Mario Maker 2 level design.
While all of the courses provide tons of fun, a few stand above the rest and really feel like little Zelda remakes.  Two of the courses feature pitch-perfect recreations of levels from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While they don't quite capture it with the same fidelity as the Kokiri Forest build in Unreal Engine, they capture the spirit enough in creative ways to make folks familiar with the game feel at home. The first one works especially well in its attempt to recreate the entire Deku Tree dungeon. It uses squids on cranes in place of skulltula, goombas on top of moles to represent deku scrubs, and even features a recreation of the Deku Tree itself which it takes players inside.
Folks anxiously awaiting the sequel to Breath of the Wild can get a little bit of a taste of some new content with the course themed after the original game. One brilliant course creates four underground "Shrines" for the player to complete. They will then unlock a door that gives them a cape which is required to cross a large gap and "leave the plateau" just like in the beginning of Breath of the Wild.
Players can player the courses with these codes:
Zelda OoT: Deku Tree: RQN-JWJ-FQF
[Zelda BoTW] Vah Rudania Dungeon: RFJ-Q0J-5XG
Zelda~Ganon’s Castle: Q34-JBJ-PWF
Zelda: Sand Dungeon: FK0-XQT-63G
Shrine of Zelda BOTW: SGB-YF9-TJG
Zelda’s Switch Puzzle Dungeon: DQP-M9Q-P0G
Zelda II: Parapa Palace: 259-Q0R-PCG
Zelda OoT Dodongo’s Cavern: YFV-XGP-X4G
Each imaginative course feels hand-crafted by folks who possess both a love for the Zelda franchise and a deep understanding of how to design a brilliant Mario Maker 2 course. They all feel as clever as the user created Mario Maker 2 and Duck Hunt crossover course.
For a little added Zelda pizazz, players should go into the Mario Maker 2 settings and switch their player character to Luigi. The character's green outfit puts a cherry on top of the wonderful Zelda-themed courses.
Super Mario Maker 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening are out now on Switch.
Source: Nintendo Life
