I was playing Zelda: Link's Awakening and was surprised to find that there were platform game levels in some of the dungeons.

So I started playing around with pixels to see what this would look like on the Pico-8 -

However, Nintendo isn't known to be friendly to such fan projects :(

BTW, here is the original Gameboy version for comparison -

If you were to do a recreation of a Zelda game in Pico-8, and released it under a very open license like CC 3.0, they can't do anything about it legally. I think a Zelda-like game in Pico-8 would be awesome!

Depends on how close to a re-creation it gets. If it's like the above? It's pretty clear infringement. Just releasing under CC won't work as "protection from getting sued" because you are in fact still claiming copyright with a CC license. If it's like the Legend of Zeldo cart on this BBS? Much farther outside the infringement arena.

Well, I don't think it can't hurt to go further with the idea. The worst that could happen is that Nintendo contacts you. Then you could just change a few things and you'll be fine, probably.

I may yet go ahead with the idea and replace the graphics at some point (but have a 'secret' Zelda version for anyone who wanted it.

Next step is to think up some Zelda-ish quests that would work in a platform game.

Give link a red-cap instead of green and call the game, "The Last Dwarf," and instead of rescuing ZELDA, rescue Snow White instead.

Let's see them get around that ... :)

Also, as long as you are not selling the game, you should be fine. You could even say your game is a TRIBUTE to the original if you go to copy the images and audio all down the line.