Look: Restored Zelda art shows Hyrule in its epic '80s glory

A Link to the Past Nintendo just released some glorious restored art. by Robin Bea November 3, 2021 Nintendo

Nintendo Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda Game & Watch system is launching in early November . While it’s no Breath of the Wild 2 , it’s a nice nostalgia trip for long-time fans.

Nintendo Ahead of its release, Nintendo is getting players ready with an unexpected drop of incredible retro Zelda art on a new promotional site .

Nintendo The new (Japanese language only) site walks players through the history of the two NES Zelda games and Link’s Awakening , which are playable on the Game & Watch system.

Nintendo Along with descriptions of the games’ items, enemies, and stories, the site brings Zelda history to life with in-game graphics and brand-new scans of art from the games’ instruction manuals.

Original drawings of The Legend of Zelda’s enemies — like this Octorok — are one of the site’s highlights.

Before they chilled out in recent games, Zoras were an absolute pain in the original with a creepy design to match.

And who could forget Link’s classic nemesis: blue vole with a boomerang?

While you’re admiring the art, you can even click around the site to play with the background graphics.

The Legend of Zelda 2 doesn’t get much love, but its manual was packed with killer illustrations, like this map of Hyrule.

Its story is explained with illustrated panels from a much better, imaginary version of the Zelda cartoon.

Nintendo The enemies in The Adventure of Link are brought to life in illustrations at least as creepy as evocative as those from the first game.

Nintendo Here’s an Octorok looking way more menacing than before.

Even the boomerang voles got a glow up for the sequel.

Link, unfortunately, comes off like a major dork.

Sorry, bud.

Nintendo Instead of enemy illustrations, the Link’s Awakening site features action shots of Link showing off some essential adventuring skills.

Ruining shopkeepers’ lives! Nintendo

Nintendo If you have any interest in The Legend of Zelda , Nintendo’s new site is worth checking out.

Nintendo Whether you’re revisiting The Legend of Zelda or exploring it for the first time, seeing this retro art made new again is a treat for fans.