Pandora's Tower is yet another Japanese game that looks awesome, but has a questionable worldwide release status due to Nintendo's international dickitry. So, let's add this to The Last Story and Xenoblade as games that serve mostly to frustrate Western fans.
Like Xenoblade and The Last Story, this particular game is looking to push all my buttons. These screens (which were originally in tiny direct-feed form) make me think of old, obscure Japanese titles that I used to pick up from GameStation at random.
This is what's killing me about the Wii right now. There are awesome looking games on it, ones that evoke memories of the last, awesome generation of titles. Nintendo, however, would rather keep the Wii utterly devoid of any new games in the West, let alone ones that might have a very grateful cult following.
It's just frustrating, really. I've not touched my Wii in months, while Nintendo spends its time hyping up a portable system that is also currently bereft of games. I'm still hopeful we'll see these particular games, but that's what's really killing me -- why should we cross our fingers? It's not like Nintendo has had ANYTHING else to show for itself lately.
[Via andriasang]
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Contest:
9:20 AM on 04.14.2011 | 
Americans do, the rest of the English-speaking world couldn't give a shit.
It's nice that the rest of the world is finally realising what most gamers realised ages ago; the Wii is just a gimmick. Hardly anyone bought a Gamecube but when Nintendo added a half-assed wagglemote onto it, it became a sensation. Now that the novelty has worn off, gamers - casual and hardcore alike - are realising they they've just bought another Gamecube with no new games.
I mean, this is a company that thinks Nintendogs + Cats is a suitably potent launch title.
/impatient nerd
fuck you, you are a pirate and it looks like you hate nintendo, go try waggle in red steel 2 or any other good game and see how you fail
btw fatal frame,the last story, xenoblade, pandoras tower,earth seeker, rodea the sky soldier and Zangeki no Reginleiv, need to come to america the wii needs more games, if they elease these games they will have a great year
And Nintendo is kind of pissing me off...they hold all their BEST games back for Japan and NEVER seem to localize them till a damn year or two late -.-
But seriously Wii needs MOAR gamez!
It's only a matter of time until Nintendo localizes these games (my bet is E3). Xenoblade is already confirmed for Europe and The Last Story's domain was registered. Just give it time, people. So many people gave up hope on Xenoblade and the next day it was localized. All these games will most likely come when Nintendo realizes, "Gee, maybe there IS a audience outside of Japan that will purchase these games."
You wonder why Nintendo don't release things? It's BECAUSE people like you pirate.
Moron.
@Teclo: Shh, the adults are talking.
@drrockso87- We've given them plenty of time. I just don't understand why ALL announcements have to wait for E3. If those are announced at E3, I'll be the happiest of them all, but the secrecy is getting old. They might realize people want these games if they made people more aware of them. But they never do, and people start saying dumbass things like "Nintendo has abandoned teh hardcorrz!"
@teclo- I seriously hope terrible, terrible things happen to you
It would be a different story if there were a ton of Wii games coming out (there aren't) and resources needed to be allocated elsewhere (they don't, unless Nintendo has shifted literally all of its resources to the 3DS/its next home console).
I doubt any of these games would move huge numbers over here, but I imagine they would all at least cover the outlay for localization, particularly The Last Story, which obviously has some big names going for it and a lot of positive press coming out of Japan.
In Nintendo's defense, it has released some niche titles that have not sold well. Excitebots, Disaster Day of Crisis, and probably Sin & Punishment 2 to name some of them. Of course, none of these games have received decent marketing with perhaps the exception of Sin & Punishment 2 which managed to snag itself a tv ad. Excitebots and Sin & Punishment 2 are some of the Wii's best games so its a shame that so many people didn't pick them up.
Really, while I'd like Nintendo to localize more Japanese games than they do (most notably Mother 3...), I don't think they hold back titles any more than any other Eastern studio. At least, not enough for them to receive this sort of stigma.
Hell, I'm still upset that an Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization is even a question at this point...
for the past 4+ years Nintendos strategy was to only reveal games that will be released in the next 3-6 months(sometimes less like Wii Play Motion or ExciteBots that was announced 3-4 weeks before it was released worldwide). they always show their line-up at E3. 3rd parties also followed that pattern and aside from few bigger titles(in terms of localization or completely new games) most wii games are revealed just few months before actual release. we have less than 1.5 months till E3, wait and see people.
Go fuck yourself pirate asshole... People like you destroys the wii reputation...
And you must be forgetting events like Mother 3 and Fatal Frame 3.
Listen, I want to like my Wii, but platform games just don't do it for me. I don't pirate or anything, I bought my copies of NMH1+2, Fragile, that good stuff. When I see Nintendo themselves publishing awesome looking games like these with no word on the US front, I remember Mother 3 and I get doubtful.
That said, Xenoblade is looking kind of hopeful, since Nintendo of EU announced it..
Also @Teclo GTFO and take your fail with you! People like you are the reason we can't have nice things!
From Donkey Kong's release to Wii Play Motion, it's about a 7-month gap (and that's for freaking Wii Play Motion!). I'm looking forward to Skyward Sword, but how long must I wait? Until November (a full year gap)? Thank Sony, I have a PS3. If Wii were my only system, I'd be super pissed right now. I'm considering not buying Nintendo's next system first for lack of games consistency. I hate NOA. HATE.
Pandora's Tower
The Last Story
Xenoblade
Trace Memory R
Fatal Frame IV
Captain Rainbow
Disaster Day of Crisis
Zangeki no REGINLEIV
These are just the titles I know about, some are long running series, and some are even freakin' first party titles!
Honestly, at this point, I don't even want to know about the amazing hidden gems Wii probably has outside NA.
Anyway you US gamers are much more luckier then us PAL gamers as you have the likes of Altus and NIS who usually cant be bothered with Europe / PAL. Damn i want a PAL Catherene 360 game.
Personally I wish that devs would be more inclined to allow the smaller / niche japanese exports that is usually only picked up by a single western publisher to be regoin free or dual regoin so that all us westerners get a chance to buy the game while making more money for the dev.
Been a shmup fan. It appears that the US publisher of Cave's deathsmiles wont publish any more cave games, leaving the PAL Deathsmiles Rising Star Games the only current Cave partner. I hope that Cave will allow RSG to publish future localised shmups as dual regoin or regoin free. Considering that Cave are very open minded as they make some of their own Japan published shmups region free if there is no chance of it been localised, they might actually allow RSG to do this.
Its up to shmup fans to remind Cave and RSG that there is a demand for this though.
Once upon a time nintendo was the place to go for JRPG's, and if it brought all of those Japanese titles over here, and some virtual console games that haven't seen a wester release the Wii could get a lot of demand from the JRPG market since more and more of the RPG's on the Xbox and PS3 seem to be western RPGs made by Bioware or Bathesda. Not that their is anything wrong with them, but they are a very different style, I and many other people prefer the japanese style. The PS2 developed a huge fan base due to it's great collection of JRPG's and if nintendo wasn't stupid it could have been doing the same.