I’ve always wanted Nintendo to remake the original Legend of Zelda. Sacrilege, I know, but surely there is room for a different take on the adventure classic that not only spawned a franchise, but inspired RPGs across the genre. While there are no plans for an NES Zelda remake anytime soon, there is one way you can experience from a brand new perspective—literally: You can now play the entire game from a first-person perspective.
This isn’t Nintendo’s doing. This game is entirely fan-made by DeTwelve Games, recreating the entire 1986 classic in three dimensions. It allows you to explore Hyrule from the perspective of Link, fighting enemies, gaining items, and battling your way through all nine original dungeons while looking straight ahead.
It’s wild to see the map from this view. In the original, your POV is limited to one screen-sized “square” at a time. Here, your point of view extends are far as you can see, blocked only by enemies or real-world obstacles. While anyone can enjoy the game, if you’re familiar with the original, it’s a special, vintage treat.
This isn’t a true remake of The Legend of Zelda—the game actually runs on the original DOOM engine. That’s why it’s called The Legend of DOOM. (It’s also why this game can exist without Nintendo’s lawyers losing their minds.) The only things “DOOM” about it are the view of your weapon at the bottom of the screen, some of the weapon designs themselves, and, of course, the first-person perspective. Maybe a heavy-metal Zelda soundtrack will be in a future update?
How to set up The Legend of Doom on your Mac or PC
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Because The Legend of DOOM is technically a DOOM mod and not its own game, you need to jump through some hoops to start playing. Setting the whole thing up can seem daunting at first, especially since there isn’t a good guide out there for it, but it really only involves a few steps to get playing.
First, you’ll need to download the latest version of GZDoom to your computer. You’ll find it here (the blue icon). Next, you’ll need a DOOM iwad (basically, a DOOM game file). You can pick up the original DOOM on Steam or GOG, but any DOOM iwad will work here. Finally, you need to download the latest version of The Legend of DOOM mod. At the time of writing, that’s version 1.1.0, which you can find here, but double-check the official page to see if any new updates are out.
How things move from here depends on your platform. If you’re using Windows, right-click the GZDoom zip in your Downloads and extract all contents to a new folder. Do the same for the DOOM iwad and The Legend of DOOM file. If you bought DOOM via Steam or GOG, GZDoom should be able to find it automatically. Now, launch The Legend of DOOM, then tell Windows you want to use the GZDoom app.
If you’re on a Mac, it’s a tad more complicated. Open Finder, then choose “Go” from the menu bar and hit “Go to Folder.” Type ~/Library/Application Support, then hit Enter. Here, create a new folder titled gzdoom. You’ll need to move the DOOM iwad and The Legend of DOOM file You may need to enter your password to continue. Now, unzip the GZDoom zip in your Downloads. You can move it somewhere else to clean things up, but you don’t have to. Now, launch The Legend of DOOM, and, if everything is in order, GZDoom should boot right up and launch the game.