The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The game's title is in the center-top. A line runs diagonally through the image; in one section, the series' main protagonist—Link's face is shown. In the other, there is the head of Link's wolf form.
Developer(s)Nintendo EAD[a]
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Eiji Aonuma
Producer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Artist(s)
  • Yusuke Nakano
  • Satoru Takizawa
Writer(s)
Composer(s)
SeriesThe Legend of Zelda
Platform(s)
ReleaseWii
  • NA: November 19, 2006
  • JP: December 2, 2006
  • AU: December 7, 2006
  • EU: December 8, 2006
GameCube
  • JP: December 2, 2006
  • NA: December 11, 2006
  • EU: December 15, 2006
  • AU: December 19, 2006
Nvidia Shield TV
  • CHN: December 5, 2017
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess[b] is a 2006 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube and Wii. Originally planned for release exclusively on the GameCube in November 2005, Twilight Princess was delayed by Nintendo to allow its developers to refine the game, add more content, and port it to the Wii.[4] The Wii version was a launch game in North America in November 2006, and in Japan, Europe, and Australia the following month. The GameCube version was released in December 2006 as the final first-party game for the console.[5][c]

The story focuses on series protagonist Link, who tries to prevent Hyrule from being engulfed by a corrupted parallel dimension known as the Twilight Realm. To do so, he takes the form of both a Hylian and a wolf, and he is assisted by a mysterious imp named Midna. The game takes place over a century after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, in an alternate timeline from The Wind Waker.[6]

Twilight Princess was critically acclaimed upon its release, received numerous game of the year awards, and has been called one of the greatest video games ever made. By 2015, it had sold 8.85 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Zelda game until being overtaken by Breath of the Wild in April 2018.[7] In 2011, the Wii version was rereleased under the Nintendo Selects label. A high-definition remaster based on the GameCube version, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, developed by Tantalus Media, was released for the Wii U in March 2016.[8]


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  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference story1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference storybase was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Lawler, Richard.Nintendo Wii, GameCube games come to China on NVIDIA Shield Archived December 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.Engadget.2017-12-05.[2017-12-05].
  4. ^ Casamassina, Matt (August 16, 2005). "Zelda Delayed to Next Year". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on May 12, 2006. Retrieved November 13, 2021.
  5. ^ "GamePro Q&A: Nintendo's Harrison on Zelda". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. November 5, 2006. Archived from the original on November 26, 2006. Retrieved December 3, 2006.
  6. ^ "Long interview with Eiji Aonuma". Nintendo Dream (in Japanese). February 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  7. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (April 26, 2018). "Switch sales stand at over 17M units, Breath of the Wild now best-selling Zelda title". VG247. Archived from the original on April 28, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2018.
  8. ^ Otero, Jose (November 12, 2015). "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Announced for Wii U". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 15, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2015.