Nintendo Okie

Welcome, once again, to our weekly look back at the events that make up Nintendo’s history.  In this article we’ll take a look at the game releases and other major events, such as development studios opening and console launches, that all work together to make up the history of one of the biggest game makers in the world.  This week has one console launch, a large number of sports games and one major new way to play games debut so let’s take a look at what’s happened.

Nintendo announced a new peripheral in 2008 and it hit stores in 2009.  Wii Motion Plus would be bundled with a few different software packages and one of those was Wii Sports Resort on July 26^th, 2009.  This game was designed, as a sequel to Wii Sports, to show off exactly what this new peripheral could do.  It wasn’t, however, the first game to have the device.  Wii Sports Resort included 12 different “sports” with a number of different variations on each.  These events ranged from basketball, to table tennis, archery, or even rowing.  Each of the game’s had you performing different motions to show you just how sensitive and versatile the Motion Plus device was.  For gamers who like achievements the game even had an in game achievement system where you received stickers for performing different tasks while playing.  Many people gravitated towards games like Table Tennis or the Sword Fighting event which they considered to be the best games in the package.  Wii Sports Resort was also set on the fictional resort known as Wuhu Island.  This was a place that Nintendo wanted to turn into a character of its own and there have been a number of games since set on the resort island or planned to take place there, like Pilotwings Resort, or Mario Kart 3D, both for Nintendo’s next handheld system, the 3DS.

F-1 World Grand Prix was released for the Nintendo 64 on July 27^th, 1998.  This game was based on the 1998 season of the sport and featured all 17 Grand Prix’s and 22 drivers from that season.  There were five game play modes available in the game.  Grand Prix had you going through the full season racing for points and trying to win the series championship.  Exhibition was a one off race, Time Trial allowed you to race any course to achieve the fastest time possible.  Challenge had you going into real life scenarios that happened during the previous season in order to recreate those events, and the last mode was a split screen multiplayer race.  The game was very well received with many people praising the realism, weather and the feeling of actually being at an F-1 event.

In the early 90’s video games were coming more and more to the attention of lawmakers, with many citing a number of games were very violent and there was no way for parents to know what kind of content was in those games.  Nintendo previously had always said that there games were intended for any audience, no matter the age, and went so far as to modify a number of games to remove any content they felt objectionable.  Sega, on the other hand, was releasing games unedited and applying a simple system to give people some idea of what audience their games were intended for.  Congress didn’t feel that either of these solutions was acceptable and so a number of game companies came together to form the Interactive Digital Software Association.  On July 29^th, 1994 this group proposed the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) in order to rate games across the whole gaming industry.  Congress approved of the proposal and on September 1^st of that year the ESRB began rating games for all systems and manufacturers.

July 29^th, 1998 saw the first golf game for the Nintendo 64 in North America released; Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics.  This was actually the second game released on the system by the developer T&E Soft, but the first in North America. The game came with six different gameplay modes for up to four people that could be played over the game’s one course.  It was not received very well at all, with people criticizing the lack of courses and the ugly graphical output of the game.

A golf game that was received very well by players was Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for the Nintendo GameCube released on July 29^th, 2003.  This game included 16 different playable characters, seven different courses and a number of gameplay modes.  Players who had Mario Golf: Advance Tour and a connection cable could transfer playable characters between the GBA version of the game and the GameCube version.  In addition to traditional tournaments players could compete in a variety of mini games including things like Ring Battle which had you playing a round of golf, but trying to hit your ball through rings scattered around the course.  It also threw in a bit of Mushroom Kingdom flair for players who thought a traditional golf game was boring.  Chain Chomps would force you to hit balls to different parts of the course.  Thwomps were waiting to smash players and many bunkers were shaped like famous denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom.  One of the more memorable courses had you playing across “islands” in the trees where shot placement was absolutely critical to success.

While there were other golf games released for previous systems, some even starring Mario, July 30^th, 1999 saw the start of the Mario Golf franchise with the release of Mario Golf on the N64.  Waialae might have been the first, but many people will say this was the best golf game on the system.  This game featured a number of playable characters including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, and Wario.  While the game was easy to play, the game’s engine allowed for some very deep game play mechanics.  Wind Speed, rain, the slope of a hill or the green would all affect golf balls in very realistic ways.  The game even featured the ability to transfer characters from the Game Boy edition of the game to use in full 3D on the Nintendo 64.  Mario Golf was very well received by critics and gamers alike, despite the fact that some people could have considered the overly simplistic golf game to be off-putting.

