24 January 2026

Forgotten Retro Zelda Game Leaked for Switch

By newsgame

A long-lost game from The Legend of Zelda franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets, could be coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 later this year, if a recent leak is to be believed. The Legend of Zelda series turns 40 this February, having released its first game for the Famicon in Japan in 1986, and while most of its official entries have been major hits, this 16-bit game is one that most fans have probably never heard of before.

The first two Zelda games were released in the west in the 1980s, bringing vastly different gameplay styles. While the original game was a top-down affair with minimal dialogue and nearly no NPCs, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link shook things up wildly, providing maddeningly difficult side-scrolling zones and towns filled with characters Link could interact with. Then the SNES came along, and in 1991, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past‘s creative palaces, enhanced swordplay, and addition of tools like the Hookshot took the series to a new level.

8 Best Legend Of Zelda Games To Play On Switch 2, Ranked

The Switch 2 is the perfect system for Zelda fans, considering there’s plenty of fun and exciting entries to enjoy on Nintendo’s latest hardware.

16-Bit Zelda Game from 1997 May Finally Release Outside Japan

Legend of Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets Emulator

While the next well-known non-handheld Zelda games, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, were released for the Nintendo 64, there was actually another 16-bit entry that served as a quasi-sequel to A Link to the Past, but it only released outside Japan in very limited quantities. That could be changing soon, as leaker Nash Weedle has shared on Twitter and YouTube that The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets could be releasing on Nintendo Switch 2 sometime in 2026. There’s been no official word from Nintendo about an upcoming forgotten Zelda title from the past that’s ready to reemerge, but if the rumor turns out to be true, fans of the franchise should be in for a unique experience.

Launched in 1997, about six years after A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets utilized the exact same engine, characters, and overworld as its 16-bit predecessor, along with similar gameplay mechanics. However, it threw in some new Legend of Zelda dungeons and a unique story set several years after Ganon’s defeat in the previous game. Only playable on a Super Famicon console hooked up to a Satellaview BS-X Broadcasting System, the game was released in four weekly episodes. Using the console attachment’s satellite modem capabilities, each episode could only be played for about an hour, and players had a limited window of time to access them. Additionally, in-game events would be triggered after players had been in the game for specific amounts of time, and one major goal was to rack up as many points during a play session as possible, with the aim of winning real-world prizes.

Legend of Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets Super Famicon cartridge Cropped-1

Another interesting note about The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets is that it was a Zelda game in which players didn’t control Link, one of Nintendo’s most iconic characters. Instead, players would step into the role of the Hero of Light, and their appearance in the game would reflect the physical attributes assigned to their avatars through their profiles with the BS-X Broadcasting System. The Switch 2 isn’t linked up to that system, because it no longer exists. However, player-created Miis have provided personalized gaming experiences since the days of the Nintendo Wii, so it could be a relatively simple process to transform their likenesses into 16-bit sprites.

If The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets is, in fact, coming to Switch 2, its gimmicky features that set it apart from other games in the series could potentially be a blessing. AdHoc Studio’s Dispatch was one of the top games of 2025, and its episodic release scheduled between October 22 and November 12 only served to increase the tension and excitement as players waited for the next installment to arrive. While Ancient Stone Tablets carries a lot less narrative weight, sticking to a similar format as its original release from the late ’90s could give Nintendo Switch 2 players something special to look forward to every week.