20 Years After Its Last Appearance on Mainline, Tingle Deserves a Comeback
Soapbox features allow our writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things that have been on their minds. Today, Jim is showcasing the return of Zelda’s most iconic NPC…
If you’ve gotten past the headlines, chances are you fall into one of these groups. One: You believe Tingle deserves another mainstream release Zelda appears. Two: You hate Tingle and everything he represents. Three: You think we must have mistyped because there’s no way Tingle’s last appearance in a mainstream game has been in 20 years. Four: A weird combination of all of the above. Well, buckle up, friend, because the cold, hard truth is coming.
Yes, it’s been 20 years since this weird guy last appeared in a mainline game (minus the remakes and remasters, obviously) and yes, his return is long overdue. Tingling is when we…
Before we get into it, let’s revisit the Tingle Timeline as we hold hands and get over the shock of 20 years without Tingle (in my head, that sounds better).
Tingle is a regular Zelda NPC who first appears in The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. He wears a green jumpsuit with a pair of red Y-shaped panties on top and believes himself to be the reincarnation of a fairy. Additionally, he was the subject of a 2004 IGN campaign titled “Tingle die, die!“. So you understand better now, right?
Before the series’ quests turned this fairy fan into the series’ public enemy number one, Tingle had a major role in the series. In Majora’s Mask, he was your mapmaker. In Prophet of the timesHe provides the necessary Island Chart. In The Wind WakerHe’s your source of useful information (and annoying collection quests). His usefulness diminishes in later appearances—to say nothing of his Force Gem-grabbing antics in The Adventure of Four Swordsas possible — although his ability to provide the remaining total Kinstone Fuses Small hat was a gift from God. But no matter how you look at it, from 2000 to 2004, he was a friendly face you could count on.
He is a friendly person you can look forward to meeting.
And of course, we say “used to be “a friendly face” since we haven’t seen him in any official installments since. That means it’s been 20 years since The Minish Cap was released. Oh my God…
Sure, there have been Easter eggs scattered throughout some games featuring Tingle’s likeness from figurines and stuffed animals in Spiritual song And Sword in the sky to the DLC armor in Breath of the Wildbut other than that, it’s just a weird remake/spinoff to speak of.
Justice, those other things appearances came thick and fast. There was a trilogy of DS games in the mid to late 2000s (Rosy Rupiland, Balloon WarAnd Love Balloon Tour) none of them reached North America and only the first one reached Europe. Then we have Majora’s Mask And The Wind Waker remake/remake on Wii U. He has proven himself to be a capable fighter (or survivor) by appearing in Super Smash Bros. series and is a playable fighter in Hyrule WarriorsThere’s even a Tingle costume in Super Mario Maker. And who can forget his appearance in the mini-game ‘Mogitate Chinkuru’ in Japanese copies of WarioWare: DIY Showcase? We. We can forget that.
And so we come to the present day, where Tingle is still a recurring character in many Zelda conversations despite not having appeared in the series since the time when the shells were popular. But why? IGN’s campaign was pretty toxic at the time, wishing Tingle dead at all costs as the series entered its darker, more adult phase, with eyeliner. Twilight Princess. But the series’ goofy, goofy vibe is back with a vengeance. Link avoids Looney Tunes-style mishaps as he shoots Koroks out of the stratosphere, our lovable Addison gasps in wonder as we solve his physics-based puzzles—a side quest we’re sure would be perfect for Tingle in another timeline—and Master Khoga is a total badass.
Can we stop pretending that the series has “grown up” over Tingle and give this weird guy a second chance?
As we approach the first Princess Zelda adventure, where monsters and bedroom furniture can be summoned at will to solve puzzles, can we stop pretending that the series has “grown out” of Tingle and give this strange guy a second chance? The answer, if you ask me, is yes, of course we can!
What we know about Echoes of Wisdom At the time of writing, it’s barely enough to fill the back of a postage stamp, but I can already see enough room for some Tingle turn-ups. We know Princess Zelda will use the map in the game (it appears in the bottom right corner in the reveal trailer), but it’s Friend See any sort of Sheikah Slate, Purah Pad, or other technology that replaces the real thing? I certainly don’t. So who did Zelda get these maps from? How were they designed if there were no obvious towers in the area? Maybe someone attached balloon??
We also know Zelda has a new fairy friend, Tri, along for the ride. Looking a little more high-tech than Navi and Tatl’s winged orbs of light, this mysterious species is sure to attract some attention. Perhaps from someone with a strong passion for fairies?? It all adds up, once you get the red thread out. Of course, there are some timeline antics that I might be overlooking (is Tingle even alive at this point?) but if Nintendo can turn a blind eye to such continuity, then so can I.
We may have gone 20 years without a mainstream Tingle appearance, but we find the series in a different place today. What was once a quest for mature realism is starting to embrace a lighter side again, and come on, what’s lighter than “Kooloo-Limpah”? Forget the blind hatred of the past, it’s Tingle Time again.
