If you had the chance to play The Wind Waker on your Switch 2 with Nintendo Switch Online (NSO), you might have noticed a familiar green suited fairy’s desperate plea for help behind bars. Rescuing him results in receiving an item that’s familiar to nostalgic GameCube players – the trusty one-and-only Tingle Tuner.
On the original GameCube version of The Wind Waker, the Tingle Tuner allowed a second player to join in the high seas adventure on a limited capacity with a Game Boy Advance (GBA) connected to the console with a GBA Link Cable. The second player would be able to assist Link with certain tasks such as applying healing items, looking ahead in a room on a dungeon map, and bombing enemies well out of harm’s way. It was a great way for two players to engage with a franchise that is typically only single player. Not everyone had access to this useful content, of course. But for those that did, unlocking it was simple to setup. All one needed was a Game Boy Advance, the cable, and a friend or sibling for company.
With the Nintendo Switch Online version of the game, though, that function appears to be disabled. Link will be rewarded with the Tingle Tuner in the same way as before, but an error screen will pop up indicating that the item cannot be used since no GBA is obviously attached to it.
Curiously, original GameCube controllers can still work on the Switch 2 as well as the Switch console with a GameCube Controller Adapter. If they’re lucky, players can also snag a wireless GameCube controller that’s programmed especially for the Switch 2. Many Nintendo gamers consider the GameCube controller among the best in the company’s history. There is no known GBA Link Cable functionality to the Switch 2 however, making 100%ing The Wind Waker on the console a bit of a mystery. Nintendo might introduce a new accessory to remedy this problem, or perhaps, not at all. In The Wind Waker HD on the WiiU, Tingle would give the Tingle Bottle to Link instead, allowing players to send messages to each other across the Miiverse. Sadly, this function has long since retired with that console.
One feature that returns with the original Wind Waker on NSO is the Triforce Chart and piece collecting quest. Wind Waker HD had shortened it for quality of life purposes, but now that it’s the original version again, it’s time to settle into our sails and get comfy with the sea breeze blowing through our hair for a while.
Source: Nintendo Life
