Now, in the midst of 2024, Nintendo has reminded us of its existence with an unexpected surprise: the revelation of exactly how many units it has sold. And they are not few.
Do you remember when ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ was released? It seems like ages ago, and yet it was just last year around this time. A complete success that everyone was talking about for over a month, which in the gaming world is equivalent to a couple of centuries. But now, in the midst of 2024, Nintendo has reminded us of its existence with an unexpected surprise: the revelation of how many units it has specifically sold. And they are not few.
Specifically, the game has sold 20.61 million copies worldwide, an impressive number that places it in 9th place among the best-selling titles for Nintendo Switch. A very diverse ranking, by the way, led by ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ and followed by, among others, ‘Animal Crossing’, ‘Super Smash Bros’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ or ‘Super Mario Odyssey’.
Come on, Switch is in top form. And thank goodness, because it needs to be this year. After all, we’ve reached the point of stagnation where games are going to be released sparingly. Yes, it has very little left to offer before passing the crown to Nintendo‘s next console, and everyone knows it.
What is clear is that in the new gadget, ‘The Legend of Zelda’ will continue to aim for open worlds, rather than the closed dungeons of yesteryear. Or maybe a mix. Either way, right now the company would give everything to release a game from the saga for Nintendo Switch 2.
Between the two titles of the franchise, they have sold over 51 million units in this generation. And even by today’s standards, that’s a lot. To put it in perspective, both games combined would surpass ‘Overwatch’ or ‘The Witcher 3’. That’s saying something. Now we just need them not to disappoint us in the future, but with the movie coming soon and bringing new inhabitants to Hyrule, it’s very unlikely that they will. Let’s play the ocarina and cross our fingers.
One of the first consoles that had an online option was the Super Famicom, which in Japan launched a small modem called Satellaview. It came out in 1995, had content until 2000, and is now a fantastic paperweight.
In 1995, the Internet sounded like something from the future. With Windows 95 about to change everything, the world was gearing up to change and adapt. And of course, video games were part of that change. One of the first consoles that had online capability was the Super Famicom, which in Japan released a small modem called Satellaview. It was launched in 1995, had content until 2000, and now it’s a fantastic paperweight.
Satellaview managed to attract 100,000 subscribers in Japan, a significant number considering that what it offered wasn’t groundbreaking by today’s standards: the gaming system itself was a game where you could create an avatar, buy items, play minigames, and participate in contests. In a way, it was a bit like Mark Zuckerberg‘s metaverse, but with pixelated graphics.
The most curious part is that all the games released for Satellaview were lost forever. And there were quite a few notable ones: remakes of ‘F-Zero’, ‘Kirby‘, or ‘Super Mario Bros’, a fishing game created by the author of ‘Earthbound’ that ran for eight episodes from April to November 1997 and eventually appeared on Nintendo 64. One of the few that got saved.
Thanks to the service, you could even read free magazines, listen to audio commentary, and ambient sounds. However, nothing can surpass the legacy of ‘BS Zelda no Densetsu,’ a remake of ‘The Legend of Zelda‘ that was “broadcast” for two hours a day, divided into four chapters, one per week, in 1995. The game was not just the classic Zelda; it also featured a narrator who provided hints and narrated the game’s plot, creating a unique storytelling experience.
This Zelda had 16-bit graphics, different dungeons, a smaller world, and replaced Link with a boy wearing a backward cap or a girl with red hair, the mascots of Satellaview. There was even a second version of the game in 1996, ‘BS Zelda no Densetsu MAP 2’, before it disappeared. It was a different time; nobody cared much about preserving things before they were lost, but it’s still a shame that both this game and ‘BS Super Mario Collection,’ which included everything from cinematics to live music and live commentary from Mario and Luigi, succumbed to the ineffable passage of time. Sigh.
We all know ‘Oracle of Seasons’ and ‘Oracle of Ages’, which appeared for Game Boy Color in 2001 and were linked together, but… Did you know that a third part existed, or at least was programmed?
