Nintendo's Other UnLocalized Wii Titles - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 21 September 2011 / 9,381 Views
Thanks to Operation Rainfall, chances are most of you are at least are aware of Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. If you've been a long time Wii owner, you may even be familiar with a couple of earlier titles like Disaster: Day of Crisis and Another Code R that never came to North America. Thankfully, the titles that seem to be getting the most attention are also the ones that Nintendo of Europe have or had decided to pick up for localization. All the titles listed above are, or planned to be, released in Europe. But there are some other Japanese-exclusive Nintendo titles that have gone largely ignored on the software hungry system.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Adventure Squad
It's hard to believe that Nintendo wouldn't localize a Pokémon game in this day in age. Even the lack luster PokéPark Wii made it's way over to North America. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Keep Going! Blazing Adventure Squad, Go For It! Light Adventure Squad, and Let's Go!Stormy Adventure Squad, however, did not make it outside of Nintendo's home turf. Built specifically for WiiWare, these titles continued the Nintendo DS and GBA Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, having players take Pokémon into randomly generated dungeons to battle. The title offered free downloadable missions through WiiConnect24 and the ability to stack your Pokémon on top of each other for simultaneous attacks and to move as one. It doesn't seem to be a ground breaking title, but it's Pokémon.
Takt of Magic
If you have no idea what Takt of Magic is, don't feel bad. Sometimes I wonder if even Nintendo remembers Takt of Magic , considering the title got extremely little publicity. This title is the sequel to Lost Magic, an early game for the Nintendo DS that made extensive use of the touch screen. Nintendo decided this formula would translate well over to the Wii Remote's pointer controls, creating Takt of Magic for the Wii. The title has players drawing symbols on screen to cast spells. Using spells they need to solve puzzles and take out foes from an isometric view. Honestly, it's sort of a mystery why this title even exists in the first place, considering the original didn't exactly do that well critically or financially. But hey, why not. It's not that the title sounds necessarily bad, as one of the few publications to actually review the title, Famitsu Magazine, gave it a 31/40. That's a respectable score.
Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
The fourth entry in the survival horror series, Fatal Frame, is actually pretty well known, partly because of the series past localizations and it's the game that kicked off Nintendo of America's recent localization fiasco. As a joint collaboration between Nintendo, Tecmo and Grasshopper Manufacture, Fatal Frame IV seemed like a great idea. Instead of the IP owners, Tecmo, publishing the title, Nintendo held the publishing rights, which was a terrible idea. While the title showed a few signs of hope for a European release, Nintendo eventually swatted down any hope, making sure no one ever played this survival horror title in English... Not officially, at least.
Zangeki no Reginleiv
If you ever wondered what the more recent Earth Defense Force titles would be like if guns and explosives were changed to swords and magic, take a look at Zangeki no Reginleiv. Developed by Sandlot, who was behind Earth Defense Force 2017, this is one of the few Nintendo titles have actually pushed blood and gore as a feature. It even supported MotionPlus, allowing you to slice apart giant foes, sending their limbs and body fluids flying. A weapon creation system helps combat stay fresh, and the title supports four player online co-op. It's a Nintendo published title that seems distinctly not like a Nintendo published title at all, but that's part of what makes it interesting.
Line Attack Heroes
Originally debuted for a retail release in 2008, Line Attack Heroes was a title clearly designed with motion controls in mind. Players gather soldiers who form a line behind the player. This line can then be used for a variety of attacks including whip-like strikes, an overhead smash, and other abilities to fight off foes and traverse the lands. While not originally supported, Line Attack Heroes also eventually picked up Wii MotionPlus support, but at the same time lost its space at retail. Instead, the title saw a launch on WiiWare mid-last year in Japan, but we've yet to hear any confirmation on a localized release, despite there being some localized screenshots available.
Captain Rainbow
While Zangeki no Reginleiv is surprising from a gore stance, Nintendo's involvement in Captain Rainbow , to a certain extent, could be considered even more surprising. The title follows a former super hero, named Captain Rainbow, who is attempting to regain popularity with the kids. In the process of doing so he has to help other characters solve their problems. This cast includes minor, or forgotten, Nintendo characters. These problems range from a squadron of soldiers from Advanced Wars training for a volley ball game, a physically unfit Little Mac unable to box, the Golfer from the black box NES Golf having trouble with itchy, uh, golf balls, and Birdo who you have to prove is a female by finding something vibrating under a pillow in his/her house. Yeah, Captain Rainbow was doomed from the start in terms of localization.
