Nintendo Okie

Howdy Howdy folks.  We’re back, yet again, to look at history.  We’ve got an interesting mix of things that took place this week from one really high profile game to release to a knighthood and all sorts of things in between.  So what do you say?  Let’s hit the history books, but before we talk about the events of this week I have to mention that I missed the release of Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 last week.  I’ve gone back and put that into the article so you can head over there and see that entry if you’re interested. 

Game & Watch has been one of the most featured systems.  It seems like every week we’re leading with a game from the system and this week is no different.  Donkey Kong II was released on March 7^th, 1983 and was a part of the Game & Watch multi-screen series.  Essentially an LCD version of Donkey Kong Jr. you were tasked with rescuing Donkey Kong by touching climbing to obtain four keys and moving them to keyholes around the screen.  After collecting those four keys and rescuing Donkey Kong the game started again, only a little bit faster everytime.

Metal Gear Solid has been a mainstay of the Playstation brand of consoles, but it has made a few appearances on other platforms as well.  March 9^th, 2004 saw the release of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the Nintendo GameCube.  This was a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid released on the Playstation in 1998.  There were some additions to the GameCube version of the game included new cutscenes, gameplay functions that were originally seen in Metal Gear Solid 2 and a re-recording of the voice work featuring the English voice cast.  The game was originally announced in 2003 and was developed by Silicon Knights under direction by both series creator Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto.  It was originally scheduled for release in November of 2003, but was pushed back and the European box art was redesigned during this delay.  Much like the original release, Twin Snakes was critically acclaimed, and Game Informer listed it as one of the Top 25 GameCube games of all time. 

One of the most anticipated releases for the Wii, despite being delayed a number of times, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released on March 9^th, 2008.  Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a fighting game designed to be simple to learn, but hard to master.  Four players could choose from up to 35 characters that have starred in previous games featured on Nintendo’s line of consoles and handhelds.  The game was originally announced at the Pre-E3 Press Conference by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and the development was headed by Masahiro Sakurai, who directed the previous entries in the series.  Prior to the games release the website smashbros.com, better known as the Dojo released character bios, art from the game and previews of the soundtrack to generate more interest in the title.  For the first time ever players would be able to play as third-party characters.  The two featured in the game were Snake from the Metal Gear franchise and Sonic the Hedgehog.  It would finally be time for the battle that had been brewing since the early 90’s to be decided.  Online play was also featured in the series for the first time and players around the world were finally able to get together online to duke it out in these four player brawls.  The only thing that hindered this experience was extreme lag that would cause the game to, in many cases, be rendered unplayable.  There was also an in depth single player experience known as The Subspace Emissary where players would use the entire cast of characters to combat an enemy that was wreaking havoc.  The scenario for the Subspace Emissary was written by Final Fantasy writer Kazushige Nojima.  Super Smash Bros. Brawl was critically and commercially successful for Nintendo and continued the strong dominance in fighting games on Nintendo’s platform. 

March 9^th, 2009 was Virtual Console Day in America and on that day Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars for the Sega Master System was released on Nintendo’s downloadable service. 

Gradius ReBirth was released on WiiWare March 9^th, 2009.  This was a side scrolling shooter, much like the game was originally on the NES.  This new entry in the series feature two gameplay modes.  Arcade Mode featured unlimited credits allowing you to eventually play through the entire game.  Score Attack Mode gave you a single credit to use to rack up as many points as possible.  Those scores would then be posted to the worldwide leaderboard. 

Mega Man & Bass was released for the GameBoy Advance on March 10^th, 2003, though it was originally released as Rock Man & Forte on the Super Famicom in Japan.  Bass was originally created by Dr. Wily in order to help him in his plot to take over the world.  In this game, though, a robot known as King has broken into both Dr. Wily and Dr. Light’s lab, stolen plans for Dr. Light’s creations and proclaimed himself the most powerful robot in the world.  This upsets Bass and he joins Mega Man and Proto Man in an attempt to stop King.  You had the choice, at the beginning of the game, to play as either Mega Man or Bass, who’s powers differed from each other creating a unique play style no matter which character you chose.  The gameplay was similar to the games released earlier in the series and like Mega Man 8 you had the ability to save your progess as you went.  There was also a currency system in the game using bolts that could be exchanged for power ups. 

