What Do the Triangles on European Nintendo Games Mean?

[@-SV-]

Here in Greece there's a few games that have a black triangle. They don't translate a lot of games though, it's mostly the NBA games.

[@lucymorrison]

in Australia the triangles are only on the back, they're brown here for all games regardless of langauge support as well. We had them up untill the Wii U, but when the Switch released Nintendo switched us to an NTSC country, we still got the PAL spines, just without the 🔺. Likely the reason we don't get the triangle on the spine is Australia mandates the ACB rating (our version of PEGI/ESRB) to be on the side of movie and game spines in the same place as the triangle would usually be

[@thebristolbruiser]

I guess they changed us because the Switch is the first Nintendo console that doesn’t support analogue video, so they don’t have to worry about which analogue colour encoding standard we use.

[@lucymorrison]

10:20 "brown, with a hint of red" I think the colour you're looking for is burgundy :)

[@fco64]

hi from portugal im gonna be honest... its been 14 years since I got my wii till this day I never understood why the console doesnt have portuguese as a option but would come with a portuguese box and instruction book...like what is this sick joke and the funny part is I've never noticed these triangles

[@umbrastica]

Not from Europe, though I'm Middle Eastern, and since the video game market here in our region is PAL (similar to Europe) we get the same triangles in Nintendo covers and let me tell most of them in the Middle East we had them in Yellow actually. So that might explains, also pretty sure it's the same for other PAL market distributors like Africa and Australia too.

[@pauljones3017]

I've been wondering this for years. Somehow I thought it was related to some kind of age rating... One oddity I found is my (Belgian-bought) French copy of New Sup Mario Wii, which has the magenta triangle assigned to third party games. Mine has the Nintendo Selects branding, while from what I gather from google the regular version has the red triangle. Seems odd, could it be that they changed the colours at some point? Most of my other games were bought in Spain and have the pink and yellow triangles, plus one with the purple Euro spine and Nier:Automata with the grey Italian-Spanish spine (which isn't on the website).

[@Rowndlet]

according to some other comments there's some weird exceptions for france, like for example miitopia on 3ds also has a magenta triangle. idk what exactly's happening there

[@LawnMeower]

For some reason Korean games (at least for the GameCube) have this green traingle as well. Since I live in Germany most of my games have a purple traingle. But I have some with red, orange, green (besides the Korean one), pink, magenta, and light blue ones as well

[@Rowndlet]

i just saw a korean botw switch copy on ebay and it had a black triangle, but not on the spine but on bottom left corner of the back of the box

[@IVR02]

I find little packaging quirks like this absolutely fascinating. I'm in the US, so the whole triangle code is totally new to me. I actually really like the idea of having an indicator for what language the manual is in on the packaging. Here, it seems to be a bit of a grab-bag with manual languages. Most of them are just in English, but I've got several Wii games with manuals in English, French and Spanish. Packaging in the US is normally done in English, possibly with a smaller section below in Spanish and/or French. And of course in Canada, game covers and manuals are in English and French; I don't have any Canadian Nintendo games, but I *do* have a Canadian copy of Gran Turismo 5, where all of the packaging text is slightly smaller so they could fit both English and French. Sorry for the wall of text, I just find this whole topic really interesting!!

[@mrhumbuck_]

I'm in the UK, but I've never really paid attention to the triangles, it was interesting to find out they have an actual meaning! I'll have to look at my boxes sometime, I have a few games from outside the UK just because they were cheaper. Thanks for the video!

[@elwinroyale]

In flanders we usually have the light blue

[@lordrenzo]

2:08 UKV = United Kingdom Version. 4:32 The EUU versions were pretty common during the Gamecube Ara. They were made for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy because Switzerland and South Tirol speak German and Italian. I don't know why they appear in Dutch and English too.

[@seanthompson224]

I never knew there were triangles indicating the language on EU Nintendo cases. So I learned something new today! In Canada we have English and French on our cases

[@kj_the_something]

You've now got me looking through all my Nintendo games, now seeing the 'poopy brown' triangle on the bottom-left corner of the back on almost every single one (since the 'weird little logo'/OFLC rating means there's no room for a triangle on the spine). Despite Nintendo of Australia being its own thing separate from NoE, we got (and still get) occasional imports of European English cases (green and magenta triangles) mixed in with cases designed specifically for our market, and interestingly almost all Switch games end with the EUR code, instead of there being a 50/50 chance of the code ending in AUS like it did with the handheld only systems - iirc the only Switch game I own that ends in AUS is Breath of the Wild. Additionally, Sega Retro are actually incorrect as brown triangles on Australian boxes are still a thing in the Switch era, as it's present on my copy of Princess Peach Showtime that I got earlier this week (as I type this) Basically my most common triangles in my collection are poopy brown, then green, then magenta

[@Rowndlet]

oh maybe they brought the triangles back for switch?

[@samuzamu]

Seedish here. Seem to have mostly the lime green and green triangles, with some lavender coloured ones and one each of dark magenta, uk yellow and german blue. Found out I had an Australian game as well, strange...