There are some video games that have been lost to the annals of spacetime. Some because their cartridges were lost, others because no one downloaded them in time before an online service collapsed, others because the budget didn’t stretch to the end. Others simply never quite worked and were canceled halfway through (to the dismay of all gamers). The one we bring you today falls into the latter category, a version of ‘Zelda‘ that would have changed everything.
The first lost game of ‘The Legend of Zelda’ is from… 1995! That’s when a satellite radio station called St.GIGA decided to broadcast a different version of the original game for anyone who had the Satellaview, a device for the Super Nintendo that had more than 100,000 subscribers.
It was a big deal: from August 6th to September 2nd, weekly, subscribers could download the four parts of ‘BS Zelda no Densetsu,’ which was dubbed, and in which an actor, live from St.GIGA’s studio, provided hints about the game and its story. The game was a 16-bit remake that was well-received, but once the service ended, that was the end of it, and for some reason, it has never been re-released. You had to have been there.
At least some people got to enjoy it, which is a better fate than the planned ending of the ‘Oracle of’ trilogy. We all know ‘Oracle of Seasons’ and ‘Oracle of Ages,’ which were released for Game Boy Color in 2001 and were interconnected. But did you know that there was originally a third part, or at least it was planned? Originally, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that they create three interconnected parts, each symbolizing one part of the Triforce.
This gave rise to ‘Mystical Seed of Power,’ ‘Mystical Seed of Wisdom,’ and ‘Mystical Seed of Courage,’ a trilogy that was quickly scrapped when they realized how difficult it was to connect three games together. Ultimately, Courage was left out, while the other two became the cartridges we already know. The puzzles were going to involve time travel between day and night, but in the end, it was absorbed by ‘Oracle of Ages,’ which originally was going to have color-based puzzles. Hopefully, someday Nintendo will feel like bringing the game as it was originally envisioned. Bring Semillas Back!
And if we tell you that in addition to a brilliant narrative resource… there is a compelling reason for it to appear every almost three hours of the game?
Every time in ‘Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom‘, right in the middle of any plain, the cinematic of the crimson moon appears, it’s a reason to be concerned. The dead come back to life, stronger enemies emerge, and your wisest option (at least if you’ve just started your adventure in Hyrule) is to seek refuge in a sanctuary or wait until the chaos subsides. But what if we tell you that beyond being a brilliant narrative device, there is a significant reason for its appearance roughly every three hours of gameplay?
Every 168 minutes of gameplay, the crimson moon appears in the new Zelda to stir things up. Well, more or less: advanced players have discovered a way to trigger its appearance ahead of time. If you push the limits of what the Switch is capable of, thereby overloading its memory, the game interprets it as a “panic button” to exit with the relevant cinematic.
For instance, when many objects appear near Link or he is pursued by numerous enemies simultaneously, the crimson moon eliminates them by resetting the game. It’s a method to hide something that many of us already suspected: the Switch isn’t exactly the most powerful machine on the market, and the new adventures of Link and his companions make the most of it.
Where any other developer might have gone for a more hasty way to address memory issues, Nintendo has proven they’re the best in their field for a reason, concealing their shortcomings while simultaneously enhancing the game’s dark and despairing tone. They rescue the Switch from itself, preventing players from witnessing its limitations.
They’ve accomplished so much with so little, quite literally: even though ‘Baldur’s Gate 3‘ might have the potential to be the game of the year, none other has transformed its shortcomings into opportunities quite like this one. A marvel that never ceases to amaze us.
The first was a 21-year-old man who entered the company with a plan: sign a dealer contract, steal the game before it was released, and never show up there again.
When the most popular video games are released in Japan, it is common for employees to call in sick to work so they can spend more time playing, calling it “Pokémon vacation” or “Zelda vacation,” for example. But what some Amazon workers have done there is a mix of audacity and bravery that could only happen in the Land of the Rising Sun.
The magazine Shukan Bunsun has uncovered a small-scale scandal at Amazon warehouses in Kanagawa, where two cases emerged of individuals who decided they were going to have ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ before anyone else. The first case involved a 21-year-old man who entered the company with a plan: sign a delivery contract, steal the game before its release, and never show up again.
