Bravely Default: Flying Fairy will be released for 3DS in America and Europe this year! Bringing a tear to the eye of many a Japanese RPG fan! More soon.
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EarthBound Virtual Console Releasing THIS YEAR! 3DS/WiiU eShop FINALLY!
EarthBound will be released for WiiU eShop THIS YEAR! This was confirmed via Satoru Iwata himself during the 3DS Nintendo Direct presentation.
He specifically mentioned the passionate plea of fans who were extremely dismayed to hear that Mother II (released in the U.S. as EarthBound) was being released for Virtual Console in Japan but NO WHERE ELSE!
Well it seems that Nintendo has heard your pleas, and directly referenced the posts that people left pleading for Nintendo to release it in Europe and America on MiiVerse! Iwata also mentioned that the creator of EarthBound, Shigesato Itoi, was extremely happy that it would finally be available again for the legions of fans to officially download it.
No word on what changes, if any, will be made in the game due to “copyright concerns”, nor was a specific date given. But we’ll likely learn more at E3 2013!
* Update Note: So far EarthBound is coming to Wii U eShop ONLY, and not 3DS eShop. Hopefully the title will eventually be re-release in some form (I hope as a 3D cartridge alongside Mother I and Mother 3!) for the 3DS as well… The game would certainly look amazing with stereoscopic 3D visuals. However the 3DS Virtual Console does not yet have SNES titles available for it, only NES & Game Boy titles. Which is why the announcement of EarthBound is for WiiU VC and not 3DS VC.
Tales of Xillia American US and European Releases Confirmed By Namco
The official logo for Tales of Xillia, the 13th entry in the long-running Namco RPG series.
Here’s a Japanese Tales of Xillia Trailer, showing tons of cutscenes and story sequences, along with gameplay at the end.
This is huge news for fans of the Tales series of RPGs from Namco, who were a bit worried that the latest game in the series, a PS3-exclusive, would not see the light of day outside Japan.
Thankfully, Namco has come to their senses, although no word on exactly WHEN the game will be released has been announced. But it is extremely likely it will hit sometime this holiday, if I had to wager a guess.
This is what the RPG battles look like in Tales of Xillia exclusively for PS3. Coming this Fall 2012.
The latest game in the Tales series was the 3DS Tales of the Abyss 3D released last year, a remake of the PS2 title from 2006. Before that we got Tales of Graces f for PS3, an enhanced port of a Wii game in the series that was never released outside of Japan. The game most players will remember from the current generation is the Xbox 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia (also released for PS3 in Japan with an updated version). Sadly there are two fairly recent DS entries in the Tales series that never got released outside of Japan. Hopefully Namco can combine them into a dual-pack and release it for 3DS or something along those lines eh?
Otherwise, releases of Tales games in the West have been somewhat hit or miss, but it’s great to hear that Tales of Xillia will finally be getting its day on Western shores.
Apparently some pretty cool cats from Tales of Xillia. What with the shades in all…
New Super Mario Bros. U E3 2012 Gameplay Stage Demo and Trailer. New Name For New Super Mario Bros. Mii. Launch Game Release For Wii U This Holiday 2012. Iwata Asks Takashi Tezuka Video Interview
Look how beautiful that HD background is in this New Super Mario Bros. U gameplay screenshot!
It is also the first Mario game ever that is now produced directly by Shigeru Miyamoto, instead being produced by longtime Nintendo EAD General Manager Takashi Tezuka, who has directed along with Miyamoto on virtually every Nintendo game for the past 25 years, including The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and even New Super Mario Bros.
Giant Koopa and Giant Goomba! AWESOME!
New Super Mario Bros. U introduces new elements, expands on the elements introduced in New Super Mario Bros. Wii released in 2009 for the original Wii, and introduces all new features and elements that take advantage of the new Wii U GamePad tablet controller.
The biggest addition to the game is the ability to play as your Mii in place of Mario, Luigi and Toads, as seen NSMB Wii. Now you can play four-player with each player taking controller of their Mii character. The thought behind this is that it is easier to not lose track of your character when their big head is YOUR head… the head of your Mii. Whether this actually works in practice remains to be seen. When Miis are small they look exactly like you’d expect, however collect a Mushroom and they will grow in size and wear a “Mario character” suit, dressed in red like Mario, Green like Luigi, Yellow like Wario or Purple Like Waluigi!
Here is the New Super Mario Bros. U E3 2012 Nintendo Press Conference Stage Demo for the Wii U launch game.
Also returning are Small Yoshis! Who you can use to eat enemies and turn them into… presumably, big Yoshis. (at least, I think those were Yoshis… *checks* Okay it is confirmed they ARE Small Yoshi!). One of the biggest new features is the ability to play the game using “Boost Mode”. In this mode, one player uses the Wii U GamePad tablet controller, and can place “Boost Blocks” anywhere on the screen using the Wii U GamePad’s touchscreen.
Touch the GamePad controller touchscreen to place Boost Blocks to help or hinder other players!
