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[!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!]

!!ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Nintendo of America had finally confirmed it! The game, one of the three infamous titles which Operation Rainfall had been trying to pressure the company to localise for so many months since E3 2011, is finally gonna officially grace the turfs of the North American continent for NTSC Wii owners to play! Such is an announcement that surprised us by the hundreds, if not by the hundreds of thousands! To be expected very soon too, around the Spring season of 2012!

> Nintendo's Official Press Release

Whilst The Last Story and Pandora's Tower have yet to be released in Europe, albeit are confirmed to be released there, Operation Rainfall apparently are going to continue with their on-going campaigns to make sure Nintendo of America would announce these remaining two titles as well.

Personally, I always believed Nintendo of America would finally come through with releasing the game. I always felt they needed to take certain things out of the way first, like the huge marketing campaigns they had for their GREATER anticipated games, such as Super Mario 3D Land, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Talk about a huge relief on the matter though.

If developers want to re-release their PlayStation titles on Nintendo's current consoles, they would port them as WiiWare titles, not Virtual Console ports! Nintendo has no right to use the term "PlayStation" anywhere! Nintendo are able to use SEGA's console names today because SEGA are no longer competing against Nintendo, so it would be fine to re-release SEGA's old games under their own console brands under a licensed agreement. SEGA can pull out their console brand names off the Virtual Console if they wanted to, and Nintendo won't be able to stop them either.

[20]

The equivalent price here seems to be a little over £100 ATM, so yes, once there are more games I want out.  Of course, there's no indication there'll be a price drop here...

Actually, the price drop thing is happening in ALL territories! Japan is dropping from 25,000 to 15,000 JPY, North America is dropping from 249.99 to 169.99 USD, Europe is dropping one-thirds their variable prices (example: UK retailers will drop from 230 to 160 GBP), and Australia is dropping from 349.95 to 249.95 AUD!

Furthermore, to justify those who bought the Nintendo 3DS early, anyone who bought the system BEFORE the date of the price drop (a.k.a. 11-12th August), the early adopters will be eligible to enter the Ambassador program, where they will have the right to download 20 retro games for FREE! These include 10 NES games, and 10 GBA games! Furthermore, Nintendo does not even have any plans to release GBA games for the general public anytime soon, which means those who get the GBA games in the coming months will have EXCLUSIVE rights to these games for the time being!

Looks like a great time to get a Nintendo 3DS early! Nintendo's latest news is really mind-boggling! Talk about the awesomeness of being a loyal customer!

I've personally been expecting Nintendo to cut the price early for the Nintendo 3DS ever since Sony officially announced their own prices for the PlayStation Vita. However, I never really expected they would drop it THAT low, and THAT soon as well! I was greatly surprised indeed by those factors! I can now hear Sony's executives being big, cry babies 'cause their announced prices are no longer as competitive as they had been anticipating. Rock on, Big N, rock on!

Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story are not going west Nintendo has no plans as of now that these games are going to the west

Um... actually, these games ARE going west, just not as far as North America... but I suspect a 2012 U.S. release for these games. We'll have to wait and see though.

I personally say there should be Crash re-releases and remakes for the Nintendo 3DS indeed, but I highly doubt we'd ever see the Spyro ones though, unless they decide to re-release certain Spyro games via Virtual Console on either the 3DS or Wii's successor. In any case, I really doubt there will be remakes of Spyro's old games due to the fact Spyro's new owners (Activision) are taking a totally different direction with the franchise, as Spyro is being re-booted... AGAIN!

[NOT]

If you guys had been dreaming of playing this game with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, it is time to wake up and smell the coffee, 'cause the game had been confirmed to NOT support online play whatsoever! There will be a multiplayer mode all right... just... not via Wi-Fi. You need to gather a group of friends, and pit it in the same room apparently. Thankfully, it will be like the days of Star Fox Command, where you can Download Play against several DS owners when duking it out!

Also, expect taking photos of yourself to set as an icon for the multiplayer mode. Plus, similarly to the Master Quest on Ocarina of Time 3D, there are two single player modes. The 3DS mode, and the classic mode. The former is playing the game with gyroscope features, whilse the latter is playing the game the good, old-fashioned way.

um... forgive my n00b-ness, but:

Everyone was one at some point.

1) what was the old "Bucky O"Hare cartoon"? i have never heard of it.

Lemme try to explain this like I do similarly in a wiki.

The Bucky O'Hare cartoon, which is formally titled as Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars, was an animated television series from the early 1990s. It was based on an obscure, furry 1980s comic book series about an anthropomorphic, green-furred hare who space-treks with his comrades saving planets from an empire of genocidal toads. It shares some common plot elements with the Star Fox series, but personally I feel it is nothing like Star Fox. The Bucky O'Hare universe runs in a very different canon, as at one point early in the series Bucky's team mysteriously gain an ally in a ten-year-old human boy from "our dimension."

