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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Sept 24, 2015 6:45:19 GMT -5
I forgot to add, since we now have both games on the Nintendo eShop, that means both games now have their own Miiverse communities: StarTropics community is here, and Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II community is here. Nintendo Life apparently gave the Nintendo eShop Virtual Console re-release of StarTropics an 8 out of 10. Check out their review here. They also reviewed the game when it was originally re-released via the Wii Shop Channel Virtual Console in 2008, and the score was on par too. Check out the original review here. Edit: Nintendo Life finally reviewed the Nintendo eShop Virtual Console re-release of Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, but they gave it a 7 out of 10. This isn't even on par with the original review score (8/10) they gave after reviewing the original Wii Virtual Console re-release.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Sept 18, 2015 19:08:14 GMT -5
You forgot to mention that acting co-president Genyo Takeda has taken on the new title of "Technology Fellow" (whilst other acting co-president Shigeru Miyamoto has taken on the new title of "Creative Fellow").
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Sept 18, 2015 14:35:20 GMT -5
Unfortunately, it looks like the 3DS Virtual Console has been discontinued in America. The last release was well over six months ago with the Donkey Kong Land games. Granted, there were barely any new Virtual Console titles for the Nintendo 3DS in all regions for almost a year now, although it does not necessarily mean Nintendo had all but abandoned the 3DS Virtual Console. Keep in mind the Wii U Virtual Console library recently expanded to include Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS games, and it is likely Nintendo are having their resources focus on Wii U releases for the most part. It is not like they are just dumping old game ROMs onto the Nintendo eShop servers as many people seem to believe. There are standards to follow, such as emulation programming, testing for bugs, and implementing digital manuals. After all, under "official" circumstances, it would not be possible to continue playing StarTropics at one point without dipping a certain out-of-game letter in some water.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Sept 12, 2015 16:33:27 GMT -5
Huh. I haven't been to this thread for a while, in a manner of speaking. Anyway, I've got some new pics to show off finally. I drew a couple of pics in pencil and paper again, though I would have preferred if I were able to do this directly digitally on my PC instead, but unfortunately I am not finding the time due to real life circumstances and stuff. When I get a break during my work period, I simply connect pencil to paper and stroke away! Often, I would draw so fast I may mess up some things, but let's see what I have so far, because I'm sure many of you just wanna have more art around than nothing, right? So, here's my first one: I admit, I haven't really tried drawing Mica before, but I think it was about time. Now, I'm not sure how close these two are, but I'll bet Mike would go to great lengths to protect his good friends. Yeah, it is just him standing guard to Mica, sword or whatever ready in hand. As I mentioned earlier, I was drawing this so quickly I may have messed up Mike's jacket, and it looks more like an unbuttoned shirt than a jacket now. I tried giving Mica some "distinct" sorta eyes you couldn't see from game's pixelly 8-bit cutscenes, but I dunno if I did it right. Maybe I should draw her a little more often. We'll see anyway, but that's it for this pic. Onto the next one: This time, I tried to give Mike a little bit of an edge. A more epic kinda, dynamic pose, you know? Also, I probably was thinking of "simplifying" his face's design, give it a little modern look than my previous attempt. Gotta work on that though. What are we seeing here anyway? Mike jumping backwards and throwing his Island Star spinning toy right at the viewer? Yeah, pretty much. I think I need to add a little more substance to pics like this next time, if there is one. We'll see anyway. I guess this is all I have for now, both in word and content. Enjoy!