By doing this, he can help up to four-players who are playing the game with the Wii Remote. He can even change these blocks into smaller Coin Blocks. Of course, while the co-op player can help, they can also hinder by placing blocks to make life more difficult for the players playing the game. Nintendo even specifically mentioned that these Boost Blocks can be strategically placed in order to create better and improved Speedrun scores. It’s always great to see Nintendo discuss the speedrunning phenomenon! A phenomenon they started with Metroid, wherein players try to beat the game in the fastest time possible.
A very cool new Power-Up has been introduced for the first time in New Super Mario Bros. U, and it is the “Flying Squirrel Mario Suit”. By turning in Flying Squirrel Mario, Mario dons squirrel-like wings under his arms that allow him to gently glide and gain a boost of momentum and air by flicking the Wii U GamePad or Wii Remote!
Here is an indepth Takashi Tezuka New Super Mario Bros. U text interview, as well as the Nintendo Iwata Asks New Super Mario Bros. U interview with Takashi Tezuka.
Additionally, the different colored Small Yoshis offer all kinds of new abilities based on their color. Pink ones stretch out vertically and allow you to float through the air by fattening up, Blue Small Yoshi spit out bubbles and Yellow Small Yoshi give off light.
The other biggest feature for the game is the introduction of MiiVerse, Nintendo’s new online social feature built-in to the Wii U and inherently supported by every game. Using MiiVerse in New Super Mario Bros. U allows your friends to leave messages, like hints, tips, tricks, boasts, etc. on the actual World Map itself! These show up as speech balloons! And just like on the Wii U Main Menu, the MiiVerse screen itself, players can even take a screenshot, leave emoticons, or draw pictures in their messages! Very, VERY cool when you see this in action.
As for as the actual gameplay itself, it is typical sidescrolling Mario action. Goomba stomping, Koopa kicking, block busting, coin collecting, Power-Up nabbing, pit leaping, obstacle navigating, pipe-entering, run and jump action, as you head from the left to the right of the screen and navigate through the level from beginning to end. Nothing to see here, but now it comes in HD! The high-definition next-gen graphics deifnitely give the game a nice sheen to the graphics, but otherwise it looks exactly the same as New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Which is to say, it looks like a whole barrel of fun! In single-player or multiplayer!
Here is the New Super Mario Bros. U official E3 2012 trailer.
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Wii Edition (Project Zero 2) Coming to America? Game Is Europe-bound
The sexy sisters Mio and Mayu in Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly wallpaper.
The Fatal Frame series are horror games set in haunted locals where ghosts, gouls and evil spirits of all kinds haunt the game world, and the player must capture them using a special demonic camera… the games play much like Resident Evil, although are more similar to Silent Hill in the way the games play on your mind with psychological horror. Making good use of the ghosts that appear to make you feel like you are seeing things and like a haunted enemy could appear in front of you or around the corner at any time.
Exploring a creepy village in this Fatal Frame 2: Wii Edition gameplay screenshot.
Jump thrills and eerie, creepy appearances of specters abound, and overall the games are considered to be some of the scariest games of all time. In particular Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly, in part due to the innocent nature of the game’s twin underage girls who star as the protagonists in the title… and the way the plot deals with the second sister becoming possessed while they are in a dark forest.
With Rising Star Games recently launching a U.S. arm however, and a growing crescendo of voices calling for the release of Pandora’s Tower in America (the third and final Wii RPG of a critically acclaimed trio without a U.S. release), the possibility that Fatal Frame 2 Wii will get an American release seems likely.
Beautiful glowing butterflies Fatal Frame 2 wallpaper. Haunting but pretty image, isn’t it?
In particular thanks to Nintendo’s lack of high-quality, triple-A Wii titles to tide people over until the eventual launch of the Wii U (which all signs point to hitting this year) at which point the original Wii will be all-but obsolete… thus Nintendo would be wise to pick up and release Fatal Frame 2 Wii since the game is so critically acclaimed and such a beloved cult-classic. Especially since the Fatal Frame games have yet to be digitally re-released, which means many people who didn’t play the originals likely still have not played them.
Quite frankly, the Wii could use another game like this (and hopefully Nintendo will come to their senses and release Fatal Frame IV in America too while they’re at it, while its still possible). We’ll likely learn whether or not the game will come to America at all though during E3 2012 (June 5-7).
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly was originally released for the PlayStation 2 as the sequel to the original Fatal Frame (2001: PS2, Xbox) and was released later on for the original Xbox in a Director’s Cut edition. A third entry in the series, Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented was released in 2005 exclusively for PS2 on last-gen consoles. Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (2008) was created as a Wii-exclusive, although sadly the game was never localized after receiving bad review scores in Japan….
Here’s a trailer for Fatal Frame IV for Wii.
