This Week In Nintendo History: September 27th to October 3rd

Howdy folks!  We're back again and if you're here that means you probably want to find out a little about Nintendo's history.  Well you've come to the right place, because that's what we discuss in this article.  This week is filled to the brim with Nintendo news.  We've got monkey, 2 Final Fantasy's, WiiWare games, cheerleaders and more.  Let's get right into it.  This could take a while.

GameCube owners got a taste of an interesting peripheral on September 27th, 2004 when Donkey Konga released.  This game came with a set of bongos that plugged into the controller port and was used in one of the most unique music games to be released until that point.  This was before the Guitar Hero craze would hit a few years later.  Donkey Konga featured 29 songs that varied from rock 'n' roll to children's songs.  Some of these titles were "99 Red Balloons", "B-I-N-G-O", "We Will Rock You" and "Yankee Doodle".  Barrels that had colored rings would roll across the screen and when they reached a certain point you would hit the bongos.  It featured four different types of notes; one for each bongo, one for both, and one for a clap that the built in microphone would recognize.  It was a very unique idea and the bongos would be used for more titles in the future to create interesting variations of traditional games.  The bongos are not compatible with the Wii so in order to play this game today you still need to own a GameCube.

Our first Final Fantasy title of the week hit store shelves on September 29th, 1993 when Final Fantasy Legend III hit stores for the Game Boy.  This was the third game in the SaGa series and featured a number of playable characters, four of which could be customized by the player.  The story of Final Fantasy Legend III combines fantasy and sci-fi elements, with the player assuming the role of three characters who were sent back in time to prevent a massive global flood caused by a being known as the Pureland Water Entity from destroying the world. The game was directed by Chihiro Fujuioka who would go on to direct Super Mario RPG for the SNES and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time.

September 29th, 2008 was download day in America.  The Virtual Console received Super Turrican 2 for the SNES.

WiiWare would receive two games; Bomberman Blast and Art Style: Orbient.  Bomberman Blast was released both as a downloadable WiiWare title which would feature the main game play elements that could be played online, and as a retail disc that had more features such as a story mode.  In the story the player was tasked to save the players Mii's from five different bosses who had them kidnapped.  They would battle through over 39 different levels and battle 30 unique enemies.

Art Style: Orbient was one of seven Art Style games that have been released on WiiWare and DSiWare.  It is a remake of the GBA game Orbital.  In the game you play as an orb that is floating through space.  There are planetoids that are revolving out in the environment.  You attempt to avoid the spheres that are bigger than you while absorbing the smaller ones.  Once you reach a certain size, one will turn into a sun and you must fly close enough to have it orbit around you to end the level.

Also on that day stores would see the release of Wario Land: Shake It for Wii.  This was the sixth game in the Wario Land series and the first to appear on Wii.  It featured beautiful hand drawn environments and a gorgeous animated intro done by Production I.G.  The villainous Shake King has kidnapped the Queen as well as their legendary treasure the "Bottomless Coin Sack".  Wario is interested in this treasure and sets off on an adventure that will take him through over 20 levels spread across five worlds.  The big game play hook of the game was the shake mechanic where you would grab things and shake the Wii Remote to shake coins out of bags, or garlic out of enemies.  It was very well received and has sold nearly 750,000 copies as of today.

September 30th, 1990 was the release date of our second Final Fantasy game of the week.  Ironically, it's the first Final Fantasy Legend game, the third of which we've already talked about.  This was the first game in the SaGa series and Square's first million selling game. This series is related to Final Fantasy in name only and was released under that name simply for marketing reasons.  It does share some similarities with that series, such as turn based combat and a number of different character classes.  It was conceived by Nobuyuki Hoshino, directed by Akitoshi Kawazu, and the music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu two years after Final Fantasy was released.  Final Fantasy Legend has been re-released a number of times over the years for the Game Boy Color, Wonder Swan Color and mobile phones.