What sort of cartoons did you watch in the early 1990s, Tacopill? Bucky O'Hare is one of those things that has quite a cult behind it! Everyone seems to remember the TV series, if not the comics.

By the way, for those of you who do remember Bucky O'Hare, are you aware of this CG animated short that was released... a while ago? It was produced by Bucky's owners (Continuity Productions), and it is more faithful to the comics than the old TV series was. This short is nothing to be excited about really. It's merely an experiment. There has yet to be any announcements for an actual Bucky O'Hare reincarnation. There were talks about a movie, but it's been a while. You could grab a new copy of the old comics though.

2) What is NCL? and what do they control of Nintendo (of America)?

Tacopill! I'm surprised you didn't know this! NCL is the usual abbreviation for Nintendo Co., Ltd. a.k.a. the "Mama" company in Japan!

[July 14, 2011]

Nintendo Co., Ltd. had launched the official Japanese website for Star Fox 64 3D on April 13. With it, the unveilling of the final logo design, and the Japanese release date!

The logo design is apparently similar (but not identical) to the original game's logo, and the game is expected to be out in Japan's gaming outlets on July 14, 2011! You probably must assume there is nothing exciting about a Japanese release date, but I personally beg to differ!

If The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is expected to be released in the same week in all three main regions (June 16, 17, and 18 in Japan, Europe, and the United States respectively), who should say that Nintendo won't treat Star Fox 64 3D the same way?

Take a look at the website though. Not much is there at the moment, but you'll be treated to pretty familiar introduction.

[Wii Play: Motion]

The sequel to the best-selling stand-alone game - Wii Play - had been announced!

Please give a warm welcome to

Wii Play: Motion


Click to enlarge

In addition to an assortment of all-new, twelve minigames, this game will come bundled with its very own Wii Remote Plus, and this is convenient, considering all those minigames actually requiring the Wii MotionPlus technology! Minigames include Whack-a-Mole, an updated disc throwing game, and a strange umbrella spinning game too.

Additionally, we even have a release date for it already, in the U.S. at least - June 13, 2011! Mark your calendars now! It is also confirmed for a European release too, but no proper date was announced yet. However, it will be out in 2011 in Europe anyway.

- Nintendo's Press Release - April 12, 2011

These are slightly old news, but I wonder how many of you guys heard about them. I am gonna talk about more Wii-exclusive RPG goodness coming straight from Japan to our local vicinities!

In any case, Nintendo of Europe announces that Xenoblade, now known to us English speaking folk as Xenoblade Chronicles, is confirmed for a European release in an undisclosed date in 2011! Yes, and they even opened a new dedicated official website too! It has been reported that the game will include an all-new English voice-over set, in addition to the option of playing the game in the original Japanese voice-overs too! (Plus, the usual multi-lingual subs to be included as all modern PAL games.) What about the United States? Well, there is still a possibility the game will also be played by the general American audience, however we cannot be sure. The only great evidence that the game will see itself in the U.S. is the fact that the title is listed on Nintendo of America's release calendar, but that does not prove that the game is confirmed for the U.S..

There might be no confirmation that Xenoblade Chronicles is coming to the U.S., and the same can be said for another anticipated RPG title called The Last Story. HOWEVER, it was recently reported that Nintendo of America did register the domains TheLastStory.com and XenobladeChronicles.com (both which currently automatically re-direct to NOA's main website), which greatly hints that NOA will soon announce the titles for a U.S. release indeed! Keep your fingers crossed though.

Xenoblade and The Last Story were released in Japan since June 10, 2010 and January 27, 2011 respectively.

Expect any confirmations from now until E3 in June!

Gosh... how did anyone get those high scores in any of the web games' scoring boards?

In any case, I finally managed to beat the brick game in a way that I mostly collected Water Orbs, and got the Vaporeon I wanted. Okay, now that's confirmed, all I have to do is wait for the Global Link to finally go online. Sigh...

I wonder why do Pokémon games always have to be so subjective and contextual. It's an utter disadvantage for certain people.

I don't know if you people heard but a brand new trailer for Pandora's Tower was released recently, and lots of new info too - courtesy of Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu.

Well, it turns out the game is a kind of RPG - an action-based RPG to be precise. The game has three main characters: Ceres, Ende, and Graiai. As far as anyone knows though, only Ende is playable. The game was developed by a Japanese developer called Ganbarion, which are apparently notable for their Japan-only Jump Star series (A crossover, fighting game series featuring characters from many famous sh?nen manga and anime, including but not limited to, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Naruto. These were only released for the Nintendo DS.) and many newer One Piece video game adaptations (which some did see overseas releases). By the way, whilst the One Piece games were published by Namco-Bandai (or just Bandai prior to the merge), the Jump Star games on the other hand were published by Nintendo.