March 10^th, 2008 was Virtual Console Day in North America.  That day saw the release of DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure for the Super Nintendo, and Puyo Puyo 2 for the Sega Genesis.

Many of the people behind titles like Viewtiful Joe and Okami, after leaving Capcom formed a new studio that would be known as Platinum Games.  They would soon sign a publishing deal with Sega and part of the deal was a title that would be released on March 10^th, 2009 for the Wii known as MadWorld.  This would become a title that many gamers would hang their hat on in hopes that it would spur sales of what they called core games on the Wii.  It featured a very unique black and white comic book art style that featured only two other colors; yellow for the comic book style text and red for the buckets of blood featured in this 3D brawler.  The game starred a man, Jack, who has a retractable chainsaw built into his arm.  He ends up being sent to a place known as Jefferson Island which has been turned into a TV set for a show called DeathWatch.  A group of terrorists known as the Organizers took over the island a released a virus into Varrigan city and told the population that they would only receive the vaccine if they killed another person.  MadWorld featured over the top violence and mini games that had titles like Man Darts where you attempted to throw a person onto a spike filled dartboard to score points.  The game was the subject of controversy in countries like Germany, where it wasn’t released and the United Kingdom.  Despite being critically successful the game has not sold very well. 

March 12^th 2007 was, once again, Virtual Console day in North America.  On that date Tecmo Bowl for the NES, Sonic Spinball for the Sega Genesis and Double Dungeons for the Turbo-Grafix 16 were released. 

The first Pokemon game released for the Nintendo DS would be one of a kind.  Pokemon Dash was released on March 13^th, 2005 and was an on foot racing game.  The game featured stylus controls where you used the stylus to move your pokemon between checkpoints until the race was completed.  It was also the first game to feature Munchlax.  There were five main cups in the GP mode with harder cups that could be unlocked where you raced against faster and faster pokemon.  Pokemon Dash featured six player multi-player with each person using a separate DS.  There was also a compatability with Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, or Emerald where after completing GP mode you could use your team rosters to create new courses shaped like those pokemon. 

Three men were knighted by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication on March 13^th, 2006.  Those men were Rayman creator Michel Ancel, Alone in the Dark’s Frederick Raynal and Nintendo executive and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.  They were the first video game creators to be knighted under France’s Order of Arts and Letters.  The title does not add the word Sir before the men’s names however.  They were knighted having been considered to have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

Spectrobes hit store shelves in both North America and Japan on March 13^th, 2007 and was developed by Kyoto based Jupiter.  They had previously been known for working on Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.  It was, according to Disney Interactive Studios, the first game developed as an original property not based on a TV show or movie.  The crew in the game, members of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol, respond to a distress signal and discover a man who’s been in cryogenic sleep.  When he awakens he relays the details of an attack on his homeworld and they must uncover what has happened.  It was considered a commercial success by the company having sold over 700,000 copies.  The game was also re-released in a bundle with a number of input cards in the Spectrobes: Collector’s Edition.

That’s all we have this week for North American releases, but before we leave we can’t forget about our friends from other countries. 

Yoshi’s Island was released in Japan on March 8^th, 2007.  March 9^th saw three different releases.  In 1996 Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars was released in Japan.  Mario Party hit European shores in 1999 and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin made it’s way to Europe in 2007.  March 11, 1995 saw the release of Chrono Trigger in Japan.  March 11^th, 2005 was the day the DS hit stores in Europe.  007: Agent Under Fire for the Gamecube was released in Japan on March 12^th, 2002 and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles was released in Europe on March 12^th, 2004. 

As always if you know of anything coming up you’d like to see included or if we’ve missed anything, please let us know in the comment section.  You can also email me at tonymiller@nintendo-okie.com or you can head over to the forums and let us know there.  We’ll be back again this time next week to talk about one more week’s worth of events.