On the Christmas of 2021, I got one of the best presents I had ever received from my wife: a wallet featuring Link and other images from The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As soon as I unwrapped the gift, I saw the incredible details of the Japanese writing and the picture of Link, and I fell in love with it.
I know that every fan of the Legend of Zelda series would absolutely adore this amazing wallet. The turquoise blue against the black and white backgrounds is so visually striking. It reminds me of the color palette of my New Nintendo 2DSXL. Upon opening up the wallet, I found that there was so much room for the multiple cards we collect as adults. It was able to hold at least 10 different cards, and I could store bills of money inside the pocket fold too. There is a plastic covering for my driver’s license ID card, so I won’t always have to take it out of my wallet when needed.
Perhaps even more important about this wallet is the instant connection you can make with bank tellers or cashiers when they recognize the image of Link from the games they have played and loved. When paying for a refrigerator replacement part, as soon as I whipped out my wallet, the cashier was so taken aback by it. “Hey that’s the Legend of Zelda! I still play that game all of the time. Did you know they’re going to remake the old Oracle GameBoy games next?” That led us to have quite the conversation about whether or not the remakes are actually happening or just rumored (but please, oh please be true that the remakes are coming!) We shared what we both loved about Link’s Awakening (for me it was Marin singing the Ballad of the Wind Fish and for him it was the color dungeon), and then we talked about other Nintendo games we have been playing too.
One time while I was out buying groceries and took my wallet out of my coat pocket, the cashier took note of it. He asked me if I could show it to him, and then he started to hum the theme song to the original Nintendo game. As he rang up my fresh fruit and toiletries we talked about how he was stuck in Breath of the Wild trying to get through the castle amidst all of the Guardians waiting to zap him. It almost made a simple and boring thing like getting groceries on a Wednesday night into a social outing.
Who else will I connect with along my travels thanks to my wallet? All I know is that it’s dangerous to go alone, so I better bring my wallet with me.
