This Week in Nintendo History: October 4th to October 10th

"Sherman, set the wayback machine." Let's take a trip through Nintendo's history. All the game releases, important announcements, births and much more will be featured. The week another company tries their hand at Zelda, Yoshi gets his starring role, Game & Watch gets new games and Mario panics. Let's see what's in store for us this week.

October 2nd, 1995 brought about arguably Yoshi's most famous starring role when the Super Nintendo saw the release of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. This was the sequel to the ever popular Super Mario World, though the only thing they had in common was the name. This game gave Yoshi the starring role and he would team up with Mario's baby form to rescue Luigi from the Magikoopa Kamek. The game featured amazing hand drawn, crayon style animations, memorable boss fights and probably the most annoying baby cry ever to be heard in a video game. It would receive it's first true sequel 11 years later with Yoshi's Island DS.

Europe would see their first Mario platformer for the GameCube on October 4th, 2002 with the release of Super Mario Sunshine. Mario is wrongly accused of defacing Delfino Island with a strange goo and is sentenced to clean it up. Along with his trusty F.L.U.D.D. device he would go around the island attempting to clean up the mess that is left by Bowser Jr. in his attempt to frame Mario. The game play revolved around the hub part of the island where you would then access different areas via various means throughout the island. Despite being a critical and commercial success, the very different game play would be criticized and this was considered one of many players least favorite Mario titles in a long time.

Mario Pinball Land would be released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance on October 4th, 2004. In the game Mario is transformed into a pinball and must explore different areas of the Mushroom Kingdom ramming the likes of Bowser and Petey Piranha. The game takes place in an amusement park where Peach is kidnapped by Goombas and sent to Bowser's Castle. It's, as usual, up to Mario to save her. Each area had a boss to fight and there were a number of items that Mario could use to aid him in his fight.

October 4th, 2005 brought us the release of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS. This was the first Castlevania game released on the DS and includes many features seen in the games that came before it. Like so many of the games before it, Dawn of Sorrow was set in a castle that acted as a sort of hub world that you would explore. It also featured some elements found in traditional RPG's such as experience and leveling up. The game did feature a bit of a style change visually going from the more traditional gothic art to a more anime inspired direction. Dawn of Sorrow won the Best Adventure Game award from IGN for 2005.

October 5th saw Balloon Kid released to America for the original Game Boy. This was the sequel to the NES game Balloon Fight. The game saw you control Alice navigating the city of Pencilvania to recover balloons left for her by her younger brother Jim. You could make Alice float higher in the air by pressing a button to make her flap her arms. Bumping into enemies would have Alice's balloons popped or could kill her outright. There was also a two player mode that was very similar to Balloon Fight that would have the players attempting to pop each other's balloons as well as collecting more balloons than the other person.

Europe would see the release of The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons on October 5th, 2001. These games were for the Game Boy Color and developed by Flagship, an independent developer funded by Capcom. As such, these were two of the few Zelda titles that were not directly created by Nintendo. They were released separately and featured separate stories that could be linked with a password. The games featured a very vibrant color palette for the Game Boy Color and used many of the assets from Link's Awakening. Oracle of Ages was more puzzle focused and Oracle of Seasons featured combat more than the other giving players a bit of a choice on how they wanted to play. The two titles were very successful and together have sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

The Pokemon franchise would get its second console release with the availability of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness for the GameCube in America on October 5th, 2005. This title featured connectivity with the Game Boy Advance allowing players to bring their pokemon from the handhelds into the game's battle mode. In the game you were tasked with rescuing Shadow Pokemon who have had their hearts closed artificially and bring them back by purifying them with the Snag Machine. The game was widely criticized for being too similar to, and using many of the same areas, graphics and more from Pokemon Colosseum.

October 6th, 2008 was Virtual Console day in North America. On that day we saw the release of Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64, as well as Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis.

Let's move on to October 7th, 2000 and the release of Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber for the Nintendo 64. This strategy role-playing game was the sequel to Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen for the SNES. The story centers around Magnus Gallant, a recent graduate of Ischka Military Academy. Civil war breaks out in the country and he decides to side with the revolution. The games main feature is the class system which can be changed throughout the game and determines the types of attack the characters can use. Despite being a critical success, the game was a commercial failure in America, mainly due to the small number of units shipped by the publisher.

Virtual Console day again, this time October 8th, 2007 and for the first time Neo Geo games are available on a Nintendo system. The momentous occasion was marked with the release of Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and World Heroes.

Game & Watch would see two different titles released on October 9th, 1981 that were essentially the same game; Egg and Mickey Mouse. Copyright issues would force Egg to be released in some areas rather than Mickey Mouse. In the game you played as everyone's favorite rodent, or a wold.as you attempted to catch eggs that were being layed by chickens on the game's edges.

Board and card game enthusiasts had something to be excited about on October 9th, 2006 when the DS would received Clubhouse Games. This DS title featured over 30 different games ranging from different card games to bowling and billiards. Clubhouse Games featured 19 different card games, 9 different board games and 8 other games, many of which could be played with friends. This was the first title on the DS that would allow you to have more than four players over Wi-Fi as some of the games allowed up to eight people to play at one time.

Our last release of the week is probably the most well known. October 10th, 1988 brought the sequel to the second best selling game of all time. On that day Super Mario Bros. 2 would be released in America. This game was not the original sequel to the game, but rather was a remake of a game known as Doki Doki Panic that had been changed to feature members of the Mushroom Kingdom. The game was changed here in America as the original sequel was considered too hard for American audiences. In the game you had the choice of playing as Mario or Luigi and for the first time as Princess Peach or Toad. Each of the characters had different abilities that would change the way the game was played slightly and saw different types of enemies as Bowser was not the antagonist for the game. Despite being considerably different than Super Mario Bros. and the Mario games that would come after it was and is considered to be a very quality Mario game and has given us a number of characters that weren't featured before such as Shy Guys.

So there you have it. This week is now in the history books. I hope you're enjoying reading this article as much as I enjoy writing it. As always, if you know of anything coming up that you would like to see featured just drop me a line and let me know. And don't forget to leave your comments on this article down below. We'll be back at the same time next week to see what happens in Nintendo's history.