Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the 2006 game that shipped twice. North America received it on 19 November 2006. Japan’s date is 2 December 2006, and Europe’s is 8 December 2006. Nintendo EAD developed both the Wii and GameCube versions.
Last checked:
Two maps, one story
The Wii version mirrors the GameCube world so a right-handed swing matches the remote. Link is left-handed on GameCube and right-handed on Wii. That is a shipping fact, not a lore split. The story sits on the child branch, after Majora’s Mask: Midna, the twilight realm, and Wolf Link are this game’s inventions. Four Swords Adventures is the other child-branch game people forget because it is multiplayer.
Scores: 96 on the GameCube line I tracked, 95 on Wii. I print both rather than averaging to 95.5. The combined Wii plus GameCube sales line is 8.85 million, a 2015-era total. Twilight Princess HD on Wii U adds 1.17 million and a score of 86. The HD disc also ties a cave to the Wolf Link amiibo. Those are HD facts. They are not in the 2006 carts.
Nothing current on Switch
I have no official Switch or Switch 2 port to link. The Wii Shop closed in 2019. The Wii U shop closed on 27 March 2023. A used Wii or GameCube disc, or a Wii U HD disc, is the physical leftover. Search interest in a Switch version is real. An announcement is not, so this page will not invent a window.
If you are choosing a first Zelda, I do not start people here only because the copy is hard to buy new. The game itself is a complete story. Availability and quality are different columns, which is the whole point of keeping the beginners page separate from this one.
FAQ
Which version should I play if I find both discs?
Same story. Wii is mirrored and expects motion controls of that era. GameCube keeps Link left-handed. HD on Wii U is the sharper picture and a closed shop.
Is it on Nintendo Switch Online?
Not in the libraries I checked on 10 November 2026. The Wind Waker’s GameCube return does not imply this game followed it.
Related
Sources
| Claim | Status | Cross-check |
|---|---|---|
| Historical dates, platforms and background | 1 source: Wikipedia | Read the linked game or series entry; multiple Wikipedia pages count as one publisher. |
| Mainline release sequence and original consoles | 2 sources | Nintendo game history compared with Wikipedia. Remakes and spin-offs use the linked individual entries. |
| Critic scores | 1 source: Metacritic | Read each linked game’s score and edition. GBA reissue scores are labelled; the 2019 Link’s Awakening score is excluded from the 1993 row. |
- Nintendo, official Zelda game history — checked 2026-11-10
- Wikipedia, Twilight Princess — checked 2026-11-10
- Wikipedia media list — checked 2026-11-10
- Metacritic — checked 2026-11-10
Page updated 2026-11-10. Site check date 2026-11-10.