The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom TV ad accidentally includes Joy-Con drift bug

Eleni Thomas
Tears of the Kingdom Joy-Con drift

A new TV ad for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been called out by fans for seemingly including the Joy-Con drift bug in the footage.

While the Nintendo Switch has been a massive success for the company following the underperforming Wii U, the hybrid console has still had its fair share of issues. The biggest being the Joy-Con drift problems.

While players can purchase a more conventional controller for the Switch, the console comes with two smaller-sized controllers called Joy-Cons. They are attached to the side of the screen for when players want to use the Switch as a portable console but can then be taken off and used in a similar way to the Nintendo Will controllers.

Early on when the Switch was released, players began reporting issues in which the analog sticks on their Joy-Cons would randomly move around or input commands on the console even when players weren’t touching them.

This then became such a massive issue that Nintendo issued a policy in which they would fix the Joy-Cons for free for users encountering Joy-Con drifting. And while the problem has become less prominent, a new ad for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom seemingly shows off the drift in action, as pointed out by fans online.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom TV spot includes Joy-Con drift

In the new TV spot for Zelda, the person playing the game can be seen simply holding the controller and not touching the analogue sticks at all. However, the footage then cuts to gameplay of Link moving around and falling off a cliff.

Twitter user Matt, who is a video game controller designer, retweeted the clip and captioned it “her thumbs aren’t moving, yet Link is changing directions…this is the closest Nintendo has ever gotten to publicly acknowledging joycon drift.”

Another user wrote, “They’re just advertising Joy-Con drift as a feature at this point.”

Now that this has been pointed out, time will tell if Nintendo decide to clear up the ad or if they change the footage altogether to make it seem more cohesive.

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About The Author

Eleni is a Melbourne-based journalist. Having completed her Bachelor's in communication (Journalism) at RMIT University, Eleni is now a Senior Writer for the Dexerto Australia team. A big Nintendo fan (with a Triforce tattoo to prove it) and a lover of the zombie genre, Eleni covers gaming, entertainment as well as TV and movies for the site. She is also passionate about covering Queer and female representation. Contact Eleni at eleni.thomas@dexerto.com