Initially, his plan worked perfectly: on May 12th, he was hired by the big company, and a few weeks before the highly anticipated release of ‘Tears of the Kingdom’, he simply stopped showing up at the warehouse. When his boss called his home, his mother informed them that he spent all day playing video games. Well, specifically one game: Zelda. There is a happy ending to the story (except for the employee): he returned the copy after paying for it, and he was immediately fired. Strangely enough, he didn’t complain about being wrongfully terminated.
The other case involved a newly hired 24-year-old man who had similar yet completely different plans. When he stopped showing up for work, which his boss thought was a “Zelda vacation,” the surprise came when it was discovered that he had stolen all sorts of merchandise, from Amiibos to controllers, to resell them as quickly as possible. To no one’s surprise, he was swiftly fired.
In reality, the magazine report is not just about people pulling tricks to get their hands on Zelda, but rather about a much larger issue within Amazon in Japan: people who join the company’s warehouses solely to steal whatever they want and then disappear. While the company doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it and treats it as mere anecdotes, the management is demanding stricter and more deterrent measures. After all, how many times have you heard someone say, “What if I don’t get caught?”
What then prevented us from using Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ as the main theme of that little game from 1982 entitled ‘The legend of Zelda’?
It was not uncommon during the era of 8-bit consoles to find that the main themes of some video games were simply chiptune versions of classic songs that were not copyrighted. For example, ‘Tetris’ used ‘The Nutcracker,’ ‘Final Fantasy II’ incorporated ‘Swan Lake’ (both by Tchaikovsky), and ‘Might & Magic’ featured Pachelbel’s ‘Canon.’ They sounded good, were adaptable, and players liked them… So, what prevented using Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ as the main theme for that little game from 1982 called ‘The Legend of Zelda’?
On November 22, 1928, something unique was about to happen at the Paris Opera, but many of the attendees were not even aware that they were about to witness the premiere of a melody that would resonate throughout the decades. Maurice Ravel, who adapted an Islamic song using an orchestra and his own arrangements reminiscent of Spanish boleros, debuted a song that supposedly took place in a Spanish tavern, where a dancer would climb onto a table and begin to dance, increasingly accompanied by the clapping of the audience.
At least, that’s what was written in the program booklet handed out at the entrance. Ravel preferred it to resemble a factory due to the mechanical nature of the music. In those years, it became a huge success that resurfaced fifty years later thanks to ’10, the Perfect Woman,’ where Bo Derek moved to its rhythm. The problem is that Blake Edwards did pay the corresponding rights for its use, which cannot be said for Nintendo.
After the success of the song in the film, Koji Kondo thought that Ravel’s fantasy could fit perfectly as the opening fanfare for ‘The Legend of Zelda’. They adapted it, everyone was thrilled, and the game development continued. However, once it was finished, someone realized that less than fifty years had passed since the author’s death, which meant that the tune was still under copyright in Japan. Oops.
Kondo spent the whole night reworking parts of the game’s music here and there until he came up with the melody we all know now. Miyamoto himself remembers it as a tune that “above all, suggests bravery. So I think it is the perfect song to play when you embark on an adventure.” It was just one night, but it was definitely worth it.
As of today, Ravel’s works are in the public domain in many parts of Asia and the European Union, and in the United States, they will enter the public domain starting from 2025. Will we be able to hear the ‘Bolero’ in the game that comes after ‘Tears of the Kingdom’, even as a simple reference? Well, let’s wait and see what Link has in store for us.
What he has obtained is a series of items that could potentially wipe out all of Hyrule in a couple of minutes. Link has become a bigger threat than Ganondorf thanks to the players.
Surely Nintendo expected that with the building elements that Link now has in ‘Tears of the Kingdom‘ players were going to build motorboats, carriages or, being very skilled, some other mechanism to carry the Koroks from here to there. Instead, what you’ve gotten is a series of elements that could potentially wipe out all of Hyrule in a couple of minutes. Link has become a bigger threat than Ganondorf thanks to the players.
Let’s take as an example this killing machine formed by a vertical stone, two wheels and eight lasers that are able to kill any creature just by activating it. What did they say your pod…? Nothing, it doesn’t matter.
