Nintendo announced a bunch of releases today, including the not-especially-surprising revelation that Punch-Out!! is due in May. Given that it’s pretty much a reskinning of an NES game, I’m really only surprised that it’s taking that long. But then they went and threw me for a loop by announcing that The Legendary Starfy would be coming stateside as well. Talk about random.
The Starfy series — better known as Stafy until this morning’s revelation of an official English name — has been around for nearly a decade, having debuted very early on Game Boy Advance. The series is up to its fifth installment at this point, the most recent two entries being DS titles. I’m going to assume the one being published here is the fifth game, but you never know with Nintendo. I’ve watched the series’ proliferation with some bemusement over the years, because I learned very early on that despite sporting lush 2D visuals and the Nintendo name, Starfy just isn’t that good. It’s Kirby-easy, but has a slightly adventure-based structure, which means lots of chatty dialogue that breaks up the action. The games aren’t terrible, but they’re awfully mundane. I can think of more interesting things for Nintendo to localize….
The most interesting thing about Starfy isn’t the games themselves, though. It’s the developer. Like about half of everything to come from Japan, the series is the work of stealth creator TOSE. The difference, though, is that this is one of the rare instances where TOSE’s name isn’t hidden deep within the credits and glossed over by a publisher that likes to pretend it does all its own work in-house. Au contraire, mon frère; quite the opposite, in fact: TOSE actually co-owns the Starfy series with Nintendo, making this the first series (to my knowledge) that they loudly proclaim as their own. This is where the wags snidely remark on the connection between TOSE and the humdrum nature of Starfy, but I don’t think that’s entirely fair. The company’s done some fine work, as in Rocket Slime. Like Level-5, I suspect TOSE is one of those companies whose output is only as good as the publisher decides it should be. Dragon Quest overlords Armor Project have a tendency to coax great work from third-party developers, while a lot of other companies seem to take the Ed Wood approach of saying “That’s brilliant!” at mediocrity and rushing to market.
Anyway, the point is that the Wii remake of Metroid Prime hasn’t been given a U.S. date yet, despite being available in Japan as of last week. Swear to god, if Nintendo tries to position that as their big holiday game there’ll be hell to pay.
Now, in fairness, it would still be one of, if not the best, first-party releases from Nintendo in years. Bah.
Parish, have I ever told you that I love you (when you quote They Might Be Giants)?
Silly Parish, they wouldn’t position Prime as their big holiday game.
As their major/only “core” winter release, though? I wouldn’t be surprised.
The funny part about Metroid Prime Wii in the US is that the japanese version has the english dialog, IN FULL mind you, on the disk (and I am serious, I know this for a fact). I wish they’d release it, the Wii controls and widescreen support make it very buy in my eyes.
Oh, it’ll come here. It’s just a question of when.
“Like Level-5, I suspect TOSE is one of those companies whose output is only as good as the publisher decides it should be. Dragon Quest overlords Armor Project have a tendency to coax great work from third-party developers, while a lot of other companies seem to take the Ed Wood approach of saying “That’s brilliant!” at mediocrity and rushing to market.”
Are you saying the only Level-5 game that doesn’t suck is Dragon Quest VIII? Because, I’m pretty sure Dragon Quest VIII, like every other Dragon Quest game (awesome, this game is just like the previous seven — it’s like 1986 all over again! progress sucks!), sucked, unlike Level-5’s other games. Though, I will admit that Rogue Galaxy was awful.
Their list is missing Professor Layton 2, and therefore it is made of fail.
Fail is not a noun. I have to kill you now.
I keep scanning that Nintendo list for any mention of F-Zero, but there is none, which means that any version is at least five months off at the bare minimum, if ever. Is it possible for a Wii die from neglect?
Also, 1101, where do you live? I need to buy a train ticket to your neck of the woods and carry out these random acts of violence that are suddenly filling my thoughts.
Hmmm… “Starfy.” I guess Brandon Sheffield was right all along. Anyway, I have all of the GBA and DS games and this is a very friendly and cute series. I think people will like it.
“Starfy” is gonna take some getting used to… like so many others, I’ve grown accustomed to “Stafy”.
I’m not sure which is worse: “Starfy,” which makes me think of “barfy,” or “Stafy,” which makes me think it’s the personification of a staph infection.
“Starfy” always made more sense to me anyway. ‘Cause, y’know, he’s a star? Fy?
I knew it, you’re just trying to get back that copy of Sakura Taisen 2 you sold me years ago!!
I see through your deception! :-P
I like “Starfy” because it reminds me of Barfy, the dog from The Family Circus.
“Who gave this game a C-!?”
“IDA KNOW!” “NOT ME!”
DQVIII is actually something of a departure for the (COMPLETELY AWESOME) series, for better and/or worse. But do carry on.
So I assume that Excitebots is the “big secret game” Monster Games was working on a while back? (the one where they had to turn off their screens when delivery people stopped by the office?) Could be interesting… Excitetruck was actually hella sweet.
Great news about Starfy. I’ve got the first four games and they’re fun to play, but it’ll be nice to actually understand what’s going on in the story. *L*
Ooh, and according to Gamestop & Amazon, looks like the “New Play Control” games will run $29.99… which is actually not too shabby. I might actually pick up Pikmin at that price… I shamefully never played the original.
Nintendo has so many upcoming games they can’t fit them all on one release list. Next week, they’ll put out a press release detailing their first half 2009 schedule with games like Wii Sports Resort, Metroid Prime, Kororinpa 2, MadWorld, Crystal Defenders R1 and so on, with a few games from this list. But just a few. Got to keep that air of secrecy.
Man, I am honestly hoping they don’t start the series over here with the newest Stafy game, because it is honestly not very good at all.
I bet Nintendo’s intent is to release one game in the series here so it gains a bunch of die-hard fans, and then ignore it forever.
I’m getting some cognitive dissonance from the Sta(r)fy rename myself. On one hand, Starfy is obviously the “right” choice since he’s a star, right? But there’s something about Stafy that makes it sound so charming. It’s confusing the hell out of me, to be honest.
Oh well, at least it’s being brought over finally. Hooray!