The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Now Runs Natively on PC and Steam Deck

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Nintendo fans have spent years asking for a proper modern version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, especially on PC handhelds and newer hardware. Now, thanks to a massive fan effort years in the making, that wish has basically become reality.

A newly released project called Dusk has officially launched, bringing a native port of Twilight Princess to PC, Steam Deck, Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux. Unlike traditional emulator setups, Dusk is built from the full decompilation of the original GameCube version of Twilight Princess. The project comes from the Twilit Realm team, which includes contributors from the Zelda decompilation community, speedrunners, and developers connected to the Aurora compatibility layer project.

Because the original game code was successfully reverse-engineered and matched completely, the team was able to create a true native implementation of the game instead of simply running it through an emulator. What that means in practice is much better performance, smoother compatibility across devices, easier modding support, and modern enhancements that normally aren’t possible with standard emulation.

The port supports uncapped frame rates, high resolutions far beyond the original release, gyro aiming, Vulkan backend support, modern controller layouts, achievements, texture mods, and custom model support. Players on Steam Deck are especially praising how smoothly the game runs right out of the gate.

There’s also support for Android and iOS devices, which feels kind of surreal considering this was once one of Nintendo’s biggest GameCube and Wii exclusives. Importantly, the developers are being very clear about legality as well.

The Dusk download itself contains absolutely none of Nintendo’s original game assets. Players are required to provide their own legally dumped ROM from the original GameCube version in order to play. Wii support is reportedly planned for the future too.