Yahoo Zelda
From "HELLO!" to "YAHOO!" — Image: Mato

Professional translator Clyde Mandelin has shed light on a single word that has been repeatedly changed over the years in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

The 1998 DX version of the title features an old lady in it, who says "YAHOO!" throughout the course of the game. This line was supposedly changed by someone at Nintendo of America to "HELLO!" when it was re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console in 2011. It's believed to have been adjusted because the original line (which includes an exclamation mark) was too similar to Yahoo! – the global search engine corporation.

It doesn't end there, though. While you might have already known about this, earlier this year in September, the remake of Link's Awakening obviously arrived on the Switch. It essentially added another chapter to the story – with Mandelin pointing out how the line "YAHOO!" is now back in the game (see above).

Yahoo Zelda
A comparison of the earlier games, thanks Mato — Image: Mato

The translator also explains how this wasn't an issue in the Japanese release:

Note that this change wasn’t made to the Japanese version of the game because the old lady’s Japanese phrase, iyahō, doesn’t match the Japanese name for YAHOO! Inc., yafū.

Although it might seem like Nintendo was worried about using the line "YAHOO!" due to possible legal issues, there's no guarantee this was necessarily why it was changed in the first place.

[source legendsoflocalization.com]