EarthBound is one of the many games to appear on the Wii U’s new Virtual Console after the console’s system update this week. Professional Japanese translator Clyde Mandelin took Nintendo’s announcement, which was made in the most recent Nintendo Direct, as a sign of Nintendo’s renewed interest in the long forgotten series and took the opportunity to make Nintendo an more »

Dragon Quest is an amazing series, but it never seemed to get the kind of respect and love it deserved outside of Japan. In Japan, it’s a legend and there are stories of people lining up to buy copies of the game or skipping work or school to play it. Here, not so much. It’s more »

Today is a pretty awesome day. Do you know why? Because of the date! It’s December 12, 2012. Granted, it looks and sounds much cooler if you just go 12/12/12. I’m sure a lot of people are doing something special today in the hopes of making an unforgetable anniversary and such. Then there are those more »

Diablo and its sequels are by far some of the best action RPGs and they have certainly set the basis for just about every other hack and loot RPG. The PC exclusive games have sold millions of copies, but Blizzard Entertainment at one point thought about bringing the series to another platform. And it’s not more »

Okay, so this week I was going to try and simplify the BlazBlue series story. Except when I started to try, I only ended up confusing myself. I had about five paragraphs written up on Calamity Trigger, then realized I messed up and didn’t include some characters and it was a kerfuffle. (Yes, it’s a more »

Title: Mother 3 Price: A copy will probably cost you at least $35 System(s): GBA Release Date: April 20, 2006 Publisher (Developer): Nintendo (Brownie Brown, HAL Laboratory and Nintendo) ESRB Rating: N/A, Cero A for All Ages. Pros: Same kitchy graphical appearance as previous entries, interesting story with lots of humorous bits, social commentary and more »

Capcom may be neglecting one of its blue-suited icons, Mega Man, but it’s throwing its full support behind another, Phoenix Wright. The Ace Attorney series, known as Gyakuten Saiban in Japan, is doing better than ever. With three games coming soon as well as a feature film based on the events of the first game, more »

So, I was experiencing a bit of insomnia when I realized something. Nintendo had said the Japanese and European 3DS owners who qualified for the 3DS Ambassador program would be receiving their GBA December 16, 2011. I figured I was up anyways, so I got out my 3DS to turn it on and check things out. While Nintendo hasn’t sent out any notice, the GBA games were indeed in my eShop account. I’d say 10 free GBA games are a delightful way to say, “Good morning!”

Nintendo wasn’t kidding when it said it would make sure 3DS Ambassadors would get their GBA games before 2011 ends. Announcements are coming from both Japan and Europe today stating that both regions will be receiving their free downloads very soon. As in, Friday, December 16, 2011 soon