The Star Fox series has not been given the best love from Nintendo over the years. With the popularity of Star Fox 64, fans were expecting a brand new 3D rail shooter on the N64's successor, the GameCube. Instead, Nintendo's then-collaborator Rare created something fans weren't expecting — Star Fox Adventures, a fully 3D action-adventure game in the style of the Zelda series.

Nowadays, Rare's final Nintendo title (and its only GameCube game) is looked back upon pretty fondly despite how starkly different it is compared to the first two games in the Star Fox series. So fondly, in fact, that the fan community has created something truly spectacular, inspired by Fox McCloud's adventure.

Well-known retro modder Zel. — who was also part of a group that created a playable version of Ocarina of Time from Space World '97 — has created a ROM hack that transforms The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time into a new Star Fox Adventures game.

This dream sequel (or prequel?) is called Star Fox Conquest, and it follows Fox McCloud after he crashes on a brand new planet. Armed with a sword and shield, a hammer, and his blaster, Fox must explore this planet. While Ocarina of Time serves as the base of the game, the code going into making the ROM hack has changed and optimised much beyond the original cartridge.

The trailer has a few remnants of the Zelda game that served as the base for the mod. Fox encounters a Deku Scrub-like creature that he crushes with his hammer, fairies, and the music even sounds like it's right out of a Zelda game — but the music is all original! Twitter user Syeo, who is credited at the end, helped get Fox to get one of his brand new weapons.

Zel. revealed back in April that he has been working on Star Fox Conquest since before the beginning of the year, and has been sharing a few small updates in the build-up to the ROM hack's official announcement.

Just from this handful of screenshots, you can see just how much the game has progressed. Many of Fox's sounds will be taken from Star Fox Adventures, but Zel. has said he may also use a mix of bites from other games.

The full ROM hack is due out sometime this year, and my goodness are we excited to see what a potential Star Fox Adventures sequel will look like.

Let us know if you're a fan of Fox's GameCube outing as well as what you think of this ROM hack in the comments!

[source twitter.com]