Better Late Than Never Once Again
Equal Time For Rumors

Zelda Rumors Are Out Of Control Again

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight PrincessThe rumor mill is working overtime again.  Yesterday there was word that the often-delayed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had been scraped for the Nintendo GameCube in favor of the upcoming Nintendo Revolution console, and now today's rumor is that yesterday's rumor is untrue and instead the game will premiere with the Revolution as a pack-in game to show off the new console's backwards compatibility features, while the stand-alone GameCube boxed version will not see store shelves until one month after that.  Of course, I don't believe either of these tidbits.

Where do these rumors come from?  You all know by now that I hate these kinds of rumors that people just invent, waving their Master Swords around in order to sound like important people privy to secret information.  This kind of behavior seems to start on the kindergarten playgrounds and some people just never outgrow it.  You know the types, like the kid who claims that there's a secret World 9-1 in Super Mario Bros. that he's played but can't talk about because his uncle works for Nintendo, or the guy who claims to have found the secret "Nudalities" of Mortal Kombat but won't show them to anyone.

So, all that said, let me just say that it would be foolish for Nintendo to bundle a game built on "old" technology with the new wunderconsole.  The idea with the Revolution is to sell people on the new controller, right?  So wouldn't the company want to pack-in something that shows unique ways to use the new gadget?  "But you could swing Link's sword in Twilight Princess" is not the demo that will win the now-pursued causal gamer market.  Besides, I believe that Nintendo is saving that gimmick for the eventual non-Twilight Zelda adventure.  Might the game include some kind of Revolution-exclusive bonus?  It's possible.  The Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons titles did feature that secret shop that was only open for business when the games were played on a Game Boy Advance.  However, the games were designed for the Game Boy Color and worked just fine on the "old" technology.  Playing on a Game Boy Advance did not change the structure or the gameplay of either title, mind you, and I doubt that Nintendo would want to undermine the last chance to sell GameCubes by making the Twilight experience somehow less impressive on the little black (or indigo, or what have you) box.

And even if you don't believe that, ask yourself why Nintendo would forego the bundles of revenue that releasing Twilight Princess for GameCube will surely reap?  Many people are prepared to spend $200 (or whatever the price may be) for a Revolution.  Many people are prepared to drop an additional $50 for Twilight Princess.  Why put them both in the same box when people will willingly pay for them separately?  Nintendo is amazingly profitable for many reasons.  Giving highly anticipated games away for free on a large scale is not one of them.

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