Nintendo Okie

We’re back again to talk about the past.  The games and events that make up Nintendo’s history are all important in understanding how the company got to where they are today.  This week we’ve got Zelda, Castlevania, two new system launches and so much more. 

Zelda fans got a brand new, unique experience with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures on June 7^th, 2004.  This game, for both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance came bundled with a system link cable that would allow the GBA to connect to the GameCube.  Up to three GBA’s could be connected giving people the ability to play the first four player Zelda experience ever.  Each player controlled a Link that was distinguishable by the color of clothing he was wearing.  In addition to the main co-operative story mode, which could be played as a single player game with one person controlling all four Links, there were other multiplayer modes available as well.  One, called Shadow Battle, allowed two people to fight as Link in up to five different arenas.  There was also a multiplayer mode, available only in Japan, called Navi Trackers that had people searching for members of Tetra’s pirate band in order to collect the most stamps from them.  The game has been hugely successful since its release and been praised as one of the reasons to own a GBA link cable.  Nintendo Power even ranked the game the 48^th best game of all time, released on a Nintendo platform.

Sonic’s adventures since his days on the Genesis have been hit or miss.  One of the franchises is recent memory that many people have enjoyed was the Sonic Advance series.  Sonic Advance 3 was released in North America on June 7^th, 2004.  It played up the platforming elements with a great sense of speed.  In the game Sonic and Tails become separated from Knuckles, Amy, and Cream and have to find their way back after Dr. Robotnik has torn the Earth apart using Chaos Control.  The game featured two different endings based on how many Chaos Emeralds you collecting during the game.  The game received rave reviews and has sold over 1.5 million units to date. 

There have been approximately 7 million and three different versions of Monopoly created since the game was invented.  It only makes sense that Nintendo created their own version of the game and released it to the public on June 8^th, 2006.  The playing pieces in the game were replaced by things like Mario’s hat, the Hylian shield or an NES controller.  Instead of buying properties in the game you bought different Nintendo characters.  Wario and Waluigi were the first two properties on the board and things went up from there with Mario and Luigi replacing Boardwalk and Park Place.  One franchise that is mysteriously absent from this game was Pokemon.  There are a couple different possibilities for this; one being that there was already a Pokemon themed Monopoly game or that because Nintendo shared the rights to the property with GameFreak. 

The Legendary Starfy was released for the DS on June 8^th, 2009.  This was the fifth game in the franchise, but only the first to be released in North America.  The game “stars” a character known as Starfy, so named because he’s in the shape of a Star, who can take on different abilities by putting on different costumes.  The first four games in the series did not see release outside of Japan because they were considered “too Japanese”.  The developers thought that this game was the best way to be introduced to the character, and because of the popularity of the DS the game finally made it to North America.  Since its release it’s been very well received and many people enjoy the game because of the similarity to the Kirby series. 

June 8^th, 2009 was Download Day in North America.  On that date Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf, originally for the SNES, was released.  There were also two WiiWare games released that day, Fish’em All and Swords & Soldiers. 

June 9^th, 2008 was Virtual Console day in North America.  That date saw the release of Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa and Dig Dug, both for the NES. 

There have been Castlevania releases on most Nintendo platforms going all the way back to the NES.  The first game to be released for the Game Boy Advance was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on June 10^th, 2001.   The non-linear gameplay was very similar to another release in the franchise, Symphony of the Night.  Many of the weapons and upgrades you would expect to see in a Castlevania game made their return, this time wielded by main character, Nathan Graves.  The game takes place during the year 1830 in Camilla castle where one of Dracula’s many minions has revived the vampire lord.  You must make your way through the castle in order to defeat the villain, but you did not have to take a straight path in order to do this.  Series producer Koji Igarashi was highly critical of the game and in 2002 the game was removed from the Castlevania timeline.  The reason given for this was because the development team intended for the game to be a stand alone title and not part of the franchise.  This move was met with anger by many fans of the series and some timelines released in recent years have shown the game to be part of the series. 

One of the biggest innovations in recent memory is that of user created content.  Many games are now shipping and giving players the ability to extend the life of the game by building more and more levels.  One of those games, Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy, gave you a very small amount of content, but a very in depth level editor to create just about any style of shooter you wanted.  The game was released in North America on June 10^th, 2008.  The game used very simple geometry to allow players to build anything they could imagine and put it in the game.  You could build side scrolling shooters, or vertical shooters, or mix the two together.  Because the game used simple geometric shapes it gave you the ability to create almost anything.  It was based off of a game known as Tumiki Fighters, a freeware PC release by Kenta Cho.  There were also three other games created by him that could be unlocked while playing.  People who wanted to share their creations could upload them to a website called Blastworks Depot.

The Game Boy Advance was the second generation of Nintendo’s handheld.  It was released to the public on June 11^th, 2001.   The system used a 32-bit RSC processor allowing games that were comparable to the SNES to be played on the go.  It was known as Project Atlantis during its development and featured backwards compatibility for original Game Boy and Game Boy Color games.  The system launched with a good number of games, including Super Mario Advance and F-Zero Maximum Velocity, and was very popular with gamers because of the many ports from the 8 and 16 bit generation released on the platform.  The last game released for the system in Japan was Final Fantasy VI Advance and the last American game released on the GBA was Samurai Deeper Kyo. 

Five years later the successor to the GBA would see a new release as well.  The DS Lite hit store shelves on June 11^th, 2006.  This was the first of many redesigns for the DS after its launch.  It would reduce the form factor of the system and make it considerably lighter.  The system would also feature a brightness setting that could be toggled up to three times allowing for gameplay in considerably harsher conditions than the original DS allowed.  Since its release there have been more than 84 million systems shipped worldwide.

June 11^th, 2007 was Virtual Console Day in North America.  That date saw the release of Lode Runner for the NES and Golden Axe II and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis. 

So there you have it folks.  The releases that make up this week in Nintendo’s history.  If you know of anything that we’ve missed or that you know is coming up in the future please feel free to leave us a comment and let us know.  It will be included in future articles.  Before we go, though, we have to mention the games that were released outside of North America.

June 6^th

1993 – The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GB, Japan)
2002 – Castlevania: Harmony of  Dissonance (GBA, Japan)
2008 – Lego Indiana Jones (Wii, Europe)

June 8^th

1991 – Final Fantasy Adventure (GB, Japan)
2001 – Excitebike 64 (N64, Europe)

June 10^th

1998 – Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside (N64, Europe)
2004 – Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA, Japan)

June 11^th

1999 – Mario Golf (N64, Japan)

June 12^th

2005 – Pokemon Emerald (GBA, Europe)