Anyway, getting back to Pandora's Tower, here's the basic plot. The girl that was shown in the teaser earlier this year was 15-year-old Ceres, and the symbol on her back is not a tattoo, but rather a curse that was enforced on her by some beast. This curse is apparently killing her, and the 22-year-old Ende went on a quest to save his young friend. Whilst their kingdom was attacked by a swarm of beasts, they sought shelter inside an isolated tower. Ende apparently has to climb up the tower, which is actually made of twelve pillars (so it is more like twelve towers in all) and slay any beast he can find in it, as it seems the flesh of these beasts is what slows down Ceres' curse, and allows her to survive until Ende delivers the cure, which is apparently the flesh of all of the tower's bosses combined!

As for gameplay, it seems Graiai had presented Ende with a peculiar type of weapon he could use in his quest - a magical chain called the Orichalcum Chain. Not only will the chain help him slay the beasts in varying methods, depending on each beast, but it will also help deliver the beasts' flesh to Ceres, and also indicate the progress of Ceres' curse, represented by a bar at the bottom of the screen. Should the curse's timer reaches zero, it's game over. There is probably more to it, but that's all we have for now.

The game now has a confirmed release date: May 26th, 2011, but this is only for Japan. There no confirmation on whether there will be an overseas release date.

If you want more info, as well as actually seeing the new trailer, you can go to the official website, or simply click this.

[successfully]

People who believe Pokémon can actually work in a live-action format had obviously never watched Pokémon Apokélypse.

By the way, according to this list, there had been many, many film productions over the years based on video games overall, but oddly enough, other than Pokémon, there are barely any adaptations based on Nintendo's most beloved franchises. It seems to me, due to the evil reputation behind film adaptations on video games (many of these films really bombed - in fact, if any film managed to become a blockbuster, it would be a miracle, or at least a job very-well done), many professional script writers and/or producers are too afraid to really risk getting into it in the first place. Methinks adaptations based on comic book characters actually fare far better!

In my opinion, all those whom tried it before and failed were merely thinking on picking up on a franchise's success via the silver screen. In other words, they worked at it merely for the profits rather than the heart. Only true fans can do some kind of moderately successful films based on video games. Unfortunately, it usually is rare thing to have a real video game fan and a big-shot film writer/director/producer all rolled into one, which is why it wouldn't work out unless there is some kind of balance. Those who believe it is easy to successfully adapt an entire video game, singles or series, franchise into a mere two-hour storyline framerate (maximum) are more than likely either utterly brilliant... or absolutely stupid! I doubt there are many geniuses in the film industry, so the latter is a lot more realistic, and the history of boxoffice bombs is a great evidence.

As I can see, there had been two Super Mario films, sixteen Pokémon films (two were made-for-TV), one Animal Crossing film, and one Kirby pseudo-film. These are all the films are based on Nintendo franchises as of 2011. (In case you are wondering, no, Professor Layton does not count. We even discussed this.)

I am wondering if there really should be a Legend of Zelda film. After all, the television series had tainted our beloved series enough! Should there be a film, and it bombed as utterly as the Super Mario Bros. movie did... well, it would really wreak to place such a film on record with a such a superbly epic franchise that is The Legend of Zelda!

I have this gut feeling that Nintendo may have decided not give out licenses for any of their franchises to anyone in Hollywood unless they're making a blockbuster out of it.

That reminds me... whatever happened to the plans Nintendo, or rather Hiroshi Yamauchi, announced that Nintendo would delve into the animated film industry by 2006?

Zelda had one

No it didn't.  That thing was so horrible it doesn't count.

Actually, I would say the Legend of Zelda series has one and a half one, should anyone consider the Zelda characters' appearances in Captain N: The Game Master as significant enough.

There are even some old rumours about a Zelda anime that was planned a few years ago, but I that probably never came to be.

Wait a second. Netflix's service can actually stream 3D movies? No, I don't think that is possible! Well, not by current household technology, at least. Netflix's streaming service was made primarily for PCs before they were added to the video game consoles. You can use the same Netflix account on your computer to run Netflix on any of the supported consoles. So far, I don't think Netflix can stream 3D movies. They may possibly rent you physical 3D movie Blu-ray discs, but I doubt their streaming service actually has any 3D support. Frankly, even if they did, that may surely increase the price of your account's monthly bill by a lot!

