Nintendo Okie

Welcome, again, to our weekly look back at the events that have made up Nintendo’s history. This week is quite busy compared to last week so let’s not waste any time.

Nintendo announced on May 9^th, 2007 that they were relocating about 80 of is sales and marketing staff from Redmond, WA to San Francisco, CA and New York City. This move came after Nintendo saw huge growth with both the Wii and DS systems. Nintendo had been eying some property in order to building a 550,000 square foot facility, but scrapped those plans to move their marketing teams to the more high profile areas.

May 11^th, 2009 was Virtual Console Day in North America. On that day, Galaxy Force II, originally for the Sega Genesis, was released on the Virtual Console. Also on that day Family Pirate Party was released for WiiWare.

May 12^th, 2008 saw the official launch of the WiiWare service on the Wii. This launched Nintendo’s online presence and store for newer video games. They had previously only had their Virtual Console space as their area for downloadable games. This new service promised smaller developers a space to release their games and bigger developers the ability to experiment with smaller titles that didn’t warrant a retail release. The service turns two this year and currently has 207 titles available for download. When the service launched there were six games available for download; LostWinds, Defend Your Castle, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Pop, TV Show King, and V.I.P.Casino: Blackjack.

The final Mario game released on the Super Nintendo was also the last game developed for a Nintendo platform by Square Soft before they would move on to work with Sony on the Playstation.  Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was released for the Super Nintendo on May 13^th, 1996. It would be six years before Square would work on another Nintendo product. This was an RPG, as the title suggests, set in the Mushroom Kingdom. The game begins with the player as Mario, but would soon entail controlling groups of up to five different characters at a time, each with a unique set of attacks and abilities. The combat in the game was turn based, similar to Square’s Final Fantasy series. The game begins with Mario entering Bowser’s Castle in an attempt to rescue Princess Toadstool, but events soon turn even uglier and the two are forced to work together to defeat a character known as Smithy who has the last Star Piece from the shattered Star Road. Super Mario RPG was released to great critical acclaim, with EGM even calling it “the best game of all-time”. It has gone on to sell millions of copies, and while it doesn’t have a direct sequel the spiritual successor to the game has become the Mario & Luigi series of games.

Deca Sports was released on May 13^th, 2008 and featured 10 sports themed games controlled by using the Wii Remote in actions that simulated the actual sports. The sports featured in the game were Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Curling, Figure Skating, Soccer, Kart Racing, Snowboarding and Supercross. In addition to those 10 games there were four different modes you could compete in; Open Match, Tournament Mode, Deca League and Deca Challenge. Deca Sports was not very well received at all featuring very low review scores, and some outlets calling it the worst game ever.

Capcom was given their chance to work on the Zelda franchise with the releases of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons on May 14^th, 2001 for the Game Boy Color. These would be the first games in the series, but not the last, developed by someone other than Nintendo. These games came about after Flagship attempted to port the original Legend of Zelda game to the Game Boy Color. Ultimately they would attempt to develop three games at once that would link together, but the system proved to complex and only two of the games were finished. Gameplay in the two games would be considerably different, but many elements would cross between the two. Oracle of Seasons would be the more action oriented title with Oracle of Ages featuring more puzzle elements. By playing the games back to back you could link the two with a password and get an alternate ending where Zelda is captured and Link is forced to fight a poorly resurrected Ganon to free her. The two games were huge successes commercially and critically with many considering them some of the best games in the Zelda franchise.

May 14^th, 2009 was Virtual Console Day in North America. On that day Ninja Gaiden and Pac-man were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Ninja Spirit for the Turbo Grafix-16 was released.

Our last release of the week brought Mario back to his two dimensional roots.  New Super Mario Bros. was released for the DS on May 15^th, 2006. It was the first side scrolling Mario game since Super Mario Land 2 on the Game Boy. The game featured 80 levels spread through eight different worlds. Travel between the levels was achieved through an overworld map that featured branching paths and cannons that would warp you ahead to different worlds. Bowser Jr. and Bowser have captured Princess Peach and it’s up to Mario to save her. The game also featured two new power ups never been seen in a Mario game; the Giant Mushroom, which would grow Mario to fill up most of the screen. and the Mini Mushroom, which would shrink Mario to the size of an ant. In addition to the main game there was a number of mini-games that could be played wireless between multiple systems. The game consistently sold in the top 10 of all software month after month selling more than 21 million units worldwide.

So there you have the events that make up North America’s history of Nintendo. It was a pretty big week for them overall. If you know of anything we missed, or anything coming up for future editions feel free to let us know and we’ll include them. Before we go, though, we have to mention the releases that make up other territories.

Foreign Releases

May 9^th

2003 – Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA, Europe)
2008 – Boom Blox (Wii, Europe)

May 11^th

2007 – Cooking Mama: Cook Off (Wii, Europe)

May 14^th

2008 – Bomberman Land (Wii, Europe)
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody (Wii, Europe)

May 15^th

2008 – Battalion Wars 2 (Wii, Japan)
Luminous Arc (DS, Japan)