Link's new Ultrahand ability in Tears of the Kingdom is a reference to a classic Nintendo toy from the 1960s

Hope Bellingham
·2 min read
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom screenshot
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom screenshot

One of Link's new abilities in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is actually a reference to a piece of very obscure Nintendo history.

As unveiled during the Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration, Link will be getting a range of new abilities in the Breath of the Wild sequel - including Fuse, Ultrahand, and Ascend. As it turns out, one of these new abilities is a very obvious reference to a vintage Nintendo product. If you couldn't tell already, the ability we're talking about is Ultrahand - which has the same name as a Nintendo-produced toy from 1966.

To play with the toy, its users had to hold onto the two handles at the end of the plastic rod which, when pulled apart and pushed together again at the right angle, would allow players to control a set of tongs at the other end of the toy. The aim of the game was to grab and pick up balls with this large set of tongs which - now we're used to things like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - seems like it would get pretty old pretty fast.

Regardless of how simple it is, the Ultra Hand reportedly performed pretty well back in the 60s which firmly cemented it as part of Nintendo's long history. It has since gone on to make appearances in later Nintendo products like several WarioWare titles, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and even Mario Kart 8.

Back to Tears of the Kingdom, as we saw in the new gameplay trailer, Link's new Ultrahand ability allows him to pick up items and move them to wherever he wants whilst keeping his distance from the object - see where the idea to name this ability Ultrahand came from? It seems that Link will be able to use this ability to craft things like rafts, flying machines, and even the makeshift car we saw him driving in a previous trailer.

There were a lot of exciting things announced during the 10-minute presentation, but perhaps most exciting was the reveal of the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch OLED console, and matching Tears of the Kingdom Pro controller.

If you're desperate to get your hands on the console, take a look at our where to pre-order the Legend of Zelda Nintendo Switch OLED guide.