The Mysterious Nintendo Triangles

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN
List on SEGARetro: segaretro.org/...
Thread of people's triangles: / 1567831719595630593
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[@GVG]

The NintenDaan discord has been hard at work documenting every triangle t.co/19NcTVsTr1

[@Nenilein]

Seeing you pull out Puyo Pop Fever made me smile. :-)

[@ThomasPeeters]

Where can I join this discord?

[@5alpha23]

I'm not a gamer, neither have I ever owned or any Nintendo product. But THIS is the kind of community dedication I adore and love! :) P.S.: Working at a company who curates a database for collector's items maaaaaaaay be a reason too. ;)

[@ozgurkurtoglu6005]

Hey there is a black tri angele on turkish wii games mine black tri angele games epic mikey 2 and çata 2

[@viewtifuljoe99]

Nintendo truly had a Triangle Strategy since the very beginning.

[@MapleLunii]

Ahaaaaa... haha. >:(

[@gamin9wizard945]

I hope that game will also get a PC port like octopath. But Nintendo would be smarter if they wouldn't let that happen.

[@viewtifuljoe99]

@@gamin9wizard945 Triangle Strategy is getting a pc port in a few weeks. It's even got a preorder page on steam, same with Octopath II.

[@ludde2945]

They just wanna give our boxes a various daylife with these different colours

[@rutgerniemeijer]

I spat my tea reading this!

[@NathanielBandy]

This was the best video about triangles

[@Coolouie]

copyrighted triangles

[@ClampEEGEE]

Honestly I like how Australia and Japan both put their ratings on the spines. I wish more regions did that.

[@NitroIndigo]

DVDs sold in the UK & Ireland have two age ratings on their spines: one from the BBFC and one from IFCO.

[@MartianBlobfish]

We do have triangles though, they're brown. They're either on the spine like with GamCube and some DS games or on the bottom left hand corner on the back like with Wii, Switch and the other DS games. Those the only ones I've got for reference.

[@joshukaunarak]

Meanwhile here in Germany, the rating is so big that on the boxes of Super Mario 3D All-Stars and TLo Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, they had to move the game logo a bit to the right😂

[@timelymirror7826]

esrb on the spine really and in Japan they do have ratings on the spines but for PlayStation

[@artimist0315]

I think it's a good idea but you know there are some maniacs out there who will sort their games by age ratings so the colours match. One day lent my collection of assassination's classroom to a friend and she sorted them by colour, so basically each volume was on a different shelf...

[@ArendAlphaEagle]

Also a Dutch person: most of my games have that sky blue triangle as well, but some of them have an orange one. These feature both Dutch and French, which is probably useful to sell in the Benelux in order to save money. I got a couple that also have a brown triangle; those feature Dutch, French AND German. And dark green triangles too, those have Dutch, French, German AND English. Some Pokémon games in the GBA era feature a light pink color, and those only feature Dutch and English. Speaking of the GBA era, they actually have DO feature the regional color on the box itself too, but not only is it not a triangle (it's a square), but they're also well-hidden: namely, on one of the small flaps when opening the box. I presume it's the same with Game Boy/Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, SNES and even the NES. It probably wouldn't have been handy if they invented a whole color system to distinguish the packaging for each region, but don't do that at all with the box itself until the GameCube era. Of course they're hidden on the box flaps because those are things that a regular customer doesn't need to see; but because game manuals and plastic cases don't actually HAVE any flaps, they're made triangles and moved elsewhere: a page corner on the manual, or the spine on the game case.

[@dbzbudeaucaille2711]

Interesting! I'm from Switzerland and we also tend to have multilanguages boxes with german, french and italian. On the Switch, the triangle is usually purple or violet for Nintendo games. Third party games have sometimes other colors. But we also have some weird things on a few games. For example, Kirby and the forgotten land has the title in german on the front (Kirby und das vergessene Land) but the description on the back is in both german, french and italian. For Hyrule Warriors, it's even weirder. The title on the front is written 3 times, in those 3 languages. How is it in the Netherlands and Belgium for those games?