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Aug 31, 2015 13:53:41 GMT -5
As usual as every Monday, Nintendo of Europe (NOE) outed their release schedule, via press release, for upcoming downloadable games arriving in the European region on Thursday. Yes, unlike Nintendo of America, NOE would inform people about each week's batch of games three days prior, but let's get to the point of this thread. Today, NOE has confirmed that on September 3, 2015 they are releasing, alongside the Nintendo 64 game Sin & Punishment, both StarTropics and Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II for the Virtual Console service via the Wii U's Nintendo eShop, marking the first ever appearance of the games under the Nintendo eShop digital space. This finally means people can now play the games on native Wii U hardware rather than going through Wii Mode, and have other benefits such as Off-TV Play on the Wii U GamePad! If you happen to own a PAL Wii U console, you can get each game for the usual price of €4.99 / £4.49 like any other NES game, which is good as some of you may know Zoda's Revenge was not originally released in Europe during its prime, albeit did officially arrive eventually when the game was originally released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in July 2009, priced at 600 Wii Points instead of 500. At this time, there is currently no word whether Nintendo of America would re-release either game on the Wii U, or even on the Nintendo 3DS. For those of you who can get them from the Nintendo eShop this Thursday, or update their Wii Shop Channel purchases at a discounted price, do enjoy! Stay tuned to this thread for any further developments.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 30, 2015 13:24:20 GMT -5
I could see Takeda take over for Nintendo. He seems to be very well respected in the company. As for StarTropics if Takeda is president, all I can see is a rerelease of the original games for the 3DS and Wii U virtual console in North America and Europe. Funny you should say that. Several professional industry analysts recently suggested that Genyo Takeda is the likely candidate for Nintendo's next president, especially as he does have corporate experience, is very familiar with Nintendo hardware on a technical level. Which is all fine and dandy, but personally I cannot see it: Takeda is eleven years Iwata's senior, making him well-eligible for retirement soon. Additionally, as per his eulogy to Iwata, Takeda is an impatient man, very contrasting to how our lovable Iwata was. In any case, I highly doubt the decision to re-release the StarTropics games for the Nintendo eShop would actually depend whether Takeda takes over the presidential office or not. Besides, both games are sort of available for Wii U already. Granted, you need to access Wii Mode to get them, but they are still there.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 20, 2015 15:38:24 GMT -5
Back on topic, apparently Nintendo decided to share (via Polygon at least) the full eulogy Genyo Takeda gave at Iwata's funeral on July 17, 2015. You can now read the whole thing in English as displayed below.
One can tell from this how much Mr. Takeda had the greatest respects for his late colleague, and how emotional he is about his close friend's early departure from this life. How many of you can read this without getting emotional at any level?
I really do wish Mr. Takeda, alongside with Mr. Miyamoto, the best of luck handling the mantle of holding up Mr. iwata's great legacy. Personally speaking as a Nintendo fan, I am always behind you too.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 18, 2015 5:33:30 GMT -5
When it comes to games like Starfy, the North American game came out in 2009, which was well after the internet and wikis became an easily accessible thing. Therefore it makes sense that, while fairly obscure, it has more information floating around on the internet than an obscure game from 25 years ago. Back when StarTropics was all of the rage ( ) there was no internet to share information on, and by the time game-specific wiki sites became a popular thing there were very few people who had the knowledge to put such a thing together. It all depends really. Nowadays, if newer games do not receive critical acclaim, gain a cult status, or even have turned infamous from overwhelming negative reception, there is little chance anyone would bother to investigate the game's development and marketing history, thus very little information would be shared about it. If supposedly the first StarTropics game gained a cult following, how come nobody in the community took the effort to actually look more into it, I wonder. You would never know what you might find if one actually talks to people who worked on any game in question. A treasure trove of trivia! Hoo! Of course we do have the power the create one today if we so wish to do so, and if anyone feels up to the task then they can definitely go for it! I may even add in a few entries myself, although overall it is not a project which I would have interest in taking control of, and I still do fear that many elements of StarTropics might not have enough information to really warrant individual pages, which is why StarTropics.com's way of listing things works fairly well. Like I mentioned earlier, Splatoon is remains sole game thus far, yet it warranted a fully dedicated wiki somehow. You could always compress various related content into single pages, but that would probably decrease article count in your mind. However, as they say, the quality of a wiki site is not questioned by its article count number, but rather by the substance of the articles included. Small, but well-written and researched wikis would always triumph over bigger wikis with poorly made content. Additionally, not all wikis have to follow "Wikipedia-like" standards. Major wikis like Bulbapedia, for example, do encourage having articles based on notable fan projects, as long as they are treated as such. I experimented with