The Games Nintendo Wouldn't Bring To The US

Not bad. Other games I would include are The 2 Tingle games, Japanese only F zero games, the gameboy advance Rhythm Tengoku, Tomodachi Collection, Chibi-Robo, Soma Bringer.

Edit: Nintendo also published Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars
 
[quote name='The Punisher']

This year Nintendo was a big disapointment.[/QUOTE]

Most years on the Wii were big disappointments. I mean, last year was good (Epic Yarn, DKC Returns, SMG2) and was 2007 great (SMG, Zack & Wiki, Prime 3, Super Paper Mario) but outside of those two years, the Wii was a dust magnet.

But I think this year might end up being the worst yet. There's been nothing on the system thus far and Zelda looks to be the only promising title, and maybe Kirby Wii but I get the feeling that that game is being rushed to the market so Nintendo can say they're releasing another game (kinda like Spirit Tracks a few years back).
 
The reason these games never got released domestically is pretty much what the author says, for every series like Advance Wars or Animal Crossing that ends up being popular and successful, you have even more like Fire Emblem, Earthbound, Chibi Robo, etc. that don't. Nintendo finally started releasing Fire Emblem games here after years of pestering from fans in the US, and they bombed. Of course that has a lot as well to do with the fact that JRPGs as a whole have been on a downward trend in the US ove the last decade, but regardless, it's unlikely that Nintendo will continue to take the plunge and release oddball titles like these in the future.
 
Hey! I actually got my shipped notice from NCSX on that!

Should be here in the next couple days. No Wii to play it on but I'm sure gonna look at that mini medal.
 
The problem is, though, that Nintendo of America expects those odd games to fail and doesn't put any marketing effort behind them. Have you ever run into someone who even knew what Chi Robo was or that it was available? I've turned people onto that game who absolutely love the GC version, but would never have known it as a quality title if I didn't tell them about it. And Earthbound shouldn't even count in the discussion because they borught it out so late and so expensive without anyone really knowing what it was either until much later.

The answer IMO is to make these games available thru Club Nintendo: low risk, build buzz, make people clamor for them.
 
[quote name='soonersfan60']The problem is, though, that Nintendo of America expects those odd games to fail and doesn't put any marketing effort behind them. Have you ever run into someone who even knew what Chi Robo was or that it was available? I've turned people onto that game who absolutely love the GC version, but would never have known it as a quality title if I didn't tell them about it. And Earthbound shouldn't even count in the discussion because they borught it out so late and so expensive without anyone really knowing what it was either until much later.

The answer IMO is to make these games available thru Club Nintendo: low risk, build buzz, make people clamor for them.[/QUOTE]

That is true to an extent, but not always. They promoted Fire Emblem pretty heavily, there were plenty of ads, commercials, etc. for the DS games, and they were still a flop. In the end it just boils down to the fact that some games are not meant for US audiences, just as some games are not meant for Japanese audiences.

As for the Club Nintendo option, there's just no way it would be economically feasible to localize a title and have a small enough production run for what they would require for Club Nintendo. They sort of tried this with Electroplankton for the DS, and it didn't really work out, although a lot of that may have had to do with the fact that Electroplankton was no great shakes in the first place.
 
[quote name='spmahn']That is true to an extent, but not always. They promoted Fire Emblem pretty heavily, there were plenty of ads, commercials, etc. for the DS games, and they were still a flop. In the end it just boils down to the fact that some games are not meant for US audiences, just as some games are not meant for Japanese audiences. [/QUOTE]

I don't buy that at all. You seem to be viewing the same perspective as Nintendo, which is that just having ads should be enough, nevermind the quality of the ad. I've been playing Nintendo games since around 1987, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen a single Nintendo ad that got me excited about a game. As a kid, it was playing demos in stores or renting a game from the local video store that would convince my brothers and I to buy a game if we liked it enough. Nintendo commercials and ads have always ranged from ineffectual to outright garbage (trying to sell EarthBound as a gross-out adventure being a good example of garbage).

The one time Nintendo's ad campaign was successful in selling a new concept (as opposed to selling something with characters people are already familiar with, like anything with Mario and friends), rather than just by word of mouth, was Pokemon. And in that case it wasn't even Nintendo's ad campaign so much as having a cartoon series on TV for kids to watch and become familiar with the characters. While a Fire Emblem or EarthBound cartoon would've done wonders for sales, producing a cartoon for every new game concept you're trying to sell isn't really feasible.

Having these games playing on demo stations in stores probably would've helped. Nowadays, having the ability to download Wii or 3DS demos (or download DS demos without the need for a Wii to connect) would help a lot more. And of course, having a marketing department that isn't incompetent would be helpful as well.

Have you seen the TV spot for Sin & Punishment? I love how the short snippets of gameplay (with visual effects on top, adding additional visual confusion to what's happening) left me knowing just as little about the game as I had before I first saw it (I hadn't heard of the series at the time). Apparently they thought just telling you it was a "hair-trigger shooter for the Wii" and then showing you a commercial that looks like it was storyboarded in 1999 would be enough to convince people to buy the game.
 
[quote name='spmahn']As for the Club Nintendo option, there's just no way it would be economically feasible to localize a title and have a small enough production run for what they would require for Club Nintendo. They sort of tried this with Electroplankton for the DS, and it didn't really work out, although a lot of that may have had to do with the fact that Electroplankton was no great shakes in the first place.[/QUOTE]

I'm talking about games that made it to Europe but no N.A., so the localization has mostly been done. Really if they just changed the region lock and released it via Club, I'm sure it would be well-received and accepted just the way it is. (I'm not expecting localization of niche titles that never made it out of Japan, although I would not be opposed to a similar approach for those also. But with the language barrier I can understand those not being done, but there's no excuse for the European ones to not be available in some limited fashion here at least.)
 
[quote name='MulderYuffie']Mother 3 oh how I wish you came to America![/QUOTE]

Please tell me you have tried Tomato's sublime Mother 3 translation. It really is quite good.

The thing about the game is...it doesn't feel like the other two in the series. The game stands completely on it's own. I've played through M1 about 5 times and M2 and 3 at least 10 times each but I stopped counting. I've got to say that M3 has become my favorite after all.
 
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