Nintendo of Australia took a shortcut with their release of Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS: it's a direct copy of the US version -- "ESRB rating and all," as Vooks says. That shortcut has come back to haunt them with the release of Let's Go to the City.
Vooks' Daniel Vuckovic attempted to use the DS Suitcase to transfer his Wild World catalog and character to the new game. Instead of a catalog loaded with playroom furniture and Mario accessories, he was presented with this error message, as well as a similar one on the DS.
This is significant for two reasons that we can think of: first, it's definitive proof that the DS Suitcase is region-locked. If your copy of Wild World is imported, the gates to your Wii town are firmly closed. Second, it means that Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City is basically missing a feature in Australia. Nintendo is just having terrible luck with this DS Suitcase thing!
It's no secret that we love World of Goo. The game is great and if you don't like it, we don't like youthen we appreciate you giving the game the old college try. Now, 2D Boy's most excellent title has been rated by the OFLC, meaning a down under release is closing in. With the news that Europe would be getting the game, we're now happy to see just about every territory getting in the action.
Any of our Aussie readers looking forward to this one? You should be!
This week's PAL Virtual Console line-up isn't short on quality, but it represents fairly awful value. As dreamy as we find any Metal Slug title, there are cheaper ways to play all three of this week's offerings.
Want Metal Slug 2? We'd recommend picking up this. Fancy having your delicate gamer's ego rudely kicked in by Forgotten Worlds? There's an excellent compilation out there for a bunch of platforms that costs peanuts and comes with another 20 or so games. If you can't find Space Invaders for less than £6/€8, you're probably reading the wrong website. Better still: lavish those points on Space Invaders Get Even!.
Posted Nov 26th 2008 5:20PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Nintendo of Australia has announced that they will open a special Nintendo gaming area above the EBGames store on Swanston Street in Melbourne, Australia on December 6. The opening of the "Nintendo Experience" won't just be a chance for people to come hang out at EB and annoy the staff, however -- Nintendo is throwing a launch event starting at 10 AM, and some kind of VIP event the night before.
The announcement hints at appearances by Nintendo characters at the morning event, so maybe you can finally get that "guy in a Pikachu suit" autograph. More exciting is the fact that the first 100 to go in will receive a free game, effectively avoiding prohibitive Australian game prices. Consoles will be given away at the event as well!
Move over, Paul Hogan. Aussies have a new hero: de Blob.
Even though the game wasn't a commercial success, the game won the hearts of gamers and critics alike. In fact, it might as well be Australia's favorite game, as the title has dominated the Australian development awards. Every year, the GDAA (Game Developers Association of Australia) bestows honors on outstanding games and this year, a majority of those awards were dropped on THQ's title. Among those nods were several big ones, including best console title, best gameplay, best audio, best graphics and the GDAA's game of the year award.
Posted Nov 24th 2008 10:00AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
Nintendo of Australia's executives have probably gotten congratulatory phone calls from Japan by now. For Wii Music's launch week (two weeks ago), the controversial musical toy was the top-selling console game in the region, according to a Nintendo press release. The 28,000 copies of Wii Music no doubt helped the Wii have its best week ever in Australia, with 35,000 units sold.
According to the press release, the Wii has passed the 750,000 mark in 102 weeks, the shortest time to that milestone in the history of the Australian games industry. Of course, the DS experienced its own milestones, becoming the console to reach 1.5 million in the shortest time.
Four new WiiWare titles came down the tubes in Europe and Australia today, and the selection couldn't be more diverse. Art Style: Cubello and Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands you'll already know about, but CueSports and Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam are more mysterious beasts. The former looks promising, the latter, er, not particularlygreat, according to the few reviews that are about.
Sega will release The House of the Dead: Overkill in Europe next February, and there'll be an optional bonus at "selected retailers" for fans who preorder: this rad Collector's Edition. Arriving in a fetching minimalist slipcase (loving the authentic scuff marks), this will come bundled with a graphic novel that tells the stories of Agent Washington and Varla Gunns, and the events that lead up to the game.
Here's the downside: this sweet package has so far only been announced for PAL regions -- apart from Germany, obviously. Sucks to be Germany, eh? Hit up our gallery for a closer look at the comic's cover and a sample page.
Unless you've got a PS2 or a PSP, there's really no excuse to miss out on downloading Phantasy StarIV: The End of the Millennium, a game that is treated with justifiable reverence by fans of the franchise's early years. Mega Man 3 might not represent the peak of its respective series, but it's still worth a punt for 500 points. Especially as you don't have to look at this.
Mega Man 3 -- NES -- 500 Wii Points
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points
You know the drill: embedded footage of both games is past the jump.
Cheer up, Aussies and Kiwis -- even though your local Club Nintendo appears to have gone completely AWOL (checking ... nope, still nothing), you'll shortly be getting your very own version of Official Nintendo Magazine, basically the UK equivalent of Nintendo Power. That's ... almost as good. Right?
Like its Brit cousin, Official Nintendo Magazine - Australia and New Zealand will be assembled by the talented folks at Future, the same name behind such excellent time-wasting periodicals as N64 Magazine, Amiga Power, and Arcade, and who currently churn out Edge. The first issue, a special edition no less, should be hitting shelves in December for AU$8.95.
Though we always expected this, Nintendo has confirmed that it will bring the stylish Art Style games to Europe's (and, we assume, Australia's) WiiWare service from November 21st.
EX-TERM-IN-ATE! EX-TERM-IN-ATE! Wait, no, those are the other ones. But whatever. The point is: after hearing nothing about Space Invaders Get Even! for months, the game has randomly appeared on the European and Australian Wii Shops. We are unashamedly jigging with joy as we type this. And the extra-terrestial goodness doesn't stop there, for Alien Crush Returns has also joined the line-up. Needless to say, we wholeheartedly welcome our new rulers (of all our spare time).
The other game is Brain Challenge. Sorry, Brain Challenge.
Next Level Games, the Canadian developer behind the Super Mario Strikers series, is currently at work on an extremely high-profile game: the Wii update to the classic Punch-Out!! series. According to an OFLC listing spotted by Spencer from Siliconera, they've decided to work on something else while they've got the Wii devkits out: something called Jungle Speed.
Rather than a Donkey Kong-themed racing game (which has been tried on the Wii to little success), Jungle Speed is most likely a Wii version of a card game of the same name, in which players must get rid of all their cards while racing to take possession of a totem.
We suspect that this title will end up on WiiWare: Jungle Speed also has a rating on the American ESRB, which lists its publisher as Playful Entertainment. Playful states on their website that they have "multiple, unannounced titles" planned for WiiWare.
In bonus OFLC news, Mercs, Enduro Racer, and M.U.S.H.A. have also been rated! Awesome games from Sega consoles incoming!
With a fresh Halloween upon us, Nintendo has settled on a horror theme for its latest update to the PAL Virtual Console. Nintendo restricting itself in this way could have gone tragically wrong -- they could have given us something terrible like Friday the 13th, for example -- but instead the results are ... really, really good.
Normally we'd whoop unashamedly for Ghosts 'N Goblins alone, but Castlevania III, which is yet to be released on the U.S. or Japanese Virtual Consoles? And Devil World, which North America has also been waiting on (for almost a quarter of a century)? Yeah, we'll take those. Watch bone-chilling footage of all three past the break.
Unless you've got a 
Cheer up, Aussies and Kiwis -- even though your local 
With a fresh Halloween upon us, Nintendo has settled on a horror theme for its latest update to the PAL Virtual Console. Nintendo restricting itself in this way could have gone tragically wrong -- they could have given us something terrible like 
