According to Siliconera, the game ExciteBots: Trick Racing will be available to club Nintendo members in Japan for 1000 club Nintendo points.
Until now the game has been exclusive to America.
I think this is an awesome way to gage interest in foreign games, not to mention the best use to date for club Nintendo points! It also shows that Nintendo aren't afraid of doing the actual work of porting over a game and translating it, as long as the costs of distribution are covered.
With that said, I'd love to see NoA and NoE follow suit with their own niche releases exclusive to club Nintendo members. Personally I don't even mind if successful games are given a full retail release later down the line (in fact, I hope they are) as club Nintendo members would still be getting them earlier and for free!
What games do you think could fit this type of program? It's probably reasonable to assume they should all be games that are pretty easy to port and translate (ie: not too text heavy - sorry earthbounders), but that still probably leaves more than a few options.
Discuss!
update: here is a link to the game's official site on club Nintendo Japan, where it says the game will even support online multiplayer!
It does seem like a large amount of work for such a limited release, but then again so was Grill Off with Ultra Hand!
Until you've played it, every game is a system seller!
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mini-games on consoles, cinematic games on handhelds, what's next? GameBoy IMAX?
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