We’ve enjoyed the fruits of Nintendo’s labors in the West for over 20 years, but there are still some games we haven’t been able to play. Here are the Top 3 Game Series that Nintendo still hasn’t released outside of Japan.
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Two new games added to the Wii Shop Channel today:
Spelunker - NES - 1987 - 500 Wii Points
Wander through miles of uncharted caves in search of the legendary underground pyramid and its vast treasures.
Super R-Type - SNES - 1991 - 800 Wii Points
A galactic battle begins. The BYDO Empire of mutant extraterrestrials is back with evil intent and awesome power. Fight through seven challenging stages—picking up power-up items as you progress—on the way to each stage’s memorable boss.
Another SHMUP for the VC .. you buying?
Japan invades the Virtual Console this week with two ‘import’ titles:
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure - SNES - 1996 - 900 Wii Points
This is an action game where an energetic boy named Milon sets off on a great adventure in a cute fairy-tale world. Follow-up to Milon’s Secret Castle.
Puyo Puyo 2: Tsuu - Genesis - 1994 - 900 Wii Points
The object of this head-to-head puzzle game is to clear your grid of falling patterns called puyos by forming chains of four or more same-colored puyos in a straight line or one of several geometric patterns.
Getting any of this goodness?
Only one game released for the Virtual Console this week:
Super Turrican - SNES - 1993 - 800 Wii Points
You are Bren McGuire, on a United Planets Freedom Forces mission to save the peaceful planet Katakis from the Machine, source of all that is cruel and evil in the universe. The only weapon on your side is the state-of-the-art Turrican Assault Suit.
Infendo reader Dave writes: “I was at a book sale the other day and picked up The Macmillan Visual Dictionary, which is an amazing resource with picture references of anything you can think of. There is a section called ‘indoor games’ which includes a ‘Video Entertainment System.’ It’s actually the greatest console ever made by Nintendo, the Super NES! Too bad the picture on the TV looks like something off ATARI.”
Two cult classics get a Virtual Console release this week:
Harvest Moon - SNES - 1997 - 800 Wii Points
You bought the farm, so now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and try living off the fat of the land. Your challenge is to dig in and build your life as a farmer from the ground up. How you manage will determine the outcome, but remember: You always reap what you sow.
Lords of Thunder - TG16 CD-ROM - 1993 - 800 Wii Points
Lords of Thunder is a side-scrolling shooter that has you take on the role of a legendary warrior, blasting enemies to heavy-metal tunes. Whether it’s the fast-paced shooting or breaking into the fortress of a stage boss, you’ll be blown away by the intensity of Lords of Thunder.
Don Reisinger of CNET blogged about the best console ever and he picked the SNES. This concurs with Infendo’s recent poll on a similar subject, where our faithful readers chose it above all other Nintendo consoles. Big difference with his post, though, is that he claims it to be superior over all consoles.
You picked SNES above other Nintendo systems, but do you think it deserves to be called the best above all others?
While driving amongst the frozen snowbanks of Massachusetts today, I had an epiphany. Or a revelation. Or something.
Basically, I wanted to play a new, updated, wonderfully 2-D version of Jaleco’s Super Nintendo maserpiece King Arthur’s World on either the Wii or the DS.
Since I’m a sucker for video games (Nintendo in particular), I figured this could be the beginning of a series of meandering short posts about games for old Nintendo systems that would do well on the company’s new systems. Call it the WiiWare folder, but in King Arthur’s case, I’m willing to make a DS exception. Just this once.
The R-Type series is regarded by many as one of the biggest icons of the 2D Shooter. In 1991, developer Irem created Super R-Type to go alongside the launch of the Super Nintendo. It proved to be a fairly successful game, since it was basically the home console port of R-Type II. Personally, I’m a bigger fan of the Gradius series, but Super R-Type will always have a special place in my heart.
Upon seeing Flashback for the first time, I remember being shocked that the Super NES, or any 16-bit system was capable of producing a game of this caliber. Being a game that originated on PC and later ported to a good number of home consoles, all of the fluid gameplay still stayed intact. For me, I think the most impressive thing about this game was the inclusion of CG cut-scenes to help move the story along. Flashback was actually one of those games that I initially didn’t expect much from, but it ended up delivering the goods well before I got halfway through the game.
