A Sheik game that almost was? Read on to find out more!

The Legend of Zelda franchise is undoubtedly a jewel in Nintendo’s crown. However, while it is undoubtedly one of the biggest out there, it hasn’t had the gaming variation of, say, the Mario franchise. While there have been a few spinoffs for Zelda, nothing that feels like a complete mini-franchise within the greater series. You won’t find a Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario-type take on the eternal struggle vs. Link and Ganon. While there have been plenty of games not to utilize Ganon as the main antagonist, they tend to play like standard Legend of Zelda games.

But what if we lived in an alternate reality? A reality where Nintendo took the Blue Pill with the franchise. Apparently, that reality could have very well happened, where they expanded the series to go beyond that of the standard Link v. Ganon tropes. Shinesparkers.net recently shared a series of links from former Retro Studios artist Sammy Hall. On the artist’s portfolio, we got to see some killer concept art for canceled Legend of Zelda project that revolved around Sheik.

For those who don’t know, Sheik was the secret identity of Zelda herself in the adult timeline of The Legend of Zelda. She worked in secret to guide Link along in his quest until the eventual confrontation with Ganon. But, as many Zelda fans know, there were three potential outcomes for the end of the game. One such outcome was that Ganondorf was sealed away, but would be resurrected every 100 years. The story would have followed “the last Sheik,” meaning it’s likely not Zelda. We would follow Sheik as the birth of Ganon approaches.

RELATED – A Fan-Made A Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Animation Trailer

“Have always worked full-time salary at developer studios,” Hall wrote in his portfolio. “Sometimes random freelance for fun projects outside of games. But I’m completely pulling out of that game career until there can be some real solutions to the exploitation, criminality, and abuse that I see my peers put through… Things have been messy for WAY WAY too many decades.”

Check out some of the art that’s made its way to Twitter.

absolutely amazed by this supposed official concept art for a cancelled zelda game back in the early wii era, done by Sammy Hall, a former retro studios employee

it was centered around sheik and was supposed to cover the origins of the master sword pic.twitter.com/RlwcKCgOTK

— Brave 🌺 (@BraveBiird) May 5, 2020

i have to show off some of these so i'll be adding into this thread pic.twitter.com/h9tDiOO8S9

— Brave 🌺 (@BraveBiird) May 5, 2020

sammy hall did gerudo women such incredible justice pic.twitter.com/jUi5CCe7jv

— Brave 🌺 (@BraveBiird) May 5, 2020

I have to say, it would have been pretty darn cool to see a game that didn’t follow Link as the main character. If this art is any indication, it would have gone in a dark and twisted direction, with a lot of the work coming across as a mix of alien and ancient. 

But is this true? As it turns out, yes. On the heels of this, Sammy Hall spoke with IGN, and the artist discussed how few people likely saw the art.

“I doubt many at Nintendo proper saw much of any of this stuff,” Hall told the outlet. “I was mostly put into a room like Milton from Office Space and tasked to brainstorm between other projects.”

The other project Hall worked on was a Boo project — you know the ghost from Mario? Yeah, that thing was going to get its own game as well. So, what changed things? Why did they cancel it? For starters, we have to understand that brainstorming is all about throwing spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. As such, we have no idea if something like this would have gotten very far to begin with.

However, we can likely blame the turnover at Retro Studios. Hall went on to say that both Sheik and Boo games came from ex-Retro leads Mark Pacini, Todd Keller, and Kynan Pearson. Both of these gams were “canceled the week they went to create their other studios.”

It’s sad, but that’s how things work in the world of creativity. How do you feel about the canceled Sheik game? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Continue the LRM Online conversation on Discord by CLICKING HERE!

—–

Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcast feed yet The LRM Online Podcast Network? This includes our flagship podcast Los Fanboys, our premiere podcast Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, and our morning show LRMornings. Check it out by listening below. It’s also available on all your favorite podcast apps!

Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify  |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play

SOURCE: Shinesparkers, IGN