Last minute Wii U purchases (also RIP)

video games nintendo
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@gsk the GBA version of SMB3 (whatever the full title is, I’ll never remember)

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 will never not be funny, even if that instant classic TVCM with Kojima Mayumi’s Hatsukoi in the background tried its hardest to make it sound natural.

Note that, in Japan, the SMA series (SMA, SMA2, SMA3, SMA4) just rolled with the new title in their promotion.

I had no idea the Battle Network releases also modified the original ROM! (Or I guess M2 just patched in a save file?) Did any of the few DS games released on Wii U also unlock some online-only or GBA cartridge-accessed contents?

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Devil‘s Third is perilously close to being a great game, and it’s a miracle that it‘s even as playable as it is, given that it survived multiple engine changes, a publisher implosion and being shackled to the Wii U. You can’t buy it digitally anymore, though.

They did try to release the online portion on PC (twice!) but it didn’t take.

Soleil (the team that made DT, minus Itagaki) has made several licensed action games that borrow elements of the melee/shooting hybrid from Devil’s Third, and they recently announced an original game that looks like they’re returning directly to the well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEtHcCQQE_E

(They also just got bought by Tencent.)

@Chopemon there was some weirdness like a week before release with Nintendo publishing wasn’t there? I assume they picked it up so they had something at least to release on the platform but just before release word got out that they dropped it? Or it was listed without a publisher or something? And then last minute they suddenly put their name on it again.

The basic summary:

  • NOA declined to publish the game in NA and licensed the publishing rights to XSEED, who’d recently found success with some of the “Operation Rainfall” releases for Wii
  • neither party announced the deal, so people started to assume that the game wasn’t being published in NA at all and started being very vocal about it online
  • NOA noticed the demand and took the publishing rights back from XSEED
  • extremely negative advance impressions started coming in from JP/EU, which turned the game into a laughingstock
  • NOA promptly stopped mentioning the game and gave it the most low-key release possible
  • the Animal Crossing Amiibo game still had a worse metacritic rating

@2501 Never knew this stuff about some of the GBA VC games being modified to account for peripheral-exclusive content! Was this done for Zelda: The Minish Cap or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance? (The latter being one of only three Square Enix VC games, alongside the ones mentioned in my previous post, ever released on Wii U outside Japan; all of them having originally been published by Nintendo.)

I can’t remember offhand, but they definitely didn’t do it for every game that contained that sort of content, I remember that much.

Yeah, the S-E thing was frustrating—they put out a lot of VC content in Japan, including stuff that never came to Wii, and basically none of it made it over. Sega even gave Japan a couple of GBA VC games (just Sonic and Chuchu Rocket, IIRC) and we didn’t even get those.

@chazumaru I had no idea the Battle Network releases also modified the original ROM! (Or I guess M2 just patched in a save file?) Did any of the few DS games released on Wii U also unlock some online-only or GBA cartridge-accessed contents?

It might just be a save file edit, I don’t quite remember. SMB3 was definitely directly modified (and the ROM’s out there, obviously) but it’s a shame they didn’t also throw in all the eReader items as well.

Off the top of my head, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon was the only DS game to receive any sort of workaround along those lines—the online shop is now just a shop.

On the Japanese side, Game Boy Gallery 4 was another authentic shelved localisation that made its debut via Wii U VC.

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@gsk Sega Japan also, I think, put out a Wii U-exclusive remaster of the PS2 Yakuza games that we never got!

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Well, here are my morning’s Last Minute Wii U Purchases:

Wind Waker HD (previously discussed)

Wario Land: Shake It! - For 20 dollarydoos you can play what is arguably one of the most beautiful 2D platformers ever made. Is it also good? Maybe!

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Game & Wario - For 30 bones you can scoop up both a great Warioware title and some very, very good party games

Super Mario 64 DS - Is there a better way to play Mario 64 DS, an extremely weird/interesting version of Mario 64, on your TV? Probably not!

There’s a lot of Wario on the Wii U eShop, huh? I guess you could also pick up Warioland 4 while you’re at it.

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Wow, I was expecting Devil‘s Third to be going for basically nothing these days but I’ve just seen a sealed copy on ebay up for nearly £400. Preowned is like, £50 - 70 on average. Jesus.

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I didn‘t realise DT wasn’t available digitally anymore so sorry for the recommendation for anyone looking to make an actual purchase.

