Nintendo Revolution Download List Is Fanboy's Dream
June 06, 2005
Isn't it great how mistranslations and rumors spiral out of control and take on lives and authenticity of their own? The Nintendo Revolution rumor machine rolls on today as scans of the Japanese Famitsu magazine hit the Internet. You've probably seen these scans all over by now, but in case you're running behind on things here they are.
There's also a list of first-party Nintendo games circulating that supposedly represents the Revolution's downloadable library. I'd like to throw water on this right now and debunk some of this list. I'd also like to pat my friends at AMN on the back for prefacing the list as complete speculation unlike other sites that seem to be taking the list as if it were holy truth.
Let's start with the Nintendo Entertainment System section of the list. There are a number of games on that list that were never released in North America and, as far as I know, were never translated into English. Fire Emblem and Devil World, I'm looking at you. Gyromite is on the list, as is Short Order/Eggsplode. How do you intend to play these games without the R.O.B. Robot or Power Pad? Or Duck Hunt without the NES Zapper? Four of Mario's better-off-forgotten edutainment appearances also appear on the list, but while those games were created in cooperation with Nintendo, they were produced by third parties so I'd imagine they're in a bit of a gray area here.
Moving on to the Super NES era are more untranslated titles such as Mario & Wario, Shigesato Itoi's No. 1 Bass Fishing, three Fire Emblem titles, Derby Stallion 98... need I go on? More Mario-based edutainment is here as well, and let's not forget to cross off redundant titles such as Kirby's Avalanche and Kirby's Ghost Trap which are the same game. One title is the North American title, the other is from Europe. The Satteleview material is questionable; would Nintendo translate and convert it from its original Japanese transmitted format?
The Nintendo 64 section of the list has the more questionable titles than the other parts, including more untranslated titles such as two Custom Robo games and many games that don't even have English titles. Kirby's Air Ride for the Nintendo 64 was canceled early on in the N64's life, but here it is on the list. Hey You, Pikachu! requires a microphone to play, but if Nintendo provides a microphone on the Revolution and updates the game to accept it, it could work. GoldenEye 007 hasn't been ported or remade over the years because Nintendo no longer has a piece of the James Bond license. In fact, all of the old Rareware-owned properties may be in a gray area as well since Rare retains ownership of their characters. I'd bet on seeing Donkey Kong 64 available before Banjo-Kazooie if that holds true. And what of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire? The Master Quest rendition of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is on the list; would Nintendo translate the Nintendo 64 version of the game for this? All those 64DD add-on titles are also questionable, especially the Mario Artist series.
Don't get me wrong; I'd love to hear Nintendo confirm in a reliable English publication that cannot be mistranslated by American fans that all of this is completely true and the translation of Japanese titles is already underway. However, without concrete proof I'm dismissing this list as more of a fanboy's wish list than anything else. There are a lot of titles from the back catalog that we can expect to see for the Revolution, but stop and think clearly for a moment. Do you really think that Derby Stallion 98 is one of them?