[3 Minute Expert] European Triangle of Nintendo

In the debut episode of 3 Minute Expert, Willem discusses the colourful triangles found on Nintendo boxart. What do they mean, and why do they exist?

Written by Daan Koopman
Presented and edited by Willem Hilhorst

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[albertoromerocabezas]

In Spain, there are a lot of games with a yellow triangle, instead of the low pink triangle. This is because there are some games distribuited in Spain and Portugal with both languages. In fact, the headquarters of Nintendo in Madrid(Spain) plans also the launches in Portugal. That is the reason the name of the division in the Iberian Peninsula is "Nintendo Iberica", and not "Nintendo España"

[FakYuhGoogel]

Oh and btw, these colored triangles go as far back as the original NES where you see those triangles on *some* releases - not all though, it either wasn't mandatory or they were introduced later in the NES life cycle
- you see them on NES manuals in the top left corner
- and the inner top right flap of the box is also colored accordingly, so they were kind of hidden

[Girasol]

From Spain here, we have light pink for the releases of Spain, but most of the releases here are for Spain+Portugal at the same time, and they have the yellow triangle.

[NintenDaan]

"For those who are interested in joining us in the research and documentation of these European Triangles. We will soon make a follow-up video where we explain in detail how we will use Andrew's sheet to make a general overview of all the index codes used by Nintendo of Europe. Stay Tuned!"

[lameashecc]

American here. i find that pretty interesting. i had no idea. Thanks for that little tidbit

[Thalionquses]

Austria also has a indicator. It's a dark red, kinda brownish colour.
The game boxes are in German but there is a PEGI instead of a USK rating on it.

[FakYuhGoogel]

1:53 So, where is this database? ;)
I'm certainly interested in having one and will help to contribute to it as much as possible.

[RockYeahh]

This is something that I've been wondering about so it's great to have someone explain it. I'm in the UK but some reason every SEGA release that I have on the Switch has yellow triangles?

[HoneyMike]

Apparently the Official Nintendo Magazine has something written about this in issue number 21 from october 2007 but i couldn't find an archive online and i don't want to buy a copy from ebay.

[UndeadCollector]

Yeah, as an european collector, we always see this Triangles. It actually helps to see what Box Version a game is, if the Language itself is not seen. There's also a Brownish Color for Austria, which also is the German Version, but without this awful USK Logo (they have Pegi and also Uncut, if it's a 18 rated Game. So overall i do care about the "better" Version of UK or AT, because of the smaller Pegi Logo, but i don't mind the USK Logo, if the Price is good. btw: do say "better" Version, because UK english is a language most ppl speak/understand, so more ppl want that. It's very easy to get ITA, FRA or ESP Versions here in Germany, but most ppl don't want that (even if the Cartridge/Disk itself has multilanguage in the Game.) I have specialy in mind: "Fortune Street", because it's also called "Straßen des Glücks" (in German) or "Boom Street". The Game itself is multilanguage, but even the German Disk is called "Boom Street". So for playing purpose, it' doesn't matter which PAL Version you get. As a collector, you also want the Box and Manual in a specific Language.

It's also funny for me, because i was thinking making a video like this for myself, but i got lazy by playing Games^^

[clarumin]

My game shelves are a cluttered mess of differently coloured triangles and it's been bothering me for YEARS. I try to obtain as many Dutch boxes as possible, but whenever I buy a limited edition, those dreams get shattered. And like was pointed out in the video, Mario + Rabbids for instance only features a multiple language box, and thus a differently coloured triangle.

One thing I wonder about is the consistency of the age ratings on European boxes and even cartidges. Sometimes, especially with special editions, a large yellow square takes up a part of the box, which I believe in from a German rating board? Sometimes Nintendo also puts an additional rating on the cartridge with in German the text 'Frei ab 12 Jahre'. When I bought the Xenoblade special edition though, there was no rating on the box at all! I think it might've been the first time ever that I saw a boxart without the PEGI rating on it.

[marsdeat]

We could especially do with contributions from outside the UK, France, Benelux, and Germany regions, but more data within those regions would also be good.

[ScatterbrainPete]

I'm Polish and the small handful of Gamecube and DS games I own all have the green triangle. Same with my 3DS collection, except for Shantae and the Pirate's Curse which has a purple triangle. My Switch collection (which is the biggest one I have right now), however, consists of triangles which are mostly either green or purple, though I also have a few Switch games with a yellow triangle (all are games from SEGA, Konami and Capcom) and one with lime (which is Sonic Mania Plus and apparently it's a Scandinavian release). They sell German releases in Poland as well, but I usually try to stay away from those big ugly USK ratings.

[tibethatguy]

For the Wii, the triangle indicates the language(s) the *manual* is in. And even then, it's kinda messy. There's a different colour for a French-only manual, depending on whether the game is published by Nintendo or a third party, but Mario Kart Wii has the triangle for third-party publishing, even though it was published by Nintendo of Europe here.

[ThunderJams]

I've always found these coloured triangles fascinating! As someone from the UK, most of mine are green and purple, with a few exceptions:

My copy of Xenoblade for Wii, I bought it of a German eBay seller back when the game was harder to find. It seems to have a deep blueish purple colour (more navy than the purple shown in the video).

The other examples are of The Simpsons Games DS and Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Bros., which both have a lime green, almost yellow triangle. They have four languages on the back, English, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian, which makes me think they are Scandinavian copies? Which is odd, but interesting!

[JorgeyGari]

I haven’t seen anyone comment on non-Russian grey triangles. I have two games with a grey triangle: AI: The Somnium Files and Puyo Puyo Tetris, which are in Italian+Spanish.

[ale]

I'm Italian and I hate these triangles a bit. Basically now I depend on them, if it's not blue I don't want that copy of the game. This is also due to the fact that I want the Italian translation on the cover (particularly if the logo is translated), but I wouldn't mind a copy from other parts of Europe, if that LITTLE TRIANGLE OF EVIL didn't come out of the spine
This is happening with DK Tropical Freeze (on Switch) and Pokémon Moon

[idk-zjcz]

I'm from New Zealand but a lot of games are from Europe as we also use PAL. Most of games have the green triangle and I've always wondered what it meant.

[Rollercoaster]

My copy of super monkey ball banana mania has a yellow triangle. I live in the UK and this is my only game that doesn’t have a green one. Can anyone explain this?

[Kaihatsu]

I have a DS game with a Yellow triangle but I have no idea what that one means.