The Zelda Games Gallery
Three quests, two boxes apiece, and the guides Japan kept on the Wii.
Between 1998 and 2006, Nintendo took Zelda into 3D, then into a three day loop, then into twilight. Each game below keeps two of its boxes side by side, the American and the Japanese, because the two countries rarely agreed on what the game should look like in a shop window.
Every cover below is a door. Behind it sits the game's history, how it was made and how its own era received it. Twilight Princess carries extra doors: the question of its missing Japanese GameCube guide, and two of the Japanese guidebooks themselves. Start anywhere. The doors all open.
TWILIGHT PRINCESS
Nintendo EAD · GameCube and Wii · 2006
America · GameCube · 2006
The American GameCube box splits the art down a diagonal: Link's face on one side, Wolf Link on the other. This is the platform the game was built for.
Japan · Wii · 2006
Japan's Wii box puts Link alone in full figure over a white ground. A Japanese GameCube edition also exists, sold only through Nintendo's online store.
The History
The realistic Zelda North America asked for: how Twilight Princess was made, and how it was received.
The Question
Did Japan get a GameCube guide for Twilight Princess? No, and the reason is in the sales numbers.
Guide · Shogakukan
The official Japanese guidebook, from the Wonder Life Special line, 2007. Wii branded, 192 pages.
Guide · Enterbrain
The Famitsu Perfect Guide, 2007. The one Japanese guide that notes where the GameCube version differs.
