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Over the past few weeks, we have seen a flood of unofficial PC ports of older games, including GameCube games like the legendary Super Smash Bros. Melee, God of War 3 Remastered, and FromSoftware‘s Bloodborne, the latter both released from their PlayStation 4 prison. Today, the floodgates for native Nintendo Switch PC ports seem to have been opened, as a port of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening has been released online, complete with new features.
“LAS Recomp is a static recompilation of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Nintendo Switch, 2019) into a native Windows, macOS and Linux application,” reads the project’s description on GitHub. As the game was already playable on PCely in the past few years), this project wouldn’t have been of much interest for those only interested in playing it on PC, but its new features elevate the project significantly:
- This is not emulation. Runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux using static recompilation of the Switch code.
- Unlocked aspect ratio: wider (or taller) windows show more of the island, up to ultrawide; houses and dungeons keep their framing. The original 16:9 framing is one option away.
- Start screen: play vanilla or any randomizer seed, set up game files from your own dump, import fonts.
- Switch games use fonts built into the Switch operating system for some text. Sensible replacements are used by default, but you may optionally set up the Switch fonts for an authentic look. Switch fonts are Nintendo IP; you must provide them from your own hardware.
- In-game overlay menu (F1, or Minus + Plus on a controller).
- Switch between vanilla and any randomizer seed without restarting the app.
- Keyboard and controller support, with every button and key remappable (Controls tab / start screen Settings > Controls; menus keep a fixed layout, so a remap can never lock you out).
- Button prompts for your controller: Xbox or PlayStation icons in the game’s own UI and text when SDL reports that controller (or pick Nintendo / Xbox / PlayStation yourself); the icons follow your controller remapping.
- Optional 360-degree movement, blur removal, and a hidden Hero Mode icon.
- Apple MetalFX upscaler on macOS (the default there).
- Internal resolution adjustments: raise or lower the resolution in steps, match the display, or use dynamic resolution. Combined with the MetalFX upscaler, even a MacBook Air should handle this easily with the right settings. Bilinear upscaling is the only option on Windows currently.
One of the most interesting features of this unofficial The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening PC port is the randomizer feature, which allows for full item and trade quest shuffle, environment randomizer, music randomizer, dungeon room shuffler, and more. Although it is still experimental and has some issues, the randomizer adds a level of replayability that is unavailable in the vanilla release, something that the game somewhat needed due to its short length.
One important thing to note about this first Nintendo Switch native PC port is that it has been made almost exclusively with AI. “Nearly all of the code, tooling, reverse engineering and documentation in this repository was written by and will be maintained by an AI (Anthropic’s Claude, through Claude Code), directed, tested and reviewed by a human,” the project’s creator confirmed. Something to keep in mind if you don’t want to support an AI-powered project.
While I completely agree with the anti-AI stance when it comes to creative work, it is undeniable that the recent developments that are making projects that would require years of work possible in just a few days are leading to some very interesting projects. As such, I would definitely welcome PC ports of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, especially if they came with new features that would make another playthrough even more worthwhile.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack.
After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi “Suda51” Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA’s president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3.
When he’s not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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