My personal favorite may be this contraption that brings together ten planes with activated bomb launchers to practice the Americans’ favorite risky sport: bombing other countries. Or, in this case, enemies that stand in the way of freedom (of Hyrule, that is).
And to lower the warrior mood a little, players have also made small amusement parks, because not everything is going to be mercilessly killing koroks and annihilating enemies. Link also needs a holiday from time to time.
And sure, it’s one thing to create amusement parks and weapons of mass destruction and another to be able to stick your arm out the window and hope you get a tan in the Hyrule sun while playing your favorite country station. When is the Link trucker spin-off coming?
— Schlobster #BringBackGoldenSun (@Schlobster_) May 14, 2023
And, of course, we have to comment on the players’ number one hobby: killing as many Koroks as they can (or, like this one, sending them into space with a couple of arrows).
The game has been in stores for a couple of weeks now and everything seems to indicate that there is still a lot to discover as the public experiments, runs, rides, destroys and uses all of Hyrule to their advantage. May the imagination never stop! The killing of koroks yes, please, poor things.
Let’s take a look at the 3 best (and 3 worst) things that has brought us, as everyone knows it, the new Zelda. And after that each one takes the side that they like the most.
Tears of the Kingdom has been with us for a week now, and if you’ve been watching Twitter, people are doing real stunts. Don’t feel pressured to build a rocket if you don’t feel like it: if you think you’re the host of ‘Bricomania’ just by attaching a motor to a board, don’t let anyone take away your enthusiasm. The sequel to ‘Breath of the wild’ is receiving categorical deuces from the entire gaming community and, indeed, it is a tremendous game, a masterpiece, a before and after in the industry… Or maybe it’s not so bad? Let’s take a look at the 3 best (and 3 worst) things that has brought us, as everyone knows it, “the new Zelda”… And then let everyone take the side they like the most.
Undoubtedly, it is a wonderful addition. If in ‘Breath of the wild’ it was already a masterful move to change Link’s classic instruments for different magics and powers, in ‘Tears of the Kingdom‘ it is improved to the extreme. If you have the ability to build and enough patience, your ride through Hyrule in a truck, your automatic killing machine or your jet plane will make the experience much more fun. But then again, by thinking of the game vertically instead of the horizontality of the previous installment, being able to easily climb and escape from almost anywhere is a great addition, just as much as rolling things backwards. No one thought Nintendo was going to pull it off, but they have.
Not as free as it seems
This Zelda is sold as the game where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want and however you want… And for the most part it is, but not exactly. Before going here and there you’ll have to go through several gofer quests, assorted tutorials or, even worse, the impossibility of taking down some monsters with ideas of your own: even if you have a wit to take down some of them, the game forces you to do it its way, and it goes against everything it pretends to stand for. It happens only sometimes, but it’s undeniably annoying.
Three maps
Quelling accusations that this was a glorified DLC, Hyrule now grows above and below: the secrets hidden in the clouds and underground are a great addition that enlarges the map to unsuspected limits. If in ‘Breath of the wild’ it was already difficult to get from one side of the country to the other, now, with three times as much place to cover, it’s surprise after surprise. And the best part: you’re always seeing things and places, you always know where you want to go next, you never run out of ideas to keep jogging. Great.
Not so many new features
Yes, it’s back to Hyrule in style. Yes, every plan of the map has been retouched and new places have been opened. And yet… The walk (or ride) around the map feels too much like ‘Breath of the wild‘: although the powers give, playably, a new life to the game, it doesn’t really innovate in the same way that ‘Majora’s Mask’ did with ‘Ocarina of time‘. It’s essentially the same game, with enemies being killed in the same way and similar mechanics. It never ends up feeling like something completely new, but rather like coming home for Christmas and seeing that your parents have done a complete overhaul. It’s not the same, but the structure is.
There is always something to do
Unlike in the previous installment, where the map sometimes seemed to be completely empty, in ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ there is always a sanctuary to reach, a gadget to build, an enemy to kill, a side mission to finish, a piece of map to explore… It is, indeed, a world where you will always find things to do and getting bored is, literally, impossible. It is absolute perfection as far as open world games are concerned, and ‘GTA VI’ has a very difficult time overcoming its variety of tests and, above all, the feeling of a world that is always alive and in motion.
