Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Wii U Nintendo Direct Tomorrow!

Tomorrow at these times there will be a Nintendo Direct for the Wii U.

For the Pacific coast it will start at 6am. for the East coast that will be at 9am.

For Europe that will be at 2pm on the 23rd.

For Japan that will be 11pm on the 23rd

For any of our Aussie readers that will be for western Australia 10 pm on the 23rd and so on going one hour as you head to the west.

Here is the link for the Nintendo Direct and as usual I will be in the chat room here on the site chatting about it as it happens.

1/23/2013 Wii U Nintendo Direct



Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Rainmaker is You

So, this week we got news that the white knight known as XSEED was stepping up, once again, and publishing Pandora's Tower for the North American territory.  I have a somewhat personal connection with the idea of Pandora's Tower being released in North America.  Way back in April 2012, I ran a series of articles and investigative journalism concerning the likelihood of such a release (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3).  The long and short of that situation is I had a GameStop manager and his employees telling me Pandora's Tower was in their system for a North American release.

The famous (and awesome) Operation Rainfall was kind enough to pick up our story (link) and even make follow-up reports on it.  However, when I tried sharing this story with bigger Nintendo sites like GoNintendo and Nintendo World Report, they mostly shook their heads politely and said I wasn't a credible enough source to run the stories themselves.  GoNintendo ran the first one and that was it.

A few weeks later, a NinTemple site visitor contacted us saying he heard a similar confirmation at his GameStop over 1,000 miles away.  We ran that story.  Then, unfortunately, that seemed to be the end of the discussion.  No major sites really followed-up after that and the hopes of a North American release for Pandora's Tower started to fade quickly.  By the beginning of 2013, the general opinion was so bleak that Jonathan Metts of Nintendo World Report commented Pandora's Tower had "no hope" of a NA release.

Well, shortly thereafter, we all got word straight from XSEED that the game would be localized under their efforts!  Huzzah! "Sage is vindicated!" said some.

But, this story is not about me (well, sure, most of this article is but the overall story is not!).  In fact, realistically, our contribution to this drama is more about faith than fruitful leads. And the entirety of this story is more about democratic action and rewarded faith.  These three great games, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, the three games most synonymous with Operation Rainfall, were too good to be ignored and those of us who participated in Operation Rainfall knew that.  We had a feeling action was worth taking because the cries for these games shouldn't be ignored and ultimately would not be ignored. People had been saying since November 2011 that games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword were the Wii's "swan song."  They had no faith that all the great games of 2012, and now the third game in the Operation Rainfall trio, would be released.

But, now, in just a few months, I'll be able to look at my shelf of games, and see tangible proof that our faith was rewarded.  So maybe, in the future, we can look back on rocky experiences like this and say "hey, sometimes it does all work out.  Have a little faith!"