Newb Island Adventure Fan On Board

[Hope(N Forever)]

Hey all!

I am so glad to be joining in these forums with all of you good people. Like many of you, I have been a Nintendo fan since early chilhood, playing many of their better know franchises throughout the years such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Star Fox, Pokémon, etc. However, my very first Nintendo console was actually a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which means I kind of missed out playing many of the games from the previous generation in their prime, let alone the short-lived StarTropics series. In fact, I barely was even aware of its existance until relatively very recently, and it turned out these were the games that I never known I always wanted to play! I could probably blame the Super Smash Bros. series for lacking any references to the series whatsoever!

I was lucky enough (or unlucky depending on how you see it) to pick up a digital copy of Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, thanks to the North American Club Nintendo for offering it. (May the service rest in peace.) Unfortunately, as much as I want to download the first game on my Wii, I was never able to actually purchase games from the Wii Shop Channel since I don't have a credit card or something, and I don't think Nintendo are selling codes for Wii Points anymore. This meant, unfortunately, I had to actually play the first game via emulation. I bet it is not the same experience for everyone else, isn't it?

In any case, after picking up a bit of experience on the game, I wondered whether there was any well-established following for the this very obscure Nintendo IP, and to my surprise I found StarTropics.com and the C-Island Forum. Joining in the forum was a no-brainer, I guess. Perhaps, someday, Nintendo will remember their old island adventures. I mean, we did get Kid Icarus: Uprising after all. Anything can happen!

I wanna point out I'm also an artist of sort with my own DeviantArt gallery and stuff, albeit I haven't been as active with the art as I once used to be. It's a complicated delimma I'm going through for a few years - no need to question it. Maybe I can draw some art based on StarTropics and share it here, although I doubt I may post it on my DA gallery.

[Michael Jones]

Welcome to the forum! It is always great to see new people get into the series, and I never even considered that it may be difficult for people to play the game these days due to the Wii Shop Channel being pretty much obsolete. Nintendo really needs to hurry up and get StarTropics on the eShop, especially the 3DS one!

We aren't always the most active bunch, although I hope that you will stick around! E3 is just around the corner, so it's just about time for everyone to get their hopes up once again for even a hint of ST. We can dream, can't we?

[Scotty D.]

Welcome, Hope!

In regards to the game being on the Wii Shop channel...it is still there (though yes, you do need a credit card in order to buy anything there anymore).

[Coralcola]

Welcome Hope! I checked out your Deviantart page and saw tons of Nintendo fanart. I'd be really interested to see your spin on ST (especially Mike and his copious bananas). Just don't get any ideas about doing any Bronies/ST crossover art...

Interesting question, if you don't mind me asking. I noticed the Lebanese flag on one of your pictures. Are you from Lebanon? If so, how exactly did you hear about ST? To my knowledge, ST was not physically released in Lebanon. Was it via the eShop channel, Twitch, videos online, Nintendo history research... ?

[Hope(N Forever)]

Jun 2, 2015 12:41:18 GMT -5 Coralcola said:

Just don't get any ideas about doing any Bronies/ST crossover art...

That's unlikely happening as far as I'm personally concerned at least. Hasbro's My Little Ponies are already interesting enough within the pure fanart anyway, just like this one picture I made last year.

Jun 2, 2015 12:41:18 GMT -5 Coralcola said:

Interesting question, if you don't mind me asking. I noticed the Lebanese flag on one of your pictures. Are you from Lebanon? If so, how exactly did you hear about ST? To my knowledge, ST was not physically released in Lebanon. Was it via the eShop channel, Twitch, videos online, Nintendo history research... ?

Yes, I am Lebanese, and Arabic is my mother tongue. However, I had been residing in the United Arab Emirates most of my life due to a civil war which really ravaged Lebanon on so many levels even long after it ended. In any case, video games have been imported into the U.A.E. since the 1980s, and Nintendo even licensed a few local distributors, to keep retailers stocked and allow customers have technical support, with games of both North American and European origins, and originally even Japanese, but the latter was long phased out. My point is that, for many people living in the U.A.E., it was not difficult to have a gaming childhood, although promotional events were largely non-existent as pop culture in general did not quite take off until the late 2000s.

StarTropics is relatively a very obscure Nintendo IP, even among the bigger gaming circles in any given region, and let's not forget the games were never officially available in Japan either. The Mother and Fire Emblem series were, for a time, considered somewhat obscure as well (albeit the latter is still getting new games), but apparently their Western cult following blew them out of proportion, and both the series remain super popular in native Japan anyway. Then you have Super Smash Bros. featuring them in a large way, and suddenly neither series is that obscure anymore today. I think because of these factors, it would probably be more difficult for many people to remember the StarTropics games even existed. Even as a large Nintendo fan since childhood, I couldn't have known about the series until much, much later apparently.

Anyway, thanks to the internet now taking interest in obscure games, especially various retro gaming channels on YouTube, one could find out about StarTropics if curious enough. As you guys know, the original NES cartridge was bundled with a letter from Dr. Steve Jones addressed to Mike, which apparently held an vital secret that was only revealed when dipped in water. That was a premise of one of the videos on StarTropics, and being a huge fan of Nintendo games in general my interest piqued. Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned a bit more info on the game, and it having one sequel at least. The sequel appeared a couple of times as a reward on Club Nintendo (I happened to have a proper home address in the U.S., which is how I managed to register on the North American Club Nintendo, and since the U.A.E. still sells NTSC Nintendo games till this day, collecting and redeeming Coins wasn't a problem). And so, that is pretty much how it panned out from there, learning more and somewhat getting to play the first game overtime. That eventually led me to this site, and the forum. So yeah, that was pretty much it.

[shinigamihedgehog]

Welcome aboard, Hope(N Forever)!
Hope you have a great time here!

I share your pain about no mention of StarTropics in Smash. It really sucks... Just like Nintendo not saying anything about it. Heck, not even a 3DS port! (At this point, it deserves a "3D Classics" treatment if you ask me).

Anyway, hope to see lots of you around!
Great to see a fellow Deviantartist too! Except I'm not being too active lately, but oh well!