I remember seeing the physical being massively discounted in the UK while people in the States were paying over the odds for it. Well, at least the WiiU takes just minutes to hack now...

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@gsk Apparently Itagaki does work at Soleil?? Or have some kind of relationship with them at least. According to his Wikipedia page his most recent credit was consulting on their Samurai Jack game, and also I think that studio ended up absorbing Valhalla’s remaining assets? Also Valhalla’s one other console game was an unlocalized 3DS title published by Nintendo Japan. Huh.

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@2501 Valhalla still exists (or existed until a few weeks ago, I think they were formally absorbed into Soleil as part of the buyout) and Itagaki still had a position there but my understanding is that it‘s basically ceremonial and he’s more or less retired from active game development. Some Asian mobile company hired him to consult on classic military licenses for their naval strategy game, last I heard.

That 3DS game has an interesting history: in short, it’s an entry in a popular Hudson series, now owned by Konami, that the original creator publicly declared “dead” due to specific people at Konami that he claimed were directly responsible for poisoning the future of the series, and so Nintendo ended up licensing the IP and financing a new game entirely on own in collaboration with the original creator, with Valhalla doing the gruntwork. (That game did well enough for a different team at Konami to make amends with the creator and produce their own new game for Switch, which was and continues to be a colossal hit.)

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@gsk Are we talking about Momotaro Dentetsu here?

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@whatsarobot yup!

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@Chopemon It looks like it’s still available in the UK eshop Devil's Third | Wii U games | Games | Nintendo UK

There’s definitely some games I can’t get on the UK store that have come up in this thread so it’s a surprise to find one the other way round.

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@gsk It should(?) be noted that:

① I believe this whole Momotetsu revival began in February 2016 when the TV show host of the crazy popular variety show アメトーーク！ randomly decided to play Momotarō Dentetsu with their guests for one special show, which forced them to find a Wii (because there had not been a home console Momotetsu game since the Wii), which in turn suddenly bumped the Amazon ranking and used rankings of the Wii game sky high (and prompted the Sakuma rant on Twitter). I surmise the US equivalent would be something like Jimmy Kimmel doing a whole Tecmo Bowl skit with celebrities and suddenly making Tecmo Bowl a thing again, then Bo Jackson daring KoeiTecmo to make a new one on Twitter.

② The creator of the game, Sakuma Akira, is not in physical condition to develop video games anymore and so he (or his estate) coerced his kōhai (and Insert Credit forums celebrity) Masuda Shōji to handle that 3DS game and, following that success, the most recent Switch game, which in turn has now become Masuda’s best selling game ever at 61 years young. So keep that story in mind whenever you read about some pesky teenage indie game developer being way more successful than whatever you’ve achieved in life so far!

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I’ve discovered a cheap Wii U game that seems to be an exclusive:

I have no idea if it’s any good, but it sure is a Wii U exclusive for four dollars that will soon be unpurchasable.

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@TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee Wow that‘s amazing! The coquí are a species of frog native to Puerto Rico. They’re a very important cultural symbol of the island! The first time I went to visit family and heard them it was straight up shocking. They have a very distinct cry and when there’s a bunch of them together it can be overwhelming haha. I love them.

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iirc weren‘t there only 420 (you know, the gamer number) physical copies of Devil’s Third released in the U.S.?

edit: of COURSE the Wii U isn't region free and that game is over $300 now, ugh

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Nintendo officially announced that they're pulling the plug on the Wii U (and 3DS) eShop in March of 2023, so have at it.

Related: Devil's Third is totally still available digitally, for $30 or so. I was sure they said they were pulling it outright but nope, it didn't go anywhere.

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https://twitter.com/NijiMarii/status/1493754404184334336?s=20&t=6-OUYd3RsIt669PS1ZTUxg

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https://twitter.com/videogamedeals/status/1493758267046174720?t=TV_gq1iPbq8j2q5jQgSOMQ&s=19

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The last good Scribblenauts games are on Wii U. They're useful games to have in your library if you want to study a major European language (not sure if they came out in Asia languages).

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The most crucial, necessary, and imperative purchase on the Nintendo Wii U eshop before closing is to purchase and install any Nintendo DS game. It does not matter which one.

That is because it is necessary in order to softmod your Wii U for maximum utilization after the eshop closes