The. Falls. Continuous.
With the addition of the islands in the sky also comes another one that we didn’t see coming: Link’s clumsiness, who falls over and over again to the ground… And unless he sinks into the water or uses the parasail in time, he’ll have no choice but to crash to the ground. Later in the game we get a medallion that will help us, but until then it’s all falls, deaths, crushing and pain. Couldn’t we also have a little rope tied to our ankle so we can easily get back to where we were, please?
That’s why it’s so nice to see that creators like Zequio and Becky manage to fit viral after viral, always using originality as their flag.
There are so many content creators on the internet that sometimes, amidst fake podcasts recorded to create false controversies, people screaming while watching a trailer, or official plagiarizers of jokes, those who truly create original content are at risk of being buried under the terrible and always tumultuous waters of the internet. Perhaps that’s why it feels so satisfying to see creators like Zequio and Becky succeed viral after viral, always relying on originality as their banner.
After spending enough years on the internet, one knows that when faced with a video titled “The Battle of Consoles,” all that’s left is to sigh out of boredom. However, when in the video, the protagonists are PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo discussing Activision, ‘Call of Duty,’ and, of course, ‘Zelda,’ things change. In just one minute and ten seconds, Zequio perfectly summarizes everything that others have been trying to make us see through extensive and repetitive speeches.
“Why are you fighting over an external franchise? Why don’t you focus on making your own games the best they can be? Games like Zelda, for example,” says Nintendo, aware that the battle over Activision and multi-platform games will only have one clear winner: never, ever bet against Nintendo. After years of uncertainty about ‘Tears of the Kingdom,’ with many assuming it would be a hastily made sequel to ‘Breath of the Wild,’ the Japanese company has once again made a strong statement and changed the history of video games. Well, considering that it’s an industry where something “changes history” every month, it’s not exactly groundbreaking.
Being a Nintendo fan means being downtrodden for eleven months of the year and incredibly proud during the one month when you can say, “Oh, sure, your little shooting game is nice, but when are you going to make another ‘Super Mario Odyssey’? Oh, you don’t know?” If we overlook the fact that they would sue a dog if its paw pad resembled Kirby, it’s hard not to have sympathy for a company that marches to its own beat. And if they happen to get a ‘Call of Duty’ by chance on the Switch, well, that’s just a bonus for them.
Has it been a sales breaker or are we really just four fans who enjoy each return to Hyrule? Spoiler: out of four nothing.
The internet was flooded with pre-orders. We all wanted to try ‘Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’, and since then, the internet has been a collection of wild ideas, desperate deaths, and brutal killings of koroks who just want to see their friend. But the question remains in people’s minds: Has it been a blockbuster or are we just four fans who enjoy each return to Hyrule? Spoiler: It’s definitely not just four.
Nintendo is crying tears of joy as they see the data from one of the most anticipated games of the year. For example, in the UK, it has become the second-best launch in their history, only behind ‘Wii Fit’ in 2008 (in terms of revenue, while in terms of units sold, it ranks fourth, also surpassed by two ‘Pokémon’ installments). To give you an idea of the power of the Hyrule swordsman, it has sold twice as much as ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ in the same time period… although with a caveat, as it is known that the multiplatform game had a great digital reception.
Furthermore, in the UK, it has sold 2.7 times more than ‘Breath of the Wild’. Quite impressive. In France, it has surpassed half a million units sold, surpassing the release of ‘FIFA 23’, the most acquired game in 2022. In just three days at Fnac, over 120,000 purchases were made. These are staggering numbers that should make Nintendo very happy, considering that the Switch is their second-best-selling console to date (second only to the unstoppable Nintendo DS).
It is undeniable that it still has a long way to go to surpass ‘Breath of the Wild’, which has sold 30 million units to players. We will have to wait to see how it has performed globally, but the prospects from Japan are more than positive. Grab your sword and get ready to explore the sky and the underground. Let the legend continue!