[@ResTyrant22]

I never knew these triangles existed. I haven't really looked at foreign box art outside the U.S. Definitely interesting.

[@HUYI1]

Now I will look at all my games including the original Gameboy and take note of these mysterious triangles lol

[@NitroIndigo]

Glad I'm not the only person who wondered this. A few months ago, I was struck by the realisation that having multiple languages on one ROM is a relatively new concept to Americans, but it's something I've always taken for granted.

[@wareforcoin5780]

New? I guess, but I've expected language settings in my games since they started going on disks. It's very common over here, too. Has been for years. I distinctly remember laughing about the French VO of the first Harry Potter game with my sister. Although, I played that on PC, so I guess that's much more to be expected.

[@JomaXZ]

Since I'm from Norway, I SHOULD be getting all those nice yellow nacho's because those have Norwegian, Swedish and Danish on the box. BUT since Scandinavians tend to be pretty adept at English, they sometimes just give us the English box. So I have a mixture with UK Green Triangles on my boxes too. (As well as some special Purple editions, but that was expected) I haven't checked or tested this thoroughly yet, but it seems that games with higher age ratings tend to not get at Yellow triangle. I suspect it has to do with kids not being expected to be able to properly read English at those ages. I could be wrong, but I don't think it's coincidental that all my Pokemon games have a yellow triangle while Zelda and Fire Emblem are green.

[@duskvortex]

I live in Norway too, and my copy of Bayonetta 1+2 has a yellow triangle, so I don't really think the age rating is the explanation. My copies of Xenoblade 2, 3 and Fire Emblem Three Houses also have a yellow triangle. My copy of XCDE doesn't have a yellow triangle as I got a copy which came with the collector's set, but I know that yellow triangle copies exist as I bought one not too long ago for a friend. My 3DS Fire Emblem games (Awakening and Echoes) and all of my 3DS Zelda games apart from Majora's Mask 3D have a green triangle. My copy of Yo-Kai Watch 1 has a yellow triangle, but Psychic Spectres and 3 have a green triangle. All of my 3DS Pokemon games, apart from Y have a yellow triangle. I have the new 3DS version of Xenoblade Chronicles and surprisingly enough, my copy has a yellow triangle.

[@JomaXZ]

@@duskvortex Interesting... Only working theory I have now is that it might be related to the localization budget or something like that, but I have absolutely no clue.

[@VSaccount]

I have Dead or Alive Dimensions which was apparently banned in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, so the back has only Finnish and Swedish text (because Finland is bilingual) and it has a purple triangle.

[@duskvortex]

@@JomaXZ might be likely, though that theory may or may not be disproven. I got Triangle Strategy recently and my copy is a yellow triangle one

[@The_Jzoli]

You forgot Finnish, the yellowish green one is for Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Finnish. I have an old Emerald game with the trainer guide being only in Swedish and Danish (even though it was purchased in Finland), making the triangle purple.

[@MrDannyloco]

The art being in a black void i actually personally like, it prevents the art from touching any text which allows you to perfectly cut it out if you ever wanted that. Plus its just nostalgic as heck

[@DystopianOverture]

I have always wondered what those triangles are, thank you for explaining!

[@statesminds]

I have never noticed this ever. While I live in America I have imported switch games from UK sometimes and never realized

[@zubair1149]

I'm from Australia and we have dark-brown triangles located on the back of the box in the bottom-left corner

[@Zachruff]

Now I wonder what triangle the Age of Calamity box in switzerland has, since that one had very special packaging since it needed the title in French, German and Italian

[@30SecondsToMars97]

It's purple. Switzerland is a little bit of an odd region, triangle-wise. Purple is for packaging in german, french and italian. Burgundy, is for german only packaging, but without the USK-rating. So this is probably for the german-speaking part of Switzerland and Austria. Blue is also very common, which is the german version with the USK-rating. Meaning this is the proper version from Germany. Pink is the french version, which is probably not only for the french-speaking part of Switzerland but for France and other (partly) french-speaking countries aswell. The only thing left should be italian only packaging, but unfortunately I don't think I own one of these.

[@Zachruff]

@@30SecondsToMars97 very interesting, ty!

