Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Members of the Mother series fan site Starmen.net may be celebrating now, with Earthbound recently rated on the ESRB's web site, but just getting to that tenuous victory (as Ys I & II can affirm, ESRB rating is not the same as a Virtual Console release) has been the culmination of years of agonizing effort and constant campaigning that may not have actually had anything to do with the news.

Shacknews has posted a great retrospective of Starmen's 11-year campaign to get something related to Earthbound to happen outside of Japan, from a Game Boy Color release of Mother to localized versions of Mother I & II on the DS to (of course) a U.S. version of Mother 3. They've carried out insane plots like creating a beautiful book of fan works to show Nintendo how much they care about the series. Nintendo's response has ranged from politely dismissive to nonexistent, though the feature reveals that somewhere within Nintendo, Starmen's efforts were at least attracting attention.

Considering the lengthy conversation between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Mother creator Shigesato Itoi over dinner six months ago, we're beginning to wonder if they consumed any actual food at their meal. Where did they find the time? So long as they didn't starve, however, we're glad to be privy to their chat, since so many interesting tidbit have come to light. The latest is on something close to our hearts: Wii Sports.

Is Nintendo considering a sequel to the popular pack-in? Maybe, says Iwata, but it's not something that's even in the planning stages at this time. The last thing Nintendo wants to do is take the "easy" way, he says, by slapping together something that's exactly the same, just with different sports featured. Our love for Iwata was renewed in spades as he spoke about the need to do something new rather than to rehash old ground just to make money. If we were feeling snarky, we might bring up a few franchises (like, say Mario Kart ... even though we love it, it tends to be pretty much Mario Kart), but Nintendo has been forging so much new ground lately that we'll let it slide. Some might argue that Nintendo did exactly what Iwata is talking about not doing with the recent Brain Age sequel, but the big man is quick to point out that the director of the titles has been breaking new ground himself: he's responsible for several of the Wii's channels.

Iwata did make the point, however, that it 's easier for Nintendo to take this stance right now because they're doing so well. If they weren't, he said, they might scramble to those "easy" sequels and decisions just to keep the boat afloat. We just wish other companies who are also in the black might take a similar line. Sure, the same game with slight tweaks may sell every year, but does it improve or expand the industry? Does it produce better games for everyone?

[Via Infendo]