Tears Of The Kingdom Glitch Gives Link Explicit Body Part

By Jason Collins | Published

zelda tears of the kingdom
The Legend of the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Graphical hicks and glitches can be hilarious, and the gaming world can be filled with childhood-crushing content that would surgically remove all innocence from young gamers. Where the gaming community previously debated whether Ryu from Street Fighter VI is training all parts of his anatomy, the gamers are now doing the same thing to our Hyrulean hero battling the demon king Ganon in Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have discovered ways to glitch Link’s character model, and see things that should not be seen.

According to GamesRadar, Hyrule’s crown jewels appear to be jiggling—or so it appears. Earlier this week, a gamer uploaded Tears of the Kingdom gameplay video of Link falling to his knees, revealing his dangly bits. They’re not rendered, of course, but thanks to the advanced lighting and shadow outlines, we can only assume that the opponents of Hyrule aren’t the only monsters in the game.

But that’s not all. Another user posted a video of Link being rag-dolled to the ground, causing his lucky charms to sway in response like a sack of fruit.

https://twitter.com/dahffodil/status/1680443583659225088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1680652241974304770%7Ctwgr%5E1948f98bbbe1ad81b6e5b06fd136ed5c20c51c41%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamesradar.com%2Fzelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-community-rocked-by-graphical-hitch-that-literally-gives-link-the-balls-to-take-on-ganon%2F

The original post has approximately 50,000 likes and has now become a subject of debate whether or not Link’s testicles are the only valid-use case of “jiggle physics” (not a real thing) used in Tears of the Kingdom graphical engine.

Creative Tears of the Kingdom players are trying to break every aspect of the game, from crafting to killing Ganon, and even the graphics.

However, things aren’t always how they appear, and as pointed out by Iconoclasts creator Joakim Sandberg, the thing swinging below Link’s waist isn’t what the dirty minds of the internet (basically everyone online) think. It’s actually a graphical glitch that gives the illusion of jiggly bits.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

When the Link is getting rag-dolled in the Tears of the Kingdom video—which really isn’t all that surprising; Link really gets tossed around a lot—his torso moves down. This causes the overlap in two graphical geometries, better known as clipping, to occur. This is what gives the illusion of jiggling.

The technical explanation makes much more sense compared to “jiggle physics,” especially when we take into consideration that Nintendo is a family-oriented gaming company that isn’t likely to include dangling ball physics in its gaming releases.

So, while the hidden parts of Link’s anatomy in Tears of the Kingdom weren’t intentional, they’re currently the talk of the fandom, which has lost its favorite in-game exploits in the most recent chat that has removed the frozen meant glitch.

Nintendo has quickly removed previous glitches in Tears of the Kingdom, and this graphical glitch is likely to be patched out.

Given the promptness at which Nintendo removed that glitch, it wouldn’t be surprising for the company to revisit the clipping issue with Link’s in-game model to specifically address the hanging fruits of Link’s trunk, trying to maintain its family-friendly reputation.

After all, let’s remember that the company has a blacklist of “bad words” which aren’t allowed on its gaming platform to reduce any potential exposure of the younger audiences to more adult content and potential lawsuits associated with perceived facilitation of politically incorrect behavior—such as using the name Hitler on its platform.

In the end, Tears of the Kingdom remains a treasure trove of amusing content, with gamers discovering new ways to play the game, mess with the in-game inhabitants of Hyrule, and defeat Ganon in amazingly creative ways.