[@LordJabu-Jabu]

I can’t believe I’ve been “collecting” (very casually) Nintendo games for 10 years and didn’t even know these triangles existed! I’m in Canada and pretty much exclusively buy my games locally so it makes sense I’ve never seen them but still I feel like I should’ve known

[@h.celine9303]

This was the first video of yours I've seen and I instantly subscribed. Which I do very, very rarely. Also, I liked that you have a German DS Game sold by momox for some reason (probably because I also have bought many games there).

[@RetroMythologist]

Fascinating. Collecting only NTSC & NTSC-J, I had no idea about these colorful triangles of mystery! Thank you.

[@SafetyServbot]

Gotta love distribution standards that are so poorly explained that even the people they're meant for don't know what they're for

[@KhakiCube]

There's no triangles in the US, but the "ESRB" logo will sometimes have the French or Spanish word of that game's rating.

[@MayorMori]

Loved the video. I always wondered what they were for lol

[@dbzbudeaucaille2711]

Great video! This triangle thing is very confusing and since Nintendo tend to change the rules every generation of consoles, it becomes even more confusing. I don't remember how it was earlier but on Switch, we have the triangles but we also have a country code on the back. Those codes are usually obvious and indicate clearly the country. I'm from Switzerland and the code for Nintendo games is GFI which stands for German French Italian. Third party games have others codes sometimes. I also have some games with the code FRA for France or GER for Germany. But I also have games with the code GEP. The box is in german but it has the european PEGI rating instead of the ugly german USK, so I guess it's meant for Austria. But why GEP? The age rating system can be also confusing. Despite not being in the EU, countries like Switzerland and Norway use the european PEGI system, but Germany use its own USK system with the big ugly logo. Sometimes, they even need to move the title in order to let the logo fit in.

[@Sprengi86]

I'm pretty sure that by just watching this video, i suddenly got swapped over from my parallel-universe where there never were triangles on Nintendo games - suddenly they're everywhere!

[@BenjiBearPup]

Thank you for clearing up that mystery Jon!! As a Brit i had always wondered what those curious triangles were about and my theory about a multi-colored Triforce in Europe was wrong all along!

[@Roadent1241]

Hmm. That would have made an interesting ARG...

[@SapphireSolstice67]

5:43 Making fun of Australia? Didgeridon’t don’t mess with us

[@armandocampamartinez8307]

And here comes jon to solve my doubts, when my puzzled ass noticed that my new games bought in ireland were dark green (uk) and not light pink

[@julianemkow8396]

Being from the us, we don’t have any triangles, but I thought I might as well share something a little odd about our boxes. In America there is only English on the box, but in Canada they have French and English. That is not too out of the ordinary, the us is mostly monolingual, and Canada is bilingual, but sometimes here (often enough to not be just a one time thing) you will find a Canadian version brand new on store shelves. Like, they literally shipped the Canadian version of the game to the US, although I do live a little close to the boarder, so they could be doing this because it is the same game just with the box having French text, and sending the normal us version over the country. Not the best comparison, but it’s like seeing the French version of a game on sale in the UK, how did it get there?

[@yup8865]

Yeah I have a few games with French/English ESRB ratings and box descriptions. Only like two or three though. I live in the north eastern US

[@louckykoneko]

just randomly happened to find this video, watched it, got curious and decided to check my DS and Switch games. for context, I'm in the Netherlands and most of my games were bought either first-hand or secondhand at Dutch game stores. most of my games have either the [NL] blue or the [NL/FR] orange, but I noticed a few outliers: - my copy of Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship 2007 has the dark pink triangle and has text in English and Dutch. I got this game secondhand at a Dutch game store and have never seen the Dutch/English text combo on other games, only on this one. the SEGARetro page mentions this combination but doesn't have an image of the pink; I can confirm that it is the same as the dark pink listed for the entirety of western Europe at the top of the list. - my copy of Yoshi's Island DS has the crimson/burgundy triangle and has text in German, French and Dutch. interestingly, the DE/FR/NL text combination with crimson triangle is listed on the SEGARetro page as "to be confirmed". I can confirm it exists! - my copy of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has the green triangle and text in English. I got this game in England, so that makes sense. - and I was about to mention my copy of Pokemon Platinum which has no triangle and call it a misprint, but I just realized it's an import from Canada (the text on the back is English and French, and the game has an ESRB rating rather than a PEGI rating). I'm sure I knew that when I bought it but just forgot until now.