adding a wiki to startropics.com in the past. Ultimately, I never followed through with it because I don't have the time to ensure that people aren't abusing it (inaccurate/inappropriate text, images, etc). I'm more than willing to update startropics.com if you have some additional content or info you'd like to see posted. Trolling is something that usually occurs in much bigger communities, and since we a relatively small community of so-called "nobodies" praising only two games with very little reference in other titles, there ought to be much more quality control with very little hassle. If I were you, I wouldn't be so worried about abuse actually happening - or least, not to a degree where it couldn't be handled. Besides, with so many loyal followers, you can always appoint other admins to make sure activities remain legitimate if you are not around as often as you used to be. Most likely the biggest thing you may have to worry about are any background technical issues. The MediaWiki platform is great, but even it too is not perfect.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 17, 2015 16:25:16 GMT -5
Earlier today, or yesterday by Japan's timezone, Satoru Iwata's funeral was held in Kyoto. A traditional Japanese funeral at a temple, and coincidentally even a rainy day in the summer (a typhoon I think), with many people coming to pay their respects — at least over 3000 people! Many of them were global Nintendo employees, industry veterans, journalists, and Nintendo fans even, a few coming from abroad! Talk about an overwhelming influence, but here is another: The Japanese faction of The Wall Street Journal said that our own Genyo Takeda gave a eulogy to the attendees. To be precise, according to the article they released, and I quote: Unquote. Bless Mr. Takeda, and everybody else working at Nintendo. Sure hope things do look up as we push forward.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 16, 2015 9:16:49 GMT -5
I mean, Balloon Fight is Iwata's baby, and we haven't seen another game in the series since Balloon Kid for the game boy. Actually, circa 2007, the Japanese edition of Club Nintendo used to reward its members with copies of an exclusive Nintendo DS game called Tingle's Balloon Fight DS, which is pretty much Balloon Fight, but with the infamous Tingle from The Legend of Zelda series instead of the Balloon Fighter. Additionally, in the Wii U launch title Nintendo Land, there is a Solo Attraction mini game called "Balloon Trip Breeze", which is pretty much the Balloon Trip single player mode from Balloon Fight! Of course, you play as your own Mii character in that game instead of the Balloon Fighter. Let's not even forget, in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/ Wii U, the Villager's default up-special move is also a reference to Balloon Fight, wherein (s)he rides a couple of balloons in a similar pose to the Balloon Fighter. The move is even called " Balloon Trip".
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 15, 2015 0:03:06 GMT -5
Unless you are living under a really, really huge rock, you might have heard that Nintendo, and even the gaming industry in general, lost a great man so suddenly! The global President, as well as CEO to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and (since 2013) Nintendo of America, Inc., Satoru Iwata, has died on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth. Nintendo announced this on July 12 or 13 (depending on where you live), and the gaming world got totally shocked and started grieving because it just learned that it lost a living legend. Albeit Iwata was heavily criticised by various parties about his management of Nintendo in the past few years, especially after the slow sales of the Wii U which promoted so many third party publishers from pulling much support, it was not until recently we realise how much he did contribute in a positive light throughout his career with Nintendo and its affiliates, delivering so much without us thinking about it. As some of you may know, before he was inaugurated as the company president in 2002, he was a games developer, which is actually a very rare thing to have an experienced game developer running a giant corporation like Nintendo. As a developer, however, he brought to us great classic titles such as Balloon Fight, Kirby's Dreamland, and EarthBound. In fact, if it was not for Iwata, the critically acclaimed EarthBound would have been in development hell for a long time! Take a moment to contribute your appreciation and thanks to the man, and please understand what he did for us as Nintendo fans and gamers throughout the years. Announcing Iwata's death may not be directly very StarTropics related, but the latter part of it is though. If you did not know already, Nintendo has yet to officially announce a replacement. Nintendo is still a business, of course, and despite how large Iwata's shoes are to be filled, the company still needs a president. Apparently, around the time the company announced Iwata's death, Nintendo stated at least two other executives are temporarily appointed as acting president in the interim. One of them is the equally legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, who needs no introduction, and the other, well, is apparently our very own Genyo Takeda. Takeda, whilst popular among the most dedicated of StarTropics fans, apparently has a much larger role within Nintendo overall. Genyo Takeda may not be a name familiar amongst many gaming circles, despite his many contributions to Nintendo, but one may wonder if his current role as acting co-president would finally give his name a little boost in popularity. Polygon decided to release an article telling people who is Genyo Takeda, and what are his notable contributions to Nintendo so he would take on this important role alongside Miyamoto. They did not mention StarTropics in the article, but hopefully people will take better notice of Takeda-san in the long run, considering how really long he worked for Nintendo until now!