[@idiotwaffling9131]

(Australian collector here!) so the brown triangle it seems was discontinued around the Wii/DS era, around the same time the ACB rating was introduced. i would assume the reason why its there is because AUS games (and im assuming NZ) are just european games, both will work theres no difference so NOAU/NZ probably was like "we need distinction for our games seeing as they're just EUR games so sellers wont get confused" and then ended up discontinuing it, the ACB rating basically replaced it on the spine lol

[@idiotwaffling9131]

it doesn't stop the fact we get EU games here in stores sometimes lmao

[@Rowndlet]

by this do you mean actual EU games with triangles?

[@idiotwaffling9131]

@@Rowndlet yep, i've spotted a few in stores. usually they'll try and cover it up so its hard to tell sometimes

[@idiotwaffling9131]

UPDATE: i have made a discovery! they didn't retire the brown triangle, it actually just got moved from the spine to the back! it is in the bottom corner on the back of the box even on switch games!

[@michaelsegal3558]

In Canada our games don’t have triangles

[@AltCutTV]

Brown triangles are probably the less unbecoming part of australian game covers. Germans also suffer a similar blight I think.

[@samuelturner6076]

4:10 Hi, from the UK here, we don't hate Lego Ninjago, I actually own the game and case and mine has a green triangle like most my other games. I do however have a yellow triangleged game case. My copy of We love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie that I bought off Amazon has a yellow triangle.

[@Rowndlet]

thats so interesting. i wonder what the reason was for making two different english copies

[@dbzbudeaucaille2711]

Here in Switzerland, it's even more confusing. Until like late GC or early Wii era, games were directly imported from neighbor countries (french speaking cantons got games from France, german speaking from Germany and Tessin from Italy). Nowadays, Nintendo games on Switch get swiss copies with the box in german, french and italian with a violet triangle and the code GFI (German French Italian), but for some reason, most 3rd party games are still the same as in our neighbor countries. I have Switch games with french only and german only boxes. Some stores even sell UK versions for some reason. On Switch, german games don't use the NOE code anymore. Instead, they get GER.

[@Rowndlet]

oh i only have two german switch games and i never checked to see the code

[@suppengroove]

so in other words: they're an indicator for the distribution country/countries

[@Rowndlet]

yes

[@giangeegibb]

This is super interesting, I had no idea!

[@starbit22]

Im from Spain and most of my games are yellow, some pink. Also I got some games with grey-blue (Blasphemous II, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Ori the Collection) that are ES/EN/IT or ES/PT/IT idk

[@duff0120]

ive always wondered why too, and im Norwegian. gotta say, I love the triangles. they look so beautiful if u have a big collection. I have dark green, light green, even lighter green, blue, orange, yellow and purple on my gamecube games. one of my re4 is purple, another is blue instead. growing up, I couldn't understand English, so I played all my gamecube games in Swedish, the game cases usually had Swedish flag in the front of the cover

[@dbzbudeaucaille2711]

So you have Gamecube games that are playable in swedish? That's interesting to know. As a swiss, most of my Switch games are european, but none of them are playable in a scandinavian language. I don't think the console itself can be set in one of these languages.

[@ni8anttana]

Light Yellow triangle (UXP) is mainly for West-Asia/Middle East & Africa

[@Rowndlet]

good to know

[@liispaa]

So many of my Nintendo originals for the wii have the forest green triange

[@giasca]

Most of my games have the Italian blue triangle (makes sense, since I am Italian), but I have a greenish yellow triangle (Scandinavian English) copy of Kirby Planet Robobot, a Dark Green UK copy of Pokémon Ultra Sun, a Magenta triangle copy of Wii Play Motion and a yellow triangle (probably the spanish and portuguese one, but the boxart is also translated in italian) copy of New Super Mario Bros U + New Super Luigi U

[@Rowndlet]

thank you for sharing your triangle lore

[@gabusoo]

Some of these seem a bit weird and random. For example, I'm Spanish, but I've bought a bunch of second-hand games in different regional versions. My Xenoblade 3 is French, Xenoblade is published by Nintendo, yet the colour isn't red; it's 100% magenta. And I also have a few where it says "UK" on the back; some of them do have the green triangle, but others have different colours, mainly maroon/brownish. Oh, and I confirm the beauty and variety of Spanish colours: Breath of the Wild, Metroid Dread, Astral Chain, etc. came in a Spanish/Portuguese version, so theirs is yellow. ToTK, Metroid Prime Remastered and many others have exclusive Spanish versions, so theirs are pink. And we also have Spanish/Italian versions, for example Octopath Traveler or Nier Automata; those are a blue/greyish color.

[@aidanan3381]

Both my switch and wii games have 1 pink and the rest r green

[@primmr]

I've always been really interested in the triangles and I'd even like to go for a full collection eventually, but sadly here in the UK you rarely see anything other than green and dark magenta.