Well it looks like Tecmo wanted to give another shot at Fatal Frame on Wii, because that’s exactly what we get with Fatal Frame 2: Wii Edition. In additional to providing all the survival horror, ghost-seeking thrills of the original game. This new version includes some new features, including: updated graphics, redesigned main characters, all-new endings, a Wii Pointer-controlled Flashlight, a new third-person camera viewpoint and an all-new multiplayer Haunted House mode, in which plays experience fear through random events as a group, and their “fear meter” is determined at the end. Er, something like that.
Either way, this is a very cool addition to the Wii’s lineup, and it’s always great to see a Fatal Frame game get the spotlight. I am and have always been a big fan of the survival horror genre, and always had an affinity for the Fatal Frame series ever since I played the original game for the original Xbox. Hopefully this new Wii version of Fatal Frame 2 will also contain all the additions from the Director’s Cut Xbox1 version of the original game.
Project Zero 2 – Wii Edition will be released in Europe on June 29th, 2012, exclusively for Wii.
Here’s a trailer for Fatal Frame 2 – Wii Edition.
Operation Rainfall Raising Money To Pitch Pandora’s Tower USA Localization To Publishers
Beautiful artwork from the Wii-exclusive RPG Pandora's Tower
If successful, this would mean that one of these publishers would see the light in regards to the worth of releasing Pandora’s Tower in the United States, and would then come to Nintendo and say “We are willing to invest the funds necessary to publish Pandora’s Tower in North America”, effectively giving a win to Operation Rainfall’s whole initial point of existance… to get all three great Wii RPGs published in major English-speaking markets.
Here is a trailer for Pandora’s Tower.
Operation Rainfall was successful in this endeavor with two of the the three games: Xenoblade Chronicles was co-published by GameStop in collaboration with Nintendo, and has seen great sales success in the United States (The Xenoblade Chronicles release date was on April 6, 2012). That was game #1 of the Operation Rainfall campaign. Game #2 was The Last Story, which XSeed Games approached Nintendo about in regards to publishing, and Nintendo announced the game for a June 19th, 2012 release date in North America (co-published by both Xseed Games & Nintendo).
That left one more game… Pandora’s Tower. All three of these highly anticipated Wii RPGs were picked up and published across the pond by Nintendo Europe themselves (who are even being rewarded with the awesome Collector’s Operation Rainfall Wii RPG Coin Set Offered by Club Nintendo Europe), so most of the world has already gotten the games… except for North America. As of right now, Pandora’s Tower has yet to be announced for an American release, much to the dismay of Operation Rainfall members and gamers of all stripes who have been calling, writing, petitioning and praying that Nintendo would wake up to their senses and publish the game in America. But to no avail. Enter PHASE 2!
That, of course, is where Operation Rainfall steps in with their new Operation Rainfall Pitch To A Publisher campaign.
This is a mockup of what the Pitch to A Publisher Operation Rainfall Campaign Award will look like for those who donate $10 to the cause! A collector's case that holds the entire "Operation Rainfall Collection": Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower.
If you donate $5 to this “Pitch To A Publisher” cause, Operation Rainfall will reward you with exclusive Pandora’s Tower wallpapers. If you donate $10 to the cause, Operation Rainfall will reward you even more greatly with a very snazzy “Operation Rainfall Collection” 3-disc collector’s case to hold Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower! Very, very cool!
If you can afford to donate to the Operation Rainfall Pitch To A Publisher Campaign PLEASE do so! I urge you, as this may be the ABSOLUTE solution to finally getting the last of the three AAA quality RPGs published in America! And time is running out, because soon we will have the Wii U on our hands and Wii games will be completely obsolete!
Operation Rainfall only needs to raise a paltry $600 in order to completely fulfill what they want to do. That will give them enough money to create their “kits” that they will send to each of the following publishers:
1. Aksys Games
2. ATLUS
3. NIS America
4. Rising Star
5. UTV Ignition
6. XSEED Games JKS
The kit will contain the following: A physical copy of the PAL (European) version of Pandora’s Tower, hi-res printouts of concept art for the game, printed copies of the many glowing reviews for the game, and possibly even a full printout of the original Operation Rainfall petition sent to Nintendo. The publishers were selected in order of likelihood to accept this proposal to publish Pandora’s Tower, based on this criteria:
1. The publisher must have a working relationship on the Wii console (i.e., they have published at least one game on the Wii, either to North America or Europe).
2. The publisher must have experience with localizing titles that were developed in Japan.
3. The publisher must have experience publishing action/role-playing games.
So come on videogamers! Let’s band together and do the work needed to get Pandora’s Tower released! DONATE NOW! Even if Operation Rainfall meets the $600 threshold needed, any additional funds will go towards continuing their campaign to get all worth games that have never been released outside of Japan or released in America, localized and published! This includes games that fans have been long-clamoring for, such as EarthBound, Mother 1, Mother 3, Fatal Frame 4 (Wii), etc.!
Please stay plugged in to the Operation Rainfall Facebook and the Official Operation Rainfall website, as this group of amazing, passionate gamers works tirelessly to shed light and attention on the games that need and deserve it! GODSPEED!
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