[@mutekrabby5039]

This is the GameXplain guy right? No-one else has a voice that deep.

[@James-gj8rn]

Dark Triangles and Light Triangles, yes!

[@oscarzxn4067]

They really did some Triangle Strategy with this boxes

[@DaveSimonH]

4:19 Those may just be standard UK releases, but with sun fading. Look at the U rating on the Mickey case, it should also be green but has turned blue.

[@ItsBoFoSho]

In Canada we just have the logo of the company that made it in the corner, at least for Switch and 3DS didn't check anything else

[@jfwfreo]

I wonder if the triangles might be used by Nintendo to not only identify where games are supposed to go but also to identify instances where games intended for one market are being sold (without permission) in another market.

[@Viktoria_Selene]

I also sent a picture of the spines, but I forgot to say the country

[@Viktoria_Selene]

It was Spain, and the triangles are yellow and light red

[@kevinsteevens4468]

the reason the Belgian box is the same color as the Netherlands is probably because certain parts of Belgium speak Flemish, which is really similar to Dutch (think American English to British English).

[@kuyerthunder]

I wonder how my 12 (boxed) Wii games ended up with 9 different coloured triangles and one without a triangle

[@christonadams9046]

Nintendo games in South Africa also have the green triangle on the spine so you could say we share triangles

[@zwanzigzwanzig]

I was actually wondering about those triangles, and why my Mario Kart 7 had a red Rhythm Paradise has a dark red triangle, while all my other games have dark purple ones. I guess I still don't 100% know because I bought all of them used and they're all in German, but they're probably from Austria or Switzerland then

[@inouji]

I think the triangle on the louvre box is just to harmonize with the boxart, since the background the text is on is the same color? Could be wrong but hey, we're trying to solve mysteries here!

[@mageius]

I wonder what color Nintendo would give the Bermuda triangle. I mean it's already such a famous and mysterious triangle. lol Always love watching some of these more amusing videos.

[@Ivegotsomewater81]

Good vibes man, Good vibes man. Good vibes man hates triangle man. They have a fight, triangle wins. Triangle man.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

It's common knowledge in the video game industry that this triangle marks a person for death.

[@ultaedits5751]

In Portugal the switch games really seem to be mostly with the yellow triangles. Thanks for sharing! It's very interesting, since I thought the triangle colors were dependant on the game publisher.

[@PhoenixWrightAceAttorney]

I saw Last Window DS game in the thumbnail and clicked straight away. That game deserves more attention honestly.

[@JyuzouNT]

What the frig, I don't remember having any triangles on my Nintendo Switch games! I can't check my boxes rn, but what the frig, now I HAVE to know!

[@luliby2309]

An essential video. This must all be documented for posterity.

[@smudgetwo]

i honestly thought for the longest time that it was to represent the *type* of game but i now realise that's pretty silly

[@Shady_Fungus]

Man I could listen to John talk about triangles for hours. 😌

[@goombuigi6904]

Well, I live in the Czech Republic, and since Nintendo doesn't localize their games into Czech, we have the standard English boxes with the green triangles. I checked my collection and they're 100% green triangles. It's nice to have consistency.

[@gamefoun]

I have some red ones that came with my wii u bundle (also czech)

[@Fangirl-Nerd12]

From the US this is very interesting we don't have something like this in the US but we have the different box art

[@56Pilotboy]

Loving the content from GVG

[@AndresLionheart]

Oh I would hate that so much. I always make sure the games I buy are american because I like the cohesion of all the boxes using the ESRB ratings (I'm from Argentina. Most of the time the games are american, but sometimes you can find european ones). Having different colored triangles would make it so much harder to always get the same color ones to keep that cohesion.

