Inspired by the recent story of a man switching Mario and Pauline’s roles in Donkey Kong, a woman has managed a similar feat with the NES version of The Legend of Zelda.

Kenna W, an animator, switched the main roles in the Nintendo classic, so now it is Zelda saving the kingdom and rescuing Link.

A blog post outlines how the mod was completed, with Kenna and her game programmer boyfriend using a sprite editor and some Python trickery to also mod the game’s opening and closing scrolls, as well as the colours of the Zelda’s dress.

Changing the opening text proved more difficult than anticipated.

“After playing as Zelda: Warrior Princess, I honestly couldn't figure out how to put Link back into the story,” wrote Jenna.

“In cannon, Link is the one with the sword. When you take away the sword, who is he? Just some guy that can't get out of a room? Do I make him Prince Link? Is he a knight to Zelda?

“In the end, I decided he's still Link. Even though he's seemingly powerless to leave a simple room.”

This resonated with her boyfriend, who expressed confusion that Link couldn’t simply vault over the flames keeping him captive.

“But I guess that's the point isn't it?” he said. “The gender in games thing."

The first First Tropes vs. Women in Video Games entry was also an inspiration, said Jenna.

The project took three days to complete, including a play-through to ensure the mod was consistent throughout the game.

The full patch is available here.