The Pokemon Series would get its start on September 30th, 1998 with the release of Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue for the Game Boy.  These games are role playing games that were created for younger players featuring a large assortment of Pocket Monsters that can be captured through the use of a Pokeball.  In the game, you played as the main character, which you would name as they traveled through the fictional land of Kanto to battle various Pokemon and take on a group of Pokemon trainers known as the Elite Four.  These two games were the beginning of a multi-billion dollar franchise that would be split out to TV, comics, movies and more.  The concept of the game is based on a favorite past time of series designer Satoshi Tajiri; bug collecting.  The game is most popular for the ability to trade captured Pokemon with people through the use of the Game Boy's link cable.  Just from the release of the games in the United States and Japan more than 16 million copies of these titles have been sold.  These two games were remade for the Game Boy Advance as Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen.

The Nintendo 64 saw the release of Buck Bumble, by Ubisoft on the same day.  The player played as the cybernetic bee who was tasked with stopping the evil Herd Army, a group of insects that have been mutated by garden chemicals and are trying to take over the garden.

Girls everywhere were able to pretend to be cheerleaders on September 30th, 2008 with the release of We Cheer for Wii by Namco Bandai Games.  The game had girls waving their hands with two Wii Remotes to songs by groups like Aly & AJ, Natasha Bedingfield, and Hilary Duff.  Each hand held a Wii Remote that would be used to simulate actions represented by lines on screen.  If more than two players were playing together each player would only hold one Wii Remote.  It has been called the best cheerleading game of this generation, though admittedly the competition has been very slim.

We celebrate the beginning of October by punching dudes in the face.  Super Punch-Out!! was released for the Super Nintendo on October 1st, 1994.  This game featured a number of upgrades from the original version as well as 16 different fighters, though one was a carry over from the previous game.  The boxers in this game were much more animated than their predecessors due to the power of the Super Nintendo.  It also featured differences such as the necessity to avoid punches thrown from different directions, a power meter that would be used to throw more powerful punches and the ability to recover health while an opponent was down.  One of the biggest differences was the loss of two rounds.  Super Punch-Out!! featured one round of three minutes in real time rather than three rounds that had a sped up clock.  It was not as well received as the NES version of the game, but is still one of the best boxing games to date.  It has been re-released on Wii's Virtual Console in most territories and a selection of the boxers from Super Punch-Out!! made appearances in the Wii remake.

October 1st, 2007 was Virtual Console day in America.  It was noted as being the first time that import games would be made available on the system as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels for the NES and Sin & Punishment for the Nintendo 64 were released for the first time in their original forms.

Also on that day the DS saw the release of The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.  This was a direct sequel to the GameCube's Wind Waker.  It featured the same cel-shaded graphics of the previous game and was noted for its use of the stylus exclusively as the control method.  It would be the first game in the Zelda franchise to be made for the DS and was criticized for its overuse of the Temple of the Ocean King as players would have to go back there a number of times during their adventure.  The game has sold more than 4 million copies world wide and is considered, by many, to be the best hand held game in the franchise.

Nintendo fans in North America received a welcome announcement on October 2nd, 2008.  On that day it was announced that Club Nintendo would finally be coming to America.  This loyalty program rewards gamers for purchasing Nintendo products and registering them on the Club Nintendo website.  Registering products would grant you coins that could then be traded in for prizes, such as a Mario hat, or even DS games.  There have been a number of exclusive items that were only available to Club Nintendo members, such as the SNES Virtual Console controller and Doc Louis' Punch-Out!!.

That's it for this week folks.  There were other game releases that were not mentioned such as Alex Rider: Stormbreaker and Chibi Robo: Park Patrol for DS due to space constraints.  I was halfway through this article and was already at the size limit of a normal article so I'll break these up and put them in another post later in the week, or they'll wait until next year to make it in.  This is the first time it's happened and I don't expect it to happen too often, but going into the holidays the smaller titles might not make it in.

If there is anything you know of coming up that you'd like to see in the article send us an email and let us know.  It could be included in future articles.  I hope you're enjoying this look back at the history of Nintendo.  I know I enjoy putting it together and I've even learned some stuff I didn't' know.