Is this Link’s Awakening box fake?

[Strange | 1,700]

Interesting find at a local game shop. Boxed copy of Link’s Awakening. It was listed at cart only price, so I took the gamble at that fair price. Won’t be surprised if it’s fake, but won’t be bummed out either.

Something about it feels off. It seems too shiny to me. But I’m far from an expert on this stuff, so I came to ask the experts.  

Edited May 23, 2021 by Strange

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

The is a shiny and more matte variant of the LA box. Especially with the wear that looks real. 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

Pretty positive it's real.  In a way, the LA game was handled like OOT was on the N64 to a point.  The original run of the N64 game had this nice shiny box, shiny gold cart too, but just the first run.  All those after were standard boxes and then standard gray carts too.

The GB game was the same, never a gold cart, but the label quality like all GB stuff annoyingly went downhill.  If you get that first run box, shiny, later, plain.  Games...shiny laminate, then cheap crappy sticker with un-laminated inks so that your thumb touching it from regular use wears it off, and any cleaners will dissolve the ink like water color swirls.

[Strange | 1,700]

Thanks for the response guys! Happy to hear.

[Tyree_Cooper | 752]

Logos and general print quality looks super blurry though. Mind showing the left and right flaps of the box?

Well they all look blurry so my bad, but you may want to check that the flaps are gold and that they have printings in the correct locations as seen in this auction:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254988123822?hash=item3b5e79feae:g:f~gAAOSwrtpgqM2i

Edited May 25, 2021 by Tyree_Cooper

[Hybrid | 424]

Seems to have a slight printer justification error most prevalent on the back of the box.(I can see white showing over the letters)which probably contributes to the blurry look.