We've not been shy about advocating that Nintendo exploit its IPs as much as possible, boosting its brand power in the process. The Big N has been doing this to varying degrees, of course, and is seemingly going so far as to license The Legend of Zelda Trading Cards, which come with decal stickers and temporary tattoos.
They've gone up for pre-order at EB Games in Australia, with the range promising a lot of variety for the initial launch (pegged for 30th June); the following details are from product pages.
Cards from 5 Games:
- Twilight Princes
- Majora's Mask
- A Link Between Worlds
- Ocarina of Time
- Skyward Sword
- Approx. 85 Cards in the Base Set including:
- Foil Cards!
- 23 regular
- 8 Gold Foil Cards
- 12 Decal Stickers (1:2 Packs)
- 9 Tattoos
As you can see in the images below there's a 'Value Box' available to pre-order for $20AUS, which includes "4 packs of 6 randomly inserted cards and 1 decal or tattoo, a poster as well as 1 of 3 randomly inserted Collectors Pins":
There are also booster packs available which have six random cards and one decal / tattoo, with a cost of $6AUS.
We took a little look at other retailers elsewhere, including GameStop in the US, but these cards aren't broadly available to pre-order yet. If they do roll-out globally will you be keen to collect them?
Comments 48
Neat! But! What do you do with these cards? Just collect them, or can you use them to play a game?
This might be cool, but you just know scalpers are going to sell rare cards for a fortune on eBay...
These cards, which come in many forms, football, games, superheros etc. are very poor value for money.
It is the collecting addiction people have that these companies rely on. There are always rare cards, ones that are hard to come by because they are held back, forcing collectior to waste money on cards they already have.
But I guess if an individual wants to waste money its up to them. The more money spent on rubbish the less there is for games. But then some would say games are a waste of money.
If collection cards only then I will probably at least get some, but if it is a actual playing card game then... while not how I am on the Internet, but give me, give me, give me ^w^.
Yeah, I would be really happy if we got a actual Zelda playing card game I could play with other people and not just collect cards for the sake of them just being Zelda themed cards :+).
If these are just playing cards then meh, Nintendo failing to do it right again.
If these are, however, a trading card game then I'd be interested, not all the TCGs are good, but a Zelda themed one with all those creatures, heroes and lore could be interesting.
Interesting if there's a game in it like Pokemon
Why isn't there a Super Mario card brand yet? Unless you go for hanafuda....in which case, its sort of there but still.
This might be intersting, would like ot know more about the how game works.
NEED THIS, doesn't sound like a game at all just collectable cards. Why does it have to have a game attached? Its a major collectable IP
@zool Surely individuals aren't wasting money if it's something they wish to purchase and will enjoy having, or will make use of? The judgement of something being irrelevant or unnecessary is often others imposing their own thoughts for no good reason.
I think it's a great addition to Nintendo's products and gives people the chance to purchase something different from the company! I wouldn't invest but doesn't mean others that do are wasting their cash!
I hope they won't get here in italy, I would instantly buy a package if I see it in stores and my wallet already hate me enough.
It is going to be the beginning of the era of my collection ;-D
@aaronmclaren These things are a rip off. I agree with you if collectors want to collect the cards and get fun from it, that's good, but they are still being ripped off.
Cool, but I won't collect them myself. Very expensive, and there could be hundreds!
Really depends on the art to me. I love the Fire Emblem Cipher cards because I like the original art on them.
I am just interested in games - neither trading cards nor amiibo toyds will waste space in my room. But thats just me and to each his own. Collecting can be a lot of fun, though, finding that rare gem that you have been looking for for years can be an awesome feeling but then what? I 'collect' games in the sense that I buy them and dont sell them. I dont buy garbage like amiibo festival just because its made by nintendo and if I cant get my Pikmin 2 for a decent price then I will have to put up with that fact.
Its nice to have a passion for something, an addiction is an entirely different thing. Take a look at certain game rooms which you can see on the net. People buy virtually every game for a system no matter how good or how bad it is - sometimes multiple version of the same game - just to own them and have a complete collection of some sort. I doubt they will ever have the time or even want to play all of those games through. - to be fair, I doubt that I will ever play through all of my games.
@aaronmclaren people are free to purchase and enjoy what they want to. That does not stop something being very poor value, to the point of unfair to the collector who will spend a fortune trying to get those cards that are 'rare', the ones held back so that collectors will spend and spend .
Plot twist: MTG is integrating the Zelda cards into their lineup.
How interested would you be?
When I was a kid, I loved temporary tattoos. So their inclusion in this pack isn't odd at all.
I will collect these if they come to the us. I'm not a big card fan, but I love Zelda, so why not
Nintendo seem to be releasing everything except games these days
@Ichiban As funny as that is, the Wii U holiday line-up of "maybe Paper Mario" isn't exactly inspiring brand loyalty. And mobile app games don't wrap well as gifts under the tree. Unless Nintendo wants to release it's own branded tablet.
Man, when I saw that box I thought it was the cartridge design for Zelda NX.