[@Rowndlet]

ebay is the way to go, idk if you have any import taxes tho now that you're out of the EU

[@primmr]

@@Rowndlet Good to know! Sadly shipping has gone up a bit, so maybe I should hold off until I can actually travel to continental Europe :pp

[@Rowndlet]

@@primmr im in the same situation xd i used to buy a lot of games from the uk before brexit, but now shipping cost is higher and we have to pay import taxes

[@julianjuez]

We people change colors too with the sun. Triangles mimic us. Thanks for the video, first time watcher and i enjoyed your style.

[@Rowndlet]

love this comment xdd

[@julianjuez]

@@Rowndlet What I like the most is the sarcasm in your humor. Reminds me of my daughter when she throws Uno's reverse card at me 😂. It is a clear sign of intelligence. Subscribed! Keep it up 👍

[@TheRhedNova]

omg the club penguin ds game......my childhood... I was just in japan and got a couple of games there and interestingly, they have their age rating (CERO) on the spine where the triangles are in the eu games! also wow games were so cheap there

[@MartKart8]

I remember the triangles, I heard it's to do with disturbing, where to ship the games to, I do have a lot of special edition games with the Magenta triangle on them, last one would of been from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

[@Rowndlet]

the shipping explanation makes sense! probably makes the warehouse employees' jobs easier!

[@Doggymanwwwhehehe]

At least I know know why they have triangle, I used to think it was an age rating. Most of mine are Scandinavian, but I also have some English ones and some from other places in Europe.

[@wiiufan1405]

That's very interesting! My only french copy in my 3DS collection is Miitopia and oddly enough, the triangle is pink instead of red... A little mistake on Nintendo's part, I'm guessing?

[@Rowndlet]

just checked ebay and its true omg thats so weird. maybe they forgot their own rules

[@supahas3821]

all mine are green but i have a red skyward sword that's in french

[@killerseppe4432]

I always thought they were associated with a genre of games (action, puzzle etc) PS: The Sims title is a weird translation of castaway. It says Sims 2: At an unhabited/deserted island

[@End0rphin]

Did you know that european N64 games had the triangles in bottom the corner of the manuals too?

[@Rowndlet]

well no because i dont have any, but im not surprised

[@End0rphin]

@@Rowndlet That surprises me to be honest. I thought you would own a game like Ocarina of Time.

[@dstreet3818]

Always wondered why triangles were there and... Good lord is it a real test of the color spectrum and RIP those that are color blind. So Nintendo thought a great way to remind you where you live is small triangles in the spine that have many similar looking colors. Meanwhile in NA its just art on the spine and a set of numbers for most systems. JP on the other had use a big black box with a letter in it surrounded by a certain color (suppose to be the age rating). This would drive me insane seeing multiple games lined up on the shelf and every now and then there are a few oddities that I can't un-see it!

[@Brandyndyndyn]

Just a theory, but maybe Ninjago isn't for sale in the UK because of censorship. I know TMNT is called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles over there instead of Ninja Turtles (in America). Ninjas are too violent!

[@Rowndlet]

lmao imagine being scared of ninjas 😭

[@PCs454]

What? I’ve never heard of hero turtles. I don’t know where you got that info from. And ninja go is available here too

[@suppengroove]

uk's hatred for anything ninja related was back in the late 80s/early 90s. long gone her copy was just for a country outside of the uk

[@Stimmtso4]

Imagine if Ravensburger would do this^^

[@macynh]

illuminati

[@Andee...]

I was thinkin about this the other day actually... now i know!

[@LuisMGallardoD]

HI, can you share the link for that page? Thanks in advance!

[@Rowndlet]

omg i meant to put it in the description but i forgot! its there now

[@Soonjai]

4:55 TL;DR: If you like your more mature games to be uncensored, avoid that German Triangle. Something useful to know about games that are meant specifically for Germany: Games set in World War 2 and games targeted at mature audiences that feature blood and violence are often censored on that specific version. Games with a WW 2 setting won´t have any Nazi Symbols like Swastikas (this has only become legal to feature in games in 2017 and is still somewhat rare to see). As for the violence thing, the german rating board had a lot of issues with violence for a long time, so many more violent games had a censored low violence version for the german market. Similar to the Nazi Symbols, violence too got the green light from the ratings board more often than not in the last decade or so unless violence is also the core focus of the Story and it´s really the only thing you can do. Basically a game can get away with a with really detailed, violent scenes if they serve a story related point and / or aren´t rewarded by game, while a game like Hatred not only didn´t get a rating, but is also flat out illegal to distribute over here.

[@xairidax]

Hmmm, never thinking about these triangles, but now i see its very complicated :D Thanks for info, its good to know that if you buy the game in one language, the instructions will be in another language 🤯

[@Rowndlet]

the games are usually always playable in most languages, its just the boxes/manuals get translated to each language for local markets

[@xairidax]

@@Rowndlet yes, true ☺

[@platinum-or3y]

triangke :(

[@MKF30]

Nice video also is Rownlet your actual name? A very unique name. Also you could totally be a model with that jawline 😊 Your sarcasm is hilarious the bit about 3 year olds cant read but 4 year olds can haha. "Nasty brown poopy triangle on the side" lmao 🤣 Nice breakdown of the European differences. We dont have any triangles here in the states that I'm aware of.