It took quite awhile for a publisher to announce The Last Story for localization in North America. The game originally hit Japan in January 2011, but it wasn’t until February of this year that XSEED confirmed it would be bringing the game over.
Interestingly, The Last Story may not have made it to the states if not for the efforts from XSEED’s Ken Berry. It was Berry who led the charge in convincing the company’s marketing team that selling a full-priced Wii game in 2012 would bring about good results.
“It was a constant fight even within our own organization. To our external sales reps, we’d be saying, ‘No, like you guys don’t understand. There’s tons of fans out there that are asking for this. There’s a huge fan movement.’ I mean, so yeah. In the end, I think we were right.”
We now know that The Last Story is XSEED’s best-performing title ever. Berry, though, always expected it to be a hit.
Berry is appreciative of the community and fans who “really stepped up their game and put their actions and their wallets where their mouths were earlier.”
“We’re eternally grateful to the fan community out there. They really stepped up their game and put their actions and their wallets where their mouths were earlier. They backed up their talk.”
Those who visit McDonald’s in Japan can take advantage of the Mac de DS service to browse the net and play games inspired by the fast food restaurant. A new Dragon Quest game will be available starting next month.
“Dragon Quest VII: McDonald’s’ Mysterious Stone Tablet” allows users to take on the role of a warrior, magician, manager, or… McDonald’s crew member. Players battle monsters to earn stone tablet fragments, three of which complete one stone tablet. It seems as though the stone tablets make up an “ancient” McDonald’s menu.
Visit a Japanese McDonald’s between January 11 and March 28 to play Dragon Quest VII: McDonald’s’ Mysterious Stone Tablet.
A number of years ago, there had been talk of a Metroid movie. Once Zide-Perry Productions’ licence option expired, in 2004, director John Woo and the folks at Tiger Hill took over.
Brad Foxhoven, producer on the project and former president of Tiger Hill, told IGN:
“We believed there was a great opportunity for John Woo to bring his style of action into a Metroid film. Nintendo was quite supportive of the idea, as they were all fans of John’s previous films.”
The following Rock Band Music Store songs will be made available on January 2:
“Party Hard” – Andrew W.K. – keyboard support
“We Are Young” – Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – keyboard support
“Tonight Tonight” – Hot Chelle Rae – keyboard support
“Raise Your Glass” – P!nk – keyboard support
Each song can be purchased for 200 Wii Points.
Source: Harmonix PR
Revenge of the ‘Gator will be hitting the Japanese eShop as a Game Boy download on January 9 for 400 yen. Screenshots of the game can be found above.
Nintendo tends to keep a low profile at the World Hobby Fair. That’s no different this year.
Two games will be playable during the four different Japanese events in January and February. New Super Mario Bros. U and Mario Chase from Nintendo Land will both be available at the Big N’s booth.
Metal Max will be hitting the Japanese eShop as a Famicom download on January 9 for 500 yen. Screenshots of the game can be found above.