Released on July 30^th, 2007 Mario Strikers Charged was the second game in the Strikers series to be released by Nintendo and the first for the Nintendo Wii.  This game, developed by Next Level Games was announced during the German Game’s Convention in 2006.  The game, loosely based on the popular sport of soccer, featured two teams of five players competing to score more points than the other team in the time allowed.  There were a number of things that made it more than a traditional soccer game.  Powerups, like bananas and bombs would randomly appear on the soccer pitch, adding some strategy to the game.  The boundaries of the field were electrified which meant you could cause opposing player to be removed from the action temporarily by running them into this boundary.  The Mega Shot was also given a bit of an overhaul.  You could now earn six points on a single goal by properly executing one of these charged shots with your team’s captain, who was one of a number of famous characters from the Mario franchise.  Mario Strikers Charged was also one of the first games to take advantage on online play for the Wii using Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection.  Players could compete in ranked matches in order to rank up and become one of the best players in the world, or Friendly matches that were a more casual affair.  The game was very well received selling almost 2 million copies worldwide.

Picross DS was released on July 30^th, 2007 for the Nintendo DS and was the second Picross game released in North America after Mario’s Picross for the Game Boy.  This grid based puzzle game had you using a series of numbers to fill in the boxes of the grid in order to create a picture.  There were a number of modes that you could use.  The regular mode of the game had you just trying to solve a puzzle and you could be given hints if you got stuck.  The Daily Challenge would remove the ability to receive a hint.  Free Mode did not tell players when they had made a mistake and featured more difficult puzzles.  You could even create your own puzzles and share them with friends over the Wi-Fi Connection.  Downloadable puzzle packs would be available from time to time and featured classic Nintendo themed puzzles not previously available.  Picross DS has proven to be hugely popular and a new version of the game would be released later featuring 3D puzzles.

July 31^st, 1980 saw the release of Fire, a Game & Watch title.  This was the fourth title in the Game & Watch series and had you attempting to rescue people who were jumping out of a burning building.  In order to do this you would bounce them off a trampoline into an ambulance without allowing them to hit the ground.  It proved to be so popular with fans that it was re-released in wide screen and featured improvements to the color and had better graphics than its previous version.  Fire has been re-released on a number of systems through the Game & Watch collection series and is featured in one of the playable areas of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

July 31^st, 1989 saw Nintendo really get into the portable gaming market with the release of the Game Boy, created by Gunpei Yokoi.  This handheld system featured a monochromatic screen and game play similar to their popular home console the Nintendo Entertainment System.  When it was released it was bundled with the puzzle game Tetris, which would go on to become one of the most popular puzzle games of all time.  The Game Boy featured a control scheme similar to the NES with two buttons to control player’s actions and a directional pad to control movement.  Many games released on the system would be very similar in style to their console counterparts and would prove to be part of the reason the system was so successful.  It gave players the ability to really feel like they were playing NES games on a portable system.  The system would compete against other portable systems like the Sega Game Gear, and the Atari Lynx, which proved to be a battery hog and was more than twice the price of the Game Boy.  In it’s lifetime the Game Boy has sold nearly 120 millions units, spawned a number of popular franchises and even been reinvented to feature smaller and smaller dimensions while keeping all of the functionality intact.  It has also been proven to be a very hardy system, capable of surviving a fire and still working.  In 2009 the Game Boy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

So there you have it.  Our releases and events that make up the current week in Nintendo’s history.  It was a very popular week for sports gaming.  If you know of anything we missed, or you know is coming up and you’d like to see featured in the article, please feel free to let us know and we’ll include it.  Before we leave, though, we have to take a look at the games released in other territories around the world.

July 25^th

2003 – Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire (GBA, Europe)
            F-Zero GX (GCN, Japan)
2007 – Pokemon Diamond & Pearl (DS, Europe)

July 26^th

2007 – Mario Party 8 (Wii, Japan)

July 27^th

1989 – Mother (Fam, Japan)
2002 – Custom Robo GX (GCN, Japan)
2006 – bit.Generations (GBA, Japan)

July 28^th

1994 – Super Metroid, Shadowrun, Top Rank Tennis (SNES, Europe)
2005 – Pac N Roll, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (DS, Japan)

July 30^th

1999 – Command & Conquer (N64, Europe)

July 31^st

1984 – Boxing (G&W, Japan)
1995 – Kirby Super Star (Sfam, Japan)
2008 – Speed Racer (Wii, Europe)
                Rhythm Heaven (DS, Japan)
            Fatal Frame IV (Wii, Japan)