Nintendo is continuing to celebrate The Legend of Zelda’s 40th anniversary, and one of the newest additions is aimed squarely at fans who enjoy collecting just about anything related to the series.
Starting today, the Nintendo Today! mobile app is offering The Legend of Zelda Collection Cards, with one new digital card becoming available each day. The cards feature characters, items, and other elements pulled from across the history of the franchise, giving fans another reason to check the app regularly throughout the anniversary celebration.
The feature was announced alongside Nintendo’s broader Zelda 40th anniversary plans, which also include The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2, new hardware and accessories, concerts, merchandise, and more.
A New Zelda Card Every Day
The idea is pretty simple: open Nintendo Today! each day and add another Zelda-themed card to your collection.
Nintendo says the cards will draw from games throughout the series rather than focusing on a single era. That means the collection has the potential to reach far beyond the most recent Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom designs and into Zelda’s long history of characters, weapons, creatures, and other recognizable imagery.
For a franchise that has accumulated four decades of artwork and memorable designs, it feels like a natural fit for a digital card collection.
There is also a little more to the feature than simply logging in.
Each card comes with an opportunity to take a quiz challenge. Answer correctly and you can earn additional digital rewards, including wallpapers and even collectible cards you may have missed on previous days.
That last part should be especially useful for anyone who forgets to open the app for a day or two. Nintendo is clearly encouraging daily check-ins, but missing a card doesn’t necessarily mean leaving a permanent hole in your collection.
Nintendo Today!’s Zelda Theme Is Getting an Upgrade Too
The collection cards aren’t the only Zelda-related change arriving in the app.
Nintendo has also updated the existing Legend of Zelda theme. When the theme is selected, the app’s animated calendar and home-screen widget will now display scenes inspired by games from throughout the series.
Nintendo first teased the change during its Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct, noting that the calendar animations would begin highlighting different games from the franchise.
It’s a relatively small feature compared with a new game announcement, but it fits the anniversary surprisingly well. Zelda has gone through so many distinct visual eras over the past 40 years that even something as simple as rotating calendar art can become a miniature trip through the series’ history.
To activate it, Nintendo says users can open their profile from the bottom-right corner of Nintendo Today! and select Theme to choose The Legend of Zelda.
What Is Nintendo Today!?
For anyone who hasn’t used it yet, Nintendo Today! is Nintendo’s free smart-device app built around daily Nintendo news and content.
Rather than functioning as another version of the Nintendo Switch App, Nintendo Today! is more of a personalized news and entertainment feed. Nintendo uses it for announcements, videos, calendar content, widgets, and other smaller features related to its games and characters.
A Nintendo Account and compatible smart device are required, but Nintendo says the app itself is free to use.
The addition of Zelda Collection Cards gives it something a little different, though. Instead of simply opening the app whenever Nintendo posts a new trailer or announcement, there is now an ongoing reason for Zelda fans to return every day.
And knowing Zelda fans, there are probably going to be more than a few people determined to collect every single card.
Another Piece of Zelda’s 40th Anniversary Celebration
The new Nintendo Today! features are part of a much larger 40th anniversary push from Nintendo.
During the September 8 Zelda Direct, Nintendo revealed a number of anniversary projects stretching through 2027. Among the biggest announcements was a rebuilt version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo Switch 2, scheduled to launch on November 5, 2026. Nintendo also revealed Zelda-themed Switch 2 hardware and accessories, new amiibo, anniversary concerts, and additional merchandise.
Nintendo has even extended the celebration to the Nintendo Museum, where visitors can receive a special Zelda 40th anniversary play-ticket design beginning September 9.
The Nintendo Today! cards may not be the flashiest announcement to come out of the anniversary, but they’re one of the easiest for fans to participate in immediately.
There’s nothing to preorder and nowhere to travel. Just open the app, claim the day’s card, take the quiz, and see what piece of Zelda history Nintendo has chosen next.
For collectors, that could become a pretty addictive daily routine.
Are you planning to try to collect every Zelda card in Nintendo Today!, or are you mostly interested in seeing which games Nintendo pulls from?
