This Week in Nintendo History: August 23rd to August 29th

Howdy folks, and welcome once again to our weekly look back at the history of Nintendo. This week we'll take a look at Mario, dolphins, Metroid, and more. It's a pretty good week with some fun filled facts. Let's jump right into it.

First up this week we'll travel to August 23rd, 2005. Pac 'n Roll was released for the Nintendo DS. Pac-Man (who has been put under Golvis' sphere curse) must save Pac-Master's family from the evil Golvis and Ghosts, with their evil plot to turn Pac-Land into Ghost-Land. This was a bit of a mash up between Marble Madness gameplay and Super Monkey Ball. The touch screen was used to control a 3-d version of Pac-Man while he traveled around various levels.

Space World on August 24th, 2000 was the site of one of the biggest reveals of the year. Nintendo lifted the curtain on their next console and the world was introduced to the Nintendo Game Cube. A little over a year earlier Howard Lincoln, NoA's chairman, had announced Project Dolphin which would become the Gamecube, but it wasn't until this day that it was officially revealed. Rather than standard sized DVD's like the other consoles of its generation, the Gamecube used proprietary 8cm DVD's that would be the subject of debates for a number of years. It also made some innovations to controllers with the C stick and analog shoulder buttons. Probably the most famous feature of its controller was the giant green A button that had not been seen until that time. The launch for the system was also the first time that Mario was not present in the starring role of a game. It would end up not being a very big success commercially, but paved the way for the next generation for Nintendo and the advent of the Wii. The last game released for the system, officially, was Madden NFL '08.

August 24th, 2006 would be the first time that Final Fantasy III would be released in America. This would be the first time that the game was released outside the country of Japan. This version of the game was also the first of Square Enix's 3-d remakes of Final Fantasy games on DS, and would soon be followed by the ever popular Final Fantasy IV. The DS release of the game would make some changes to the game to improve playability. Things like the job system would be rebalanced, new abilities would be added and the initial job for the player would be changed from Onion Knight to Freelancer. Job specific abilities would also be added if a character had fully mastered a certain job. Final Fantasy III would also make use of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection allowing players to send mail to characters, as well as other players. This remake would sell over 500,000 copies in Japan during its first week in stores and has sold more than 1 million copies to date.

Let's move to the year 1997, more specifically, August 25th, 1997. This was the day that third person shooters would begin to gain popularity on consoles. On this day in history GoldenEye 007 was released for the Nintendo 64. This game, based on the popular James Bond story, and developed by Rare, featured four player split-screen multiplayer and one of the most popular death match modes in a shooter to date. It was well loved by fans and has a Meta Critic score of 96%. GoldenEye 007 is on many players most wanted lists for the Virtual Console, but it has been stated many times that the possiblity of it coming to download services is small.

August 25th, 2002 saw the release of the first true Mario adventure for the Gamecube. Super Mario Sunshine was the first, and only game in the main Mario series to release for the GameCube. It has been received to very differing opinions among Nintendo fans. In the game Mario was framed for committing a crime he did not do. He is sentenced to cleaning up the entirety of Isle Delfino, home to the Piantas. The main gameplay element, which is the cause of the wide variety of opinions, revolves around Mario using a water pack to clean up the environment and help him reach areas otherwise inaccessible to him. As of June 2006 it had sold more than five and half million copies worldwide and placed 46th on Official Nintendo Magazine's Top 100 Games of All-Time.

Fast forward one year to August 25th, 2003 and the release of F-Zero GX. This was the fifth game in the popular racing franchise and the first in the series to include a "story mode" where the player assumes the role of Captain Falcon who must complete various racing missions to proceed through the story. It retained the series high speed, frantic hover racing action, but increased the overall difficulty of the series considerably. It is considered by many to be the best racing game to release on the GameCube. It featured thirty different pilots who could compete on twenty different tracks throughout the game.

Also on that day Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire were released for the Game Boy Advance. This was a pretty standard pinball game that featured two tables and four different modes of play.

Super Mario Sluggers stepped up to bat on August 25th, 2008 for Wii. This was the second baseball game in the Mario franchise and featured some Wii specific controls, such as swinging the Wii Remote to bat or pitch. In order to unlock all the characters and stadiums, Mario must complete a series of challenges against various opponents. If successful another character or stadium would unlock. There were 41 different characters from the Mushroom Kingdom that were playable. The game received very fair reviews, but none were overwhelmingly good. The lack of online play and the fact that it came out after Wii Sports and its baseball game contributed to those reviews.

Let's go back to August 27th, 2007 and the release of one of the best games so far on Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This final chapter of the Prime trilogy was released to very positive reviews and it considered by many to still have some of the best controls for a shooter on Wii. It was praised for its gorgeous visuals, solid controls and excellent storyline. It was one of the first games in the series to feature a large amount of voice work, even if Samus herself did not speak and even featured an online element. Players were able to trade tokens with each other that would enable them to unlock bonus features such as concept art and movies. This game is be re-released on a single disc with the first two games in the trilogy as Metroid Prime Trilogy on August 25th, 2009.

Developer 5th Cell was founded on August 28th, 2003 by Joseph M. Tringali, Jeremiah Slaczka and Brett Caird. The company develops games primarily for Nintendo's Wii and DS systems. They are most well known for the Drawn To Life series, as well as Lock's Quest an the upcoming game Scribblenauts. When asked what kind of games he wanted the company to be known for Jeremiah Slaczka, the company's Creative Director said, "Innovative games – we want to be known as a company that produces AAA content you can't get anywhere else from anyone else. So far, with both Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest, I think our products have lined up with that vision. We've completely switched our company's focus to original titles now. We don't do licensed games or work for hire anymore."

Star Fox Command was released for the Nintendo DS on August 28th, 2006. This game returned the series to its air combat roots after a couple of previous missteps. It was also the first game in the Star Fox series to feature online play. Up to six people could join together in local wireless play.


There you have it, another week of history is in the books. What do you think? Have you enjoyed this article? Is there anything coming up you know about that you want to see in the article. Leave me a comment and let me know.