Kirby sucks—enemies, that is. That’s something that made the series so unique to me ever since playing Kirby’s Dreamland on the Game Boy. Well, Kirby Super Star is by far, one of my most favorite SNES games. I remember being surprised at the opening scene when you first turn the game on. It shows a 3D-rendered Kirby moving quickly across a grass field. After seeing that, I knew that I’d be hooked on this game. Now, as far as the story goes in Kirby Super Star…
No, that’s definitely not a Big Daddy. He is, however, also from another great game you might have heard of.
I worry this morning that the table has been set for a repeat of the early 1990’s.
The industry is healthy, with two of the three console makers selling their wares briskly, and the slow trickle of software that was the first six months of the “next generation” is set to increase as we head into and out of the summer doldrums. Well, it’s set to increase in the Nintendo corner anyway, with those 100+ first party games being in development. Gamespot is saying it could be as high as 124, although they might not all make it to production (hey, just like Nibris!).
On the surface that kind of news is great for Nintendo, but as the title of the post says, the Blue Ocean is as deep as it is wide and I fear the potential exists beneath the surface for another dark era in Nintendo gaming.
The irony is Nintendo, so far, has not returned to the monopolistic levels of its former SNES-era self. Instead, Nintendo’s competitors are dropping the ball, and by doing so are opening a vast hole in the industry that Nintendo may find too tempting to resist (some would argue that Nintendo has already begin to reshape the industry in its own image, again, so this may be a moot point).
So how is the competition mucking things up? To answer that I’ll not go into detail about the PS3; it’s foibles and follies are well-documented here and elsewhere. No, it’s the current leader, Microsoft, that has me worried. Their Xbox 360, once a shoe-in for front runner status thanks to a great game library and robust online presence, is quickly becoming 2007’s house of cards. After Q4’s channel stuffing debacle, 360 sales have plummeted.
Seeking Alpha:
XBox 360 is a console that should be hitting its stride now nearly 18 months after introduction — instead, its sales are declining and not hitting their goals. Eighteen months into Apple’s (AAPL) iPod rollout — a product which sold at the time for more than the XBox 360 — it had sold nearly 30 million units. Microsoft is struggling to achieve less than half that.
The 360 will not meet its sales goals this quarter, and this is after one slash in forecasts already. The PS2 (remember that?) consistently outsells the 360 month over month.
And speaking of that slim little black system (what the Xbox 360 Elite wishes it was), the PS2 sells like gangbusters everywhere. In game industry years, the thing is one foot in the grave of obsolescence, and yet it still sells. And thanks to what? A great library. Does this mean that gamers had already accepted the next gen wasn’t going to be all about graphics? Was industry already begging or ready for a new direction? I’m certainly no expert, but what I do know is both Sony and Microsoft were all too eager to dismiss the massive fan base of the PS2 in the name of “more power.” 100 million consoles sold, and apparently they meant nothing. What gamers were told was that the big companies knew what was good for them, and that their desire for game play was second seat to horsepower and the “media center strategy.”
Enter Nintendo. Going left while the industry goes right … over a cliff. The potential exists for a huge void. The last time I saw such a void was in 1986. Sure, I was only six years old at the time, but I took notes, dammit. The NES took the Americas and the world by storm, and video games became synonymous with Nintendo. For a Nintendo fan like me, that kind of environment is great in the short term, but I had always assumed the competition was going to sack up and deliver some appealing alternatives. Sure there were the GoW’s and Halo’s, but those formulas are stale to the void that exists outside of the XBox’s 10 million strong base. Hell, they may even be stale to some of those inside the base — just look at those falling numbers.
My hope lies in the DS. Both as a system and as a strategy. The DS is the market leader and was only threatened by the PSP for a few months, if that. Regardless of that fact, Nintendo was still able to push great IP in the absence of competition. There’s nothing in the cards that says they can’t or won’t do that with the Wii. It could be a rare case of innovation in the absence of competition.
But the risk for the old 90’s monopoly practices still exists, so I’m packing a life preserver.
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