Summary

Right now, thousands of Nintendo fans are going throughPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. For some, it’s their first time playing one of theGameCube’s best games, and for others, they’rereplaying a classic. And, of course, there’s the subset of people looking to get their hands on the limited edition GameCube cover art –don’t worry, we have you covered.

But as it turns out, the game could have come out a lot earlier. How much earlier? An entire year. That’s if a classification on Germany’s rating organization,which is better known as the USK, is to be believed.

Taking to Twitter,pierre485_, who has previously reported onNintendorating classifications, shared thatThe Thousand-Year Doorhad been classified all the way back in June 2023. In other words, Nintendo seemingly had been sitting on releasing the game for an entire year.

Check it out:

This Wouldn’t Be The First Time A Nintendo Game Was Classified Early

Avid Nintendo fans might remember that The Thousand-Year Doorwas announced in September 2023 during a Nintendo Direct. Itreceived a release date in early Marchof this year, andthen launched earlier this week on May 23.

This recent development isn’t all too surprising, though. In fact, it’s another trend when it comes to Nintendo games. Previously, in early 2023,it was revealed that Metroid Prime Remastered was classified by USK, the same board that classified The Thousand-Year Door, all the way back in July 2021.Prime Remasteredlaunched nearly two years later in 2023.

Adding fuel to the fire is a similar situation involvingFire Emblem Engage. That game was also classified in 2021,according to reporting by My Nintendo News, by both the USK and Australian Classification Board. It later launched in January 2023.

It’s hard to say why this has been the case for multiple Nintendo games. For one, Nintendo could have needed extra development time on either of those three titles before confirming a solid release date. On the other hand, perhaps Nintendo has built up a cache of potential releases that it holds until it’s necessary.

Either way, it’s an intriguing development. One that has us wondering what else Nintendo has in its back pocket. Is there a classification for aWind WakerHD re-release that we don’t know about? Here’s hoping.