Unlike Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story, the above titles aren't exactly top notch releases. But it is a bit sad to see Nintendo's Japanese only releases on Wii triple over that of the Nintendo GameCube's. Most of these titles, if not all of these titles, have little to no chance of localization now. Hopefully we won't be saying the same about Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower in North America in the next few years.
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Region-free rulez.
Would love to play Excitebots, but alas...
While these aren't very significant games I wish Nintendo would had taken the opportunity to flesh out the extremely barren release schedule a bit...
Nintendo of Europe has been great but I still miss Takt of Magic, Zangeki, Fatal Frame IV (even if it's buggy) and Soma Bringer for DS.
Soma Bringer has been translated by fans quite a while ago. The translation is perfectly fine and the game is quite nice, nothing revolutionary though.
you forgot some Fire emblem DS :p
anyways, it's sad to see that some of these just won't make it... you'd think translation efforts needed were not that big on some titles...
Fatal Frame has a translation patch in English and Spanish. It's a shame that it wasn't localized because that game it's really good. You forgot to mention Earth Seeker which seems to be like Final Fantasy meets Monster Hunter really intriguing title. As for the list of games, i really want to play Line Attack Heroes and Captain Rainbow xD
I love Nintendo and all, but this is a disgrace.
I'm totally going to buy some of these if/when i get to Japan. Zangeki and Captain Rainbow are definitely intriguing. I might have gone for Fatal Frame if they had ever released a version devoid of the game-breaking bugs
Disaster: Day of Crisis never localized in Americas, and The Slashing of Reginleiv was never localized outside of Japan either.
Fatal Frame was a game I really was looking forward too. I wondered what happened to that game, I would have bought it.
However DS has even more unlocalized games. To name a few ASH (Mistwalker JRPG), Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem, Game & Watch Collection 1 & 2 (1 was localized in PAL), Jump Super & Ultra Stars, Soma Bringer (JRPG by makers of Baten Kaitos), and a Prequel to Elite Beat Agents.
Damn Nintendo of America..
Thank goodness Captain Rainbow wasn't localized. Does Zangeki have english subtitles? Cuz i wanna play it.
I will be importing all of these games (except Fatal Frame 4 because I already own it) soon. I used to have all of them except Zengeki but had to pawn a bunch of games a year ago. None of them are very expensive to import anyway.
Well.. at least one of these games - Fatal Frame IV - was subtitled to English by a group o fans. I know it´s possible to get it by piracy, but I don´t know if that subtitled version was actually launched officialy anywhere in Europe
Disaster and AC:R never came to america either?.. didnt know, wtf Nintendo.. O.O
Earth Seeker....
Fatal Frame and Zangeki are the only ones that look like they might be worth a damn for me
wow such variety, zangeki looks freaking awesome, japan rulez
I've played Zangeki thanks to the handy usb loader, and man is it fun. It's exactly the type of game I was envisioning when Nintendo first unveiled the Wiimote. It's a crime that there aren't more like it for Wii.
And Earth Seeker & Tales of Graces.. herer in Eurpope also Arc Rise Fantasia, Dakapon Kingdon, Mario Sluggers, Excitebots ...
Captain Rainbow! Yeahh! I totally forgot about that one. :-P
Takt of Magic and Captain Rainbow shouldn't be localized anyways. Takt of Magic sucks and Captain Rainbow is awful for an American audience.
Zangeki no Reginleiv and Fatal Frame 4, I've been campaigning for this entire time alongside the OpRainfall titles, so they're nothing new really.
While I don't agree with NoA I understand their thinking on all these except Pokemom. WTF? That's guaranteed $$$. Takt of Magic is one game I've always wanted to play. Shame.
add to this unlocalized DS titles : Ninokuni (why? Studio Ghibli is popular worldwide), Ace Attorney Investigations 2, Fire Emblem...
And as a result you have :
1/ A freakin' huge desert-like software drought on all Nintendo systems
2/ A damn stupid publisher that brings nothing but frustration in the West
Who really cares? I mean if they aren't going to localize a game that someone wants, they just obtain them via means that they would not approve of. Simple logic. It really boils down to "Nintendo, do you want money or not?" If people have a desire to play the game, they're going to do it one way or another.
do you really want captain rainbow localized?
NOA SUCKS. REGGIE MUST DIE, I HATE THAT FUCKING FAGASFKNASKDLNASKDNASKD
