A YouTuber's Giving Old-School 'Sonic,' 'Mario,' And 'Zelda' Games Great 3D Remakes

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A YouTuber's Giving Old-School 'Sonic,' 'Mario,' And 'Zelda' Games Great 3D Remakes

Every time I open YouTube, I see the same five videos. 8 Ways to Get Better at , I Couldn't Believe Said , Political Videos, Reactions, and of course Thumbnails of People Being Surprised.

But every once in a while, through a hole in the clickbait, you can glimpse a real gem. The kind of video that reminds you why you're still scrolling through the sidebar. Recently I came across the kind of YouTube video that gave me hope. A channel that is deep, interesting, and laboriously put together over weeks and months by someone working at their craft. An absolute joy to watch.

CodyCantEatThis is a new video game developer who started making videos last year. Their first video details creating a racing 3D platformer that looks a lot like Fall Guys but was created before Fall Guys was released. It's an impressive start, with great colors, nice UI, a distinctive style, and most refreshingly of all, they condensed one year of producing this game into just seven minutes of video.

After this, CodyCantEatThis worked on "cursed" versions of games that they enjoy. Starting with a very stripped-down Mario Odyssey, which looks … horrifying.

The cursed games are fun, even though they're worse versions of beloved games, because Cody has a knack for walking through the insights that it took to get to the end product that they wanted without bogging the viewer down with details. They're essentially mini dev diaries that also have a sort of calm sense of humor.

After the cursed games, Cody tackled making Portal 3 with some pretty great results. They didn't make an entire game, sure, but they tackled the hard parts of developing portals and even implemented some features that the Portal games removed.

But nine months ago, CodyCantEatThis found something to sink their teeth into.

Starting with Sonic, Cody has been remaking classic 2D games in 3D styles. Cody goes beyond updating the sprites and reimagines parts of the game that no longer make sense with an extra dimension, such as the tunnels in Sonic or some of the ladders in the original Legend of Zelda.

The Sonic game is interesting, but the scope of it is somewhat limited, and Cody didn't code up all of the enemies or invest much time in Sonic's famous loop de loops. For their next project, Cody made the first level of Mario 3d. And for that, they went all out-- getting the timer just right, mimicking the ending flagpole, and most impressively of all, Cody created every model themselves. It's a full reimagining of the first level, with working pipes, sound effects, and an accurate scorekeeper. But it is still just the first level.

This is what makes Cody's most recent project by far their most impressive. They recreate the entirety of the original Legend of Zelda game, making all the models by hand, creating the functional items and upgrades of the original game, and painstakingly recreating every enemy and boss the Link has to get through to get to his beloved. Overall, it's a true labor of love and a masterclass in the hard work it takes to make a successful game.

I'm fully invested, and Cody's already become one of my favorite game development channels. Their next project promises to be even bigger and better than their last, as they're tackling a full 3d remake of the original Pokémon games. Gotta catch  remake 'em all.

Top Image: CodyCantEatThis

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