In celebration of today’s release of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on Wii U, Google and Nintendo are getting together to release a little bit o’ Link to your Maps experience. For the next few days, the browser version of Google Maps will replace the Street View pushpin (usually a featureless figure of a human body) with the Hero of Time.
This search engine version of Link wields the Hylian Shield, a piece of equipment that has seen many iterations through the ages as he has reincarnated over multiple generations. Presumably he is also using the Master Sword, which here features a non-canon purple hilt. Above is a picture of what he looks like in the browser, below, a larger promotional image.
This is not the first time Google has partnered up with a Nintendo franchise to deliver a dash of gamer goodness to their Maps service. For April Fools Day in 2014, they turned Google Maps into a worldwide Pokémon hunt, placing Pokémon in strategically themed places around the world, from water Pokémon in rivers and oceans, to a Pokémon-filled Galapagos Island, and (taking a darker turn), fire Pokémon in nuclear disaster site Chernobyl and Centralia, PA, the town that inspired Silent Hill.
No word if there are any other little goodies from The Legend of Zelda added with this easter egg but I for one would love to see them give directions to The Sacred Realm.
For more Zelda related fun, be sure to check out the Gameranx site tag, or browse our Gamer Culture section.