I'm thinking maybe Nintendo has a plan to present 3D movies through some other independent method, and it has nothing to do with Netflix whatsoever! In fact, this means Nintendo can distribute 3D movies to all countries, as Netflix's services are limited to the United States and Canada only! I'm pretty sure Japan wants to have 3D movies somehow, and it won't happen via Netflix, even if that were possible, unless Netflix decides to expand their services globally, but I really doubt that can happen anyway.

The thing about Netflix coming to the Nintendo 3DS is merely a matter of convenience, as the Nintendo 3DS is much easier to carry than most laptops. Additionally, it said you can connect your Wii with your Nintendo 3DS in a way where you are watching a movie on the 3DS, and then you can pause it at the service before continuing watching the same movie on your TV via Wii from the very same point where you left it off on the 3DS! Also, keep in mind about the fact that Nintendo of America made a deal with AT&T to allow free access to over 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States via the Nintendo 3DS! I guess, in a way, that seems to be a cheap replacement for the lack of 3G connection in the Nintendo 3DS.

for the same reason(s) Genesis games were on Wii VC.

Don't forget that Master System games are available on the Wii's Virtual Console as well! I find it surprising they did not add Sega Saturn games yet. I mean, it is possible if Nintendo 64 games are being offered, although I'm not sure if Sega released enough titles for the Saturn during its lifetime. Frankly, there are some Saturn titles I wish they would legitimately return, such as Sonic R!

By the way, did anyone here know that Game Gear games are already being offered via the Wii Virtual Console in Japan!?

Gosh, I cannot wait for officially announced titles for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console! The month of May will be here soon enough!

[they were terrible!]

You people had forgotten about DiC's Captain N: The Game Master and Ruby-Spears' Saturday Supercade!? Crossover series did exist before, and they were terrible!

In my opinion, a Star Fox series won't really work out. At least, not like wholesome series with several seasons and whatnot. I would more or less prefer a movie or a mini-series. I find Star Fox to work far better as an anime with both traditional (2D characters) and computer-generated (3D vehicles) animation.

i also think that this was one of very, very few animes that 4Kids made better than the Japanese version for multiple reasons.

Are you doubly sure about that?

Why the heck is everyone talking about Game Boy Advance games? Nintendo never announced anything related to the Game Boy Advance at all! Not yet, at least, since the possibility of it still open for the future, I suppose. However, initially, there is no Game Boy Advances games whatsoever. Nintendo only confirmed original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, and possibly other certain "classic titles remastered in 3D", which is still an obscure reference for the time being, but it should likely reference a selection of Nintendo Entertainment System games. I doubt Nintendo would actually release all NES titles as on the Wii Virtual Console, since these titles would technically be new with their 3D visuals and whatnot.

FRLG's been confirmed for 3DS VC, actually. :O

No, it was not.

Found it!

It makes sense, too. Remaking a remake would be sorta stupid. (Also hey Golden Sun's on there too.)

Ahem. That source you linked to, little girl, is not credible at all! Not to mention out-dated at the time you posted it as well. The rest of you, please discredit that link. If that bit of news was true, it would have existed elsewhere as well.

You know? I cannot believe all of you are thinking about Game Boy Advance titles under the influence of wishful thinking, especially when Game Gear games are confirmed to be available on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console from the start! Sega even announced a handful of initial up-coming Game Gear titles! I should also note that TurboGrafx-16 is also confirmed for the Virtual Console, but it's not much of a big deal since we already have it on the Wii Virtual Console anyway.

When did they announce this?

Nintendo officially announced at the 2011 Game Developers Conference (GDC) that Netflix is coming to the Nintendo 3DS during the summer - you can currently watch the entire keynote on the Nintendo Channel, or simply click here.

I'll vote for Avatar since it's the only movie I thought looked good in 3D, but otherwise I'm not going to buy any movies for the 3DS. My gaming consoles are for games only!

I don't believe you need to worry about that. Avatar was released by 20th Century Fox. Besides, I doubt most people would want to see a ridiculously acclaimed title such as Avatar on a small 3DS screen, even if it is a relatively cheap way of seeing it in 3D at home. Additionally, Avatar is not a suitable title for the little kiddies.

Ahem... why are so many people assuming Pandora's Tower is an RPG anyway? That's just wishful thinking. Nintendo kept this game mostly a mystery (and a secret) for some reason. There isn't any evidence to point out what is the exact nature of the game, let alone the exact genre.

Besides, if you people want more RPGs for your Wii consoles, you should more likely complain to Nintendo about not releasing games such as The Last Story and Xenoblade westwards! There is also a third-party RPG that still needs to see the light: Dragon Quest X, which had been announced as a Wii-exclusive ever since 2008!