Today the video game covers of each console maintain an identical distribution of each of its elements so that it is easy to recognize the platform to which they belong. In the time of NES that was no exception, although one of those that broke this rule was the mythical The Legend of Zelda with its iconic golden cover.
However, it has just been discovered that Among Nintendo’s original plans was not to publish that specific cover. Instead it was going to have a black one with an image on top cut diagonally, as was typical of any NES title.
In it, a very smiling Link was also seen fighting against some enemies and even a key, showing some of the most important aspects of the adventure. Martin Lindell, advisor at Embracer Group, has been in charge of post on twitter this great curiosity that has been extracted from a pamphlet of one of the editions of the CES.
In addition, this installment of the Zelda saga is not the only one that appears in the image, because in it we can also see the covers of four other sports games, among which is punch-out. Interestingly, the latter was also going to have a different cover than the one he ended up finally receiving, since Myke Tyson did not appear anywhere in the original.
We are left wondering if any of these games would have ended up having a different reception if they had been distributed with these other covers, but at least in the case of The Legend of Zelda It must be recognized that the change was for the better because it is one of the most recognizable in the entire NES catalog.