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 5, 2015 17:39:21 GMT -5
So, as some of you might know, I'm an old Nintendo fan, yet still a newb to the StarTropics series. Don't confuse the title as calling myself a "newb" in general though. I drew fan art for a long time, but don't expect me to have any works from the days of yore on StarTropics, of course, which is why I decided to play a little bit of catch-up, and find the time to draw as much for this community as I could deem. I have been pretty busy though, and haven't been drawing as much in general so my skills my be a little rusty, which probably explains why the legs in the following quick pencil sketch might look a little weird. Also, I was never good with drawing shoes... or actually doing quick sketches in general. Never had a stable drawing hand, which explains all the pencil scratches and stuff, but I sure hope you enjoy this one picture at least. I made this quickly due to lack of a time window. Don't ask. I am aiming to have more art to post here in the future though. How often that would occur, however... is another matter entirely. To be honest, I don't think Mike's anger expression is that fitting, and I probably never perceived Mike Jones to be a guy who is easily provoked. I suppose I just wanted to add a bit more dynamism expression into his jumping pose, pretty much. Enjoy, my good people!
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jul 5, 2015 11:31:41 GMT -5
I just love browsing the wiki sites on NIWA Network. For those of you who don't know, NIWA Network, also referred to as the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance Network, is as its name implies: An affiliation network of independently hosted, English-language wiki sites based on Nintendo franchises. This network exists because of its huge community of cross-fanatic Nintendo fans trying to encourage having MediaWiki-based wiki sites developed on their own accord, without the limiting policies of being hosted on a wiki farm like Wikia. Anyway, just yesterday, a surprising new member has been added to the NIWA family: Inkipedia. Long story short, Inkipedia was originally a Wikia-hosted wiki based on the Wii U game Splatoon. It has been in development for a few months prior to the game's release, and suddenly went indie a few days before the game's release. Because of its indie status, it was automatically eligible to join NIWA, and yesterday, coinciding with both the U.S. Independence Day and the first North American Splatfest event, Inkipedia has become an official member of NIWA Network. Do you guys see where I am going with this? Splatoon, a brand new Nintendo IP, only one entry so far, not even six months in stores, and it already has a booming, independent wiki site. This is sorta a slight embarrassment compared to StarTropics, two entries in the series, 25 years since the first game launched, and I couldn't even find any dedicated wiki, not even one hosted on Wikia. I mean, check the typical domain name startropics.wikia.com - it isn't even registered.
Okay, sure, you could argue that Splatoon is an overwhelming success, after having sold over one million units recently (an amazing feat considering it is on the slow-selling Wii U), compared to StarTropics, which is so obscure it barely has any real references in Super Smash Bros. (Although, let's face it, how could Sakurai include anything if the games were never even officially released in Japan? Not even on Virtual Console yet.) But does it really excuse the online StarTropics fan community, no matter how relatively small, for not trying to launch one anyway? Here is a better example: The Legendary Starfy series, pretty obscure (bet some of you never heard of it), currently on hiatus, with just five entries in the series, and only one game ever released outside Japan, and yet it has its very own independently hosted English wiki site (also part of NIWA Network)! How did that happen?
I reiterate the thread's title, it is about time we had a wiki dedicated to StarTropics! We ought to discuss how we could process and develop this, whether we want it hosted on a wiki farm like Wikia, or be independent. Who's with me?!
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jun 17, 2015 5:39:51 GMT -5
I personally think it sounds really great overall. The percussion could be a little better, but otherwise a really great remix of the Zoda's Revenge dungeon theme.
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Post by Hope(N Forever) on Jun 2, 2015 15:03:20 GMT -5
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. 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.
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