Wired: The most charitable thing we could say right now about the lineup of games for Nintendo’s Wii console is that it is 'not quite' a barren wasteland.
There’s the epic adventure The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Wii debut of the addictive, original music game Rhythm Heaven. And another Kirby game. All these are coming at some indeterminate point in the future.
And that’s about it, at least for those of us who are fans of deep, challenging experiences, or the sort of things we used to call “videogames.”
That’s in America. In Japan, where Wii has not been as explosively popular, it’s a different story. Nintendo continues to make grand overtures to the hard-core gaming fans in its home country. Most notably, over the past year it has released two role-playing games called Xenoblade and The Last Story, created by some of Japan’s most famous RPG designers. The games are exactly the sort of thing that Nintendo’s system lacks stateside: full-scale adventures with solid gameplay, high-quality graphics and music, interesting stories.
So it came as something of a shock when Nintendo did not take the opportunity at E3 to announce U.S. releases for these two games. Over the years, Nintendo of America has often declined to release many of its more hard-core Japanese games, but these two titles seem to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for many fans.
If you were a 90s kid excited about Nintendo’s upcoming N64 console, you likely read something somewhere about the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive, also known as the 64DD or DD64.
Other nominees include games like SimCity & Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
There are some good nominees in this list that are deserving to be inducted also, but I feel Metroid has had the most impact on the industry out of all of these. Look how Metroid influenced the evolution of the Castlevania games, and the "Metroidvania" subgenre of games have become a prevailing force in gaming today. Especially now, Metroidvanias are bigger than ever.
I can very much see Resident Evil being added later too, bc it really did popularize and define the survival horror genre. I would say that one is next in line.
If any Metroid game should get the honor it should be Super Metroid , it's perfection in my eyes . 30 years later and I still feel it's the most epic shit ever .
The GBA remake deserves it or Super Metroid, the original was a very sloppy and rushed game programmed in 3 months and it shows.
If you've never played the remake, it's absolutely a must play, fixes basically every flaw in the game. Check out ExoParadigmGamer's comparison video.
“Before even Kirby was born, HAL Laboratory released the super-cute puzzler Adventures of Lolo in 1989 and it has held up beautifully.” - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums.
Another Operation Rainfall article. Glad this is getting so much publicity.
The word needs to spread. I'm only soft modding my Wii to play Xenoblade and Last Story. I'd love to give NoA my money, but I guess they don't want it...
namco is also guilty of this crime is some cases ..
Nintendo:
'No you can't buy this game in your region.'
'No you may not buy it from another region and play it on your Wii, it is region locked.'
'No you may not mod your Wii in order to get around this.'
'No, we probably won't ever change our mind.'
When it comes to gaming, fewer things hurt worse than this sort of attitude.
I remember hearing things like this for a long time. There were so many RPGs that we did not have released here, and I was always jealous that Japan got them, but not us. The most baffling part? In my lifetime living in Kansas, which isn't as populated as some states in America, I don't remember retailers putting very many RPGs (if any) in a bargain bin. Always behind a case. If you wanted to buy used ones later, you could be on a waiting list for months. Doesn't this history show that RPGs can sell well in America?
But now the Internet is spreading news faster than ever before. These are games that would do quite well here. After all, fans are "crying out" for them. Things like this will only get worse and hurt Nintendo if they don't do something. RPG fans are some of the biggest diehards!