I like the Zelda cards. The trading card sections in Target are huge, so I see this as a good thing even if I won't collect them myself. Might make a good gift for the kids though, that $20 box has "gift me" written all over it. Win.
A unique collectible Zelda card game is very appealing to me. Digitally, it would make a good mobile angle for Zelda, too. These are kinda fun and good to be in that space but not my thing.
@Socar They've done Mario Galaxy and NSMBWii trading cards in the past. Both of them included one little cardboard stand-up character and I think a thing of temp tattoos in each pack
@Captain_Gonru I own a few! But I was never able to find them after the first 1 or 2 packs that I got. (If I remember right, someone purchased them as a gift for me.)
Ugh... So tempting, so so tempting
Lack of Wind Waker is very disappointing.
While I'm not interested (not a Zelda fan, but also collect enough things), I see Nintendo's strategy here and hope it works out for them. The NX might be a huge hit, but they still need to diversify their output if they hope to survive long-term. They've done it before, after all!
@Captain_Gonru secret card
There will be 5 gold foil cards and they bring you to Ntinedo HQ where you will be brought to the meeting room to see how nothing ever gets done and nothing ever gets decided, just a bunch of men sitting around in silence. And then when you ask about NX Kimishima will tell you that you get nothing, just wave you off and say "I said good day, sir".
It seems people didn't catch when this happened before. They had a range of Twilight Princess ones back when the game came out, and it was the same thing--collectible cards of the characters and items and enemies, with some foils and temporary tattoos. I bought a couple packs at Target, they were great.
I already have some Zelda cards from Twilight Princess, so I'll be passing of these.
This is too tempting. I may have to get that value box.
This will be a waste of money but I'm not sure if I can resist buying at least some. I like to look at things like game or album covers and cards would be the same thing. And it's Zelda.
@Arlo ...Wait you're on this site? xD
Is that really you? lol
I put Tingle in defense mode and end my turn.
I used to get random cards packs... when I was around 8 years old.
@Megumi_Sagano I poke around the comments from time to time. ;D
@Arlo Heh, coolz, anyways hey. lol
Sorry, no Wind Waker, no sail...
I used to have Multiple different types of Nintendo trading card. I had the topps cards from the late 80's or early 90's. Then they also had game boy gum packs that included game boy themed trading cards.
@zool Value is completely subjective. If it is monetary value that you are referring to, however, then these cards may not be a sound business investment.
I love Zelda as much as anyone else here, and probably more,but I really don't see the need for this. Although my it's just my dislike of trading cards. ¯(ツ)/¯
Really need to see some of the cards themselves to decide.
I recently bought two packs of Dragonball Z game cards - they featured generic stills and screenshots from the Dragonball Z cartoons - the card stock wasn't great either so they were overall pretty crappy and it was an easy decision to not buy anymore.
@james_squared not money as such, but value for money.
I guess it is mostly children who collect these cards and it is the adults that pay for them. Children just 'want', cost for them does not come into it, but adults should see how these things are marketed. You have to spend a fortune collecting stuff you already have just to try and get those few cards that have been held back.
@Captain_Gonru That E3 headline page should say - "Step into a world of wonder - where you wonder why we're only showing a 2 year old game at E3 this year". Nintneod changed it's E3 logic from - "we only show games that are coming out within the next 6 months" to "we only show games that were due to release last year and still aren't releasing within the next 6 motnhs". Brilliant. And if you want to play it, Wii U will still only set you back $299.
And speaking of brilliant, watchd the Oculus Rift get destroyed last night. Looking forward to next season when Savage takes over Sony and fights off the invading alien horde using PS VR. Well I'm looking forward to not wasting 16 hours of my life not watching it anyway. Unless they get Nyssa on board, move it to cable, and change the title to "DC's L Word of Tomorrow".
@Captain_Gonru Well I probably won't watch it until next Wed or Thursday so I'll let ya know then.
OK, you can give me one spoiler - do they mention the kids they left at the orphanage about 3 episodes ago, the ones they had to get back to their original timeline ASAP before they disappeared forever, so they headed to 2166, yet 3 episodes later nobody ever even mentioned them again? They all seemed very concerned at the time to so compeltley forget about them. It's killing my wife and I. BTW, if you ever want to watch good sci-fi time travel TV, Dr. Who. We just started season 5, and even though I don't like the new Dr., it's just so good. And it's completely repetitive, but still so good. Makes it very hard to watch anything on the CW while watching Dr. Who, GoT and Penny Dreadful. Of course GoT makes it hard to watch anything else.
@Captain_Gonru Never read the GoT books, never will. And I'm glad somebody finally thought of the children. And when you do watch Dr.Who, start at the new season 1, not the originals.
@Captain_Gonru Thanks, but I think my comic book days are behind me, even nostalgia driven ones. If I were to go back to comics it would be for Gaiman Sandman adult type stuff.
Maybe Ninnteod should make a Mario comic. Something, anything, to fill in these empty days. I've been to wakes' that were more fun than this place of late. It's like they are trying to destroy the fanbase. Brush off all the gamers, sell a console that only plays cartridges and codes you get in McDonald's Happy Meals. Man I'm bored.
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