[@tomonemo2992]

In Hungary the serious collectors are crazy about these differences. A game with English cover could worth much more to them and lot of them are looking exclusively for the green triangles - until they realise that some games only released with multilanguage covers with purple/yellow/whatever triangles. I don't mind the language of the cover/manual, the game should be playable in English, that's all.

[@ZenithMusicNet]

Thank you for this video. Just what I needed! (in a Mario voice)

[@NottJoeyOfficial]

I'm in the US, so I didn't know about these at all until I picked up Retro City Rampage and Shakedown Hawaii on Wii, as those are only available as PAL copies. US and Japanese games don't have these so it's very interesting learning about them. I always assumed they were game language.

[@Sweetie.21]

I think you meant to say ‘can speak English’, because when you said that around 93% of people in the Netherlands can’t speak English, I nearly choked on my drink because that can’t possibly be true. A quick Google search later and about 90-93% of Dutch people speak English as a second language. Which isn’t that weird considering I first got taught English in high school. It is also a mandatory class that you can’t drop (unlike German and French). Most courses will also teach it (aside from courses focused on a different language I would assume), you really can’t escape it. Shows (aside from cartoons for kids, because they haven’t learned English in school yet) aren’t translated from their original language, instead they’re subtitled. This also helps in keeping that percentage high. Edit: caught an autocorrect error

[@XxxNuggetxxX]

Ah, that's explains why my Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (imported) EU copy has a triangle. My games mostly are from NTSC/NTSC-J. But this is very interesting!

[@BigDom1002]

I just looked at my Nintendo games to realize there is a triangle on there, for me (German) dark purple to be exact! BTW on the pack in Wii Games that came in the cardboard cases, they are in the back lower left corner!

[@EriksGarbage]

I actually own a PAL copy of Game Builder Garage, and I'd been wondering what the hell the triangle meant!

[@wiiprof89]

5:38 - OMG I made it :D

[@briansilva3765]

Not as interesting, but in Brazil we didn't remade the Nintendo boxes in Portuguese-BR, so here they come inside paper/cardboard boxes that are properly translated and localized, not all games came like this, which make our collections uneven with proper plastic boxes and ones with paper exterior, though we don't complain because these do have a higher resell value.

[@YoshiFawful64]

I’m Finnish, and personally, I’ve got a wide array of different greens, yellows, and purples!

[@rdrais3869]

With this being our 'PAL' John, I'm curious when will we see PEGI John

[@kadosho02]

This is fascinating. I always wondered about the triangles. United States. Hmm cannot seem to find triangles. But I remember past gen there used to be

[@AlexandraStubbs]

Oh wow this is so cool! I’m an American viewer, I will need to inspect the US boxes more often.

[@doq]

I ordered a copy of Super Mario 3D All-Stars from Amazon when you could still buy copies of that and when it arrived it was a PAL version. I thought the triangle was meant to represent the age rating as the green triangle was a close enough match to the green on the PEGI 7 rating badge. But no. Someone at Amazon just bung'd up the regions so badly that I ended up with a UK copy. I live in the pacific United States.

[@NitroIndigo]

At least Switch games are region-free.

[@TurboBloost]

My boxes Wii games boxes have white triangles and my Switch boxes have red triangles... wait... what do you mean they don't have any triangles?!?!

[@SacrificAbominat]

That's neat. I imported Xenoblade Chronicles before they eventually released it in America. I kind of sillily gave my American copy to a friend as a gift not realizing the game would be stupidly rare thanks to Gamestop being the only store that sold it back then. Anyway I wondered what the triangle meant and thanks for clarifying it.

[@catdemon922]

Israel also has green triangles, probably due to getting the same boxes as the UK

[@_TheWishMaker_]

Portuguese guy speaking, the smashing majority of games here have a yellow triangle, with a small number of green and burgundy ones!

