Kenna Warsinske: The woman who modded The Legend of Zelda

hen hobbyist animator and feminist Kenna Warsinske made changes to The Legend of Zelda, she’s willing to admit it was because she simply wanted to. She wanted Princess Zelda to play with power, and she wanted others to experience the impact for themselves.

“There’s no one to stop me from eating candy before bed and there’s nothing standing in the way of me creating the games I want to play,” Kenna Warsinske noted on her blog days before her Zelda starring Zelda mod exploded around the internet.

A Portland, Ore. resident, Warsinske’s recent sprite mod received much attention and a spotlight on Kotaku near the end of March. The original link to her blog was then shared on other big name sites such as Polygon, Huff Post Canada and Cnet Australia. Overall, it’s safe to say the changes she made took the gaming world by storm, and continued many much needed discussions regarding equality within the video games industry.


Once she heard about the father who swapped Mario and Pauline's character sprites in the original Donkey Kong, Warsinske decided to start a project of her own.

“It only took him eight hours,” said Warsinske. “That really startled me because I always figured game development was more of a black box experience.” Her own adjustments to the Zelda sprites and minor programming changes took her nearly five days. After releasing information on her blog, she decided to notify the websites BoingBoing and Kotaku about some of the work she did.

Kotaku responded first. “I was really happy,” she said. “Everybody goes to Kotaku, love it or hate it.”

News of Warsinske’s Legend of Zelda modifications ran at the same time as posts surfaced about programmers who cracked the new Sim City for offline play. Naturally, as a feature splash banner with her story was posted around the same time, she was excited.

Upon playing the Zelda Starring Zelda mod, most players notice something immediately: Aside from the character sprite swap and some minor text changes in the prologue and epilogue, the game’s exactly the same. Same dungeons, same power-ups, and same general premise. Keeping this in mind, one sees how easy it would be for Zelda to fulfill the same roles as her male counterpart, Link.

Simon Travis, a Portland-based programmer and Warsinske’s boyfriend who helped her with a few programming aspects, also mentioned the significance of reliving the original game as Princess Zelda on his own developer's blog. 

“By playing as Zelda, you experience something new,” Travis wrote. “It’s right there when Zelda first picks up her sword. It’s special. Let’s have more of that.”


Like anyone who stands up and makes a statement, Warsinske has her critics. One poster on Kotaku said gaming will always be a “predominantly male hobby.” Self-identified as a 29-year-old male gamer, he feels that Warsinske’s changes, along with other similar projects, are highly redundant.

“Some broad making changes to a 25 year old game, so she could feel good about herself,” the online poster wrote. “Big fucking deal.”

When asked about these statements, Warsinske responded by stating how she thought this individual and others with similar comments live in a very self-centered world. She also questioned this poster’s adamant behavior on the issue since anonymity makes derogatory speech easier on the internet.

“I have to question if he truly feels that strongly or not, and if this is an opinion he’d actually voice in public,” Warsinske said. “This isn’t generally anything someone would say to my face.”

Though some spiteful remarks exist, a majority of comments actually defend Warsinske’s position on the subject. One poster even mentioned how they felt the animator received far too much destructive criticism and insults about her mod.

“There wasn’t even that much hate and bile to begin with,” Warsinske said.

Following our discussion on her Zelda modifications, Warsinske mentioned her own video game favorites and preferences in character design. Some of the games highlighted in her personal collection were Beyond Good and Evil, Touch Detective, and American McGee’s Alice. Warsinske mentioned how the protagonist in Beyond good and Evil had a much more acceptable outfit than some other female characters in gaming, which is one reason why the game stood out to her. We also discussed how some of these games either didn’t receive as much attention as they should have, or how they seemed a little more rushed during development. 

Overall, there exist greater takeaway messages from this entire experience. For instance, encouraging women to not only experience more properly portrayed roles in video games, but also empowering them in regards to pursuing careers such as game development and programming. Warsinske wants other women to feel inspired to take on similar endeavors, and to feel empowered anytime they’re simply interested in making a difference in the gaming community.

More and more discussions involving equality in the games industry occur every day, and more individuals from within realize the importance of acknowledging the reality of these issues. Just recently, developer and creator of Cart Life Richard Hofmeier modified his own IGF award-winning game booth to display a lesser known game from indie developer Porpentine. Gamasutra reported that Hofmeier used spraypaint to replace the Cart Life title with Howling Dogs instead. Hofmier then uploaded Porpentine's game to the actual console, allowing it to receive more exposure while also making a bigger statement about inequality in the industry.

Meanwhile, Warsinske remains unsure what the future holds in regards to modding, and she continually received requests for modding Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past. However, it may involve more time and resources than she currently has.

“It would take me months,” Warsinske said. “If it were legal for me to do, I’d consider a Kickstarter, but there’s no way. I can’t make money off this.”

Updates and a list of FAQs Warsinske receives were recently posted on her blog. Her personal website also features updates and other changes the modified ROM underwent over time.