Tingle creator says the character appeared often in Zelda: The Wind Waker since he helped plan the game

Tingle was first introduced to the Zelda series with Majora’s Mask, but the character had an even bigger role in The Wind Waker. Players encounter him fairly regularly during the adventure, and the Tingle Tuner was a notable part of the original release on GameCube. If that wasn’t enough, there was the Tingle Island as well.

Takaya Imamura had a lengthy and memorable career at Nintendo having come up with various characters like Captain Falcon, Fox McCloud, and yes, even Tingle. Imamura also worked on The Wind Waker during its early stages of development, and it seems that his involvement led to Tingle being more of a prominent character in the game.

Imamura told IGN:

“I was helping out on The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker when it was still in its planning phase, but at the same time I was working on Star Fox Adventures with Rare, and I ended up having to focus on the latter. So If you ever wondered why Tingle appears so often in Wind Waker, now you know why.”

Tingle would later appear in later Zelda games, though he has been largely relegated to cameo appearances with recent entries. He did star in his own titles though: Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland, Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love, and Tingle’s Balloon Fight.