After playing this brilliant fan-made app we’re more anxious than ever for Nintendo to make a VR game based on The Legend of Zelda.
Indie developer Aklar_45 created this free experience (download here), which was developed using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. Playable on either the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, it lets you wield the legendary Master Shield — complete with a Hyrulian shield — in battle against the Stallord boss from Twilight Princess. The Oculus Touch or Vive wands provide realistic controls, and you can also switch to a box and arrow.
The boss itself is a little tricky, and almost impossible to beat without using teleportation locomotion, though you can use smooth too. You’ve got a certain number of hits you can sustain before you’ll have to try things from the start. The controls on Touch are a little wonky but good enough for any Zelda fans that need to try this out. An especially nice touch is the ability to summon ever-annoying fairy, Navi, at the touch of a button. If you like Aklar_45’s work you can donate to his PayPal here.
It’s not the first Zelda VR boss fight the developer has made. You can also do battle with Darknut and even Ganondorf himself among others. There’s a whole assortment of bosses to fight through at the developer’s YouTube page.
Many VR gamers have longed for the chance to pick up Link’s iconic weapon and this is about as close as you can get right now. It helps that the demo is visually stunning, besting even Nintendo’s own Zelda games. Sadly, Nintendo itself seems no closer to bringing our dreams to life in any official capacity; a VR version of Mario Kart Arcade is just about the only work the company has done with the technology, at least publically. Yesterday, we also reported that someone had made an N64 VR emulator that allows you to play Ocarina of Time inside a headset.