[@xpdev0]

My only European Switch game (Sonic Frontiers) has a Deep Blue triangle, being the equivalent of Burgundy, you can play it in multiple languages but it's only sold in Countries like Germany. My Switch Game Library usually are the US releases, but not Sonic Frontiers (German EU release)

[@xpdev0]

Deep Blue has all languages, and Deep Blue is (kinda new), so check your European/UK Switch game cases for that triangle

[@xpdev0]

The USK rating is intentional since my copy of Sonic Frontiers was sold in Germany, though... Yeah, the PEGI Rating & USK Rating looks off and a bit awkward

[@Ryotaiku]

Yo the EU Twilight Princess HD cover art is so much better than the one we got in the US.

[@Ninjaananas]

I heard the triangle is golden, when the game is for Hyrule.

[@zanryll]

I have wanted to know this for years

[@patrickjack9301]

I just bought ( live a live ) on switch on line , and when it came in it had the green triangle on it . I wondered what the hell is that . I'm from the U S. , And know here you are answering the questions I had in my head about the green triangle . Thank you . Love your work .

[@WilbertBeltman]

I hated those triangles, still do.... I like it when the backs of my games line up, but there's different triangles all together while most of them baught new in the store 😂 I just want my game collection organized

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

Thank you for making a video about something I never even knew existed. It was…incredibly fascinating. As an American, I never even knew this was a thing.

[@SkitBitProduction]

As an American who only imported from Asia I never knew this

[@Auxodium]

Australia has these triangles too.

[@onilao]

We should combine our triangles!

[@bulbs_]

Most of my games are from Europe and the all have triangles (mostly green) on them. But my copy of Zelda link a link between worlds (from US) does not. I now finally know. Edit: all my switch games a green but my second hand wii games have purple, greenish yellow and red.

[@JACKHARRINGTON]

5:47 I couldn’t imagine not having age ratings lol Also now I’ve noticed my copy of dragon quest has a triangle. We get a lot of European games over here between alternate product supplies and travellers who end up selling games here. EB Games often has second hand European copies.

[@TheA_Gamer554]

I FUCKING LOVE JON CARTWRIGHT VIDEOS I LOVE WATCHING VIDEOS ABOUT OBSCURE AND NICHE TOPICS A COUPLE OF PEOPLE CARE ABOUT

[@sur-shiner]

*2 minutes in* "Hold up... I have a pal version of Xenoblade 2 Torna, does that have a triangle? *finds box*| Ooh, there you are. a green triangle. I never noticed!

[@rotallyPumpered]

Got me to check the UK copy of Project Rub I bought from a Woolworths shortly after the DS launch, and it's a pale pink triangle. All the rest of my UK DS games are green. How odd.

[@onlynameavaiable]

I had no ideia what those meant! Really interesting! :D

[@DKQuagmire]

just checked all my games. i have green triangles on all but 2 of my games. lets go pikachu and super smash bros ultimate (both on switch) have a reddish brown colour.

[@HAMTechOficial]

as a ESRB collector, i hate those triangles!

[@frannavarro-efejota-5018]

Mentioning Spanish translations in the Switch Online while showing Ocarina of TIme was a low move, you know xD I think the only game in Spanish in the whole service right now is Majora's Mask.

[@THEELEMENTKH]

It's our PAL Jon, but wherecs our NTSC Jon?

[@andrewosborne7544]

Here in the USA and u have two green triangle games lol. Amazon shipped me European carts. The switch is reason free so it works out

[@BROJANGSTER]

were you eating a kitkat while recording your twitter footage, jon?

[@Keeby219]

I live in the US and our games don't have triangles on the spines

[@jevawoah]

i’m from the netherlands, but it seems around half of my games have a green triangle instead of a light blue one, any idea why?

[@aidenburgess217]

In Australia, we have age ratings on the side. And the triangle on the back of the box, next to the seal of quality Edit: its dark brown

[@norinori6414]

I was under the impression the triangles were like an age rating thing.

[@h1rsch462]

My Club Nintendo game has a light green triangle

[@brandbusters183]

Deep Purple dum dum dum dum dum da dum, dum dum dum dum da.

[@DwemerTom]

We have triangle envy in North America

[@josephn1000]

You made a fatal mistake Jon! The green triangle means they were meant to be sold in the UK and Ireland.

[@SheepFreak2]

Great, now i gotta get a few games again for uniformity....