Nintendo Okie

Howdy Howdy everyone.  It’s time to take your sits and open your history books.  We’re going to look back at the events that took place during this week in Nintendo past.  We’ve got a light week ahead of us with a few game releases and a high profile birth.   Let’s jump right in.

November 1^st, 2008 was the first day of the month.  It happens every year.  On this day, though, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was released for Wii.  Dawn of the New World is a spin-off and sequel to the original Tales of Symphonia released in 2004 for the GameCube and PS2.  Hero, Lloyd Irving and his crew took part in events that led to the merging of the twin worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe’alla.  As you can imagine things were thrown into a bit of chaos and eventually the Church of Martel goes to war with the Vanguard, and Sylvarant’s city of Palmacosta is caught in the crossfire.  The game uses a combination of the battle systems from Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Destiny to create a new system that has a name too long to really understand; the “Flex Range Element Enhanced Linear Motion Battle System” or (FR:EE-LMBS).  The main characteristic of this battle system is the use of elements that can dynamical change the field of battle and effect the usefulness of attacks.  Since its release the game has received a number of mixed reviews praising the game play and battle system, but criticizing the voice work, graphics style and linearity of the game.

EA took us back to the schoolyard on November 2^nd, 2007 with EA Playground for Wii and DS.  Inspired by Wii Sports the game featured a number of playground themed mini-games including tetherball, dodge ball, paper airplane racing and more.  The DS game featured some of the same mini-games, but also some DS exclusive ones such as bug hunt, spitballs and trampoline.  The game was praised for its visual style and number of mini-games that were included, but was criticized for the clunkiness of the controls and the fact that some of the mini-games just felt uninspired.  It was considered a decent alternative to Wii Sports for younger players.

Download day was November 3^rd, 2008.  On that day Space Harrier was released for the Virtual Console.  The title saw its release originally on the Sega Master System.  Pinball fans were given a blast from the past when Alien Crush Returns hit WiiWare along with Home Sweet Home.

It was time to hit the beach on November 5^th, 1996.  Kawasaki sponsored the jet ski racing title Wave Race 64 which saw release on that day for the Nintendo 64.  The game featured jet ski races on a number of different courses during a number of different weather conditions.  Not only were you supposed to beat the other racers on the course, but you had to navigate a series of buoys that you had to pass on the correct side which would give you speed boosts if done correctly.  There were a number of different modes of play for the game including single play championship mode, 2 player versus and stunt mode and time trials.  The game was received very positively and continues to be on many people’s list to see a release on Wii’s Virtual Console. 

VC day was November 5^th, 2007.  On that day Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, Alien Soldier for the Sega Genesis and Power Golf for the Turbo Grafix 16 all saw release.

One of the most unusual accessories for the Nintendo 64 hit stores on November 6^th, 2000.  The Voice Recognition unit was compatible with only two games; Hey You, Pikachu! And Densha de Go! 64.  Every copy of Hey You, Pikachu! Included the unit and it was required to play the game.  Interestingly the unit was configured to recognize high pitched voices such as a young child’s and as such older players were less likely to have their voice recognized by the system.  As you can imagine it was not considered a very successful peripheral.

One of the more unique games released in the rhythm genre hit stores on November 6^th, 2006 with the release of Elite Beat Agents.  This game is the American spin-off of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan.  The game followed the exploits of a squad of secret agents as they solved the world’s problems through dance.  The game featured 19 licensed tracks featuring artists like Cher, the Jackson 5 and Avril Lavigne.  In the game you would hit markers in time to the beat and chaining together large combos would reward you with score multipliers.  If you missed enough of the markers you would fail the song.  The game featured a number of different endings to the storys presented depending on how well you did for each song.  It received a large amount of critical praise as well as a number of awards for 2006, unfortunately it was not received as well as expected at retail and we have not seen a sequel to the game yet. 

Star Wars fans were granted the ability to play through the entire 6 part saga in brick form with the release of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii and DS on September 6^th, 2007.   The game essentially brought together the first two titles in the series into one package and added a few new things as well.  In total there were 62 levels that could be played through, some such as the chase scene with Zam Wessell exclusive to this title.  The Wii and DS versions of the game featured custom motion controls as an optional alternative to the traditional button presses.  The game was very well received both critically and commercially. 

November 7^th, 1927 was the day that Hiroshi Yamauchi was born.  Mr. Yamauchi assumed the presidency of Nintendo in 1949, at age 22, when his grandfather suffered from a stroke.  In the beginning he was not taken seriously and suffered a number of setbacks including a strike by a number of employees.  During a trip to the United States he came to the realization that playing cards were not going to be a lucrative business venture for very long and he decided to diversify the company.  Some of the unsuccessful ventures included a taxi company, a love hotel company that rented rooms by the hour and individual servings of rice.  All that changed when he spotted a young factory engineer named Gunpei Yokoi who was working on an extendable claw that he had made to amuse himself during his work breaks.  After this Yamauchi decided to get into the toy making business.  A few projects such as the Game & Watch line and Shigeru Miyamoto’s Donkey Kong game became huge successes and eventually led to the development of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Mr. Yamauchi stepped down as President of Nintendo in 2002, succeeded by Satoru Iwata, and became the Chairman of the Board of Directors.  He resigned from the position in 2005 after feeling that Nintendo was being left in good hands.  When he did he also refused to accept his retirement pension, reportedly between $9 and $14 million saying that it could be better put to use by Nintendo.  At one point he was considered the richest man in Japan but is currently listed as the third richest man in the country. 

There you have it folks.  Another week in the history books, so to speak.  If you have anything you know of coming up and would like to see featured in this article let me know.  Also let me know what you think of the article down in the comments section.  Come back this time next week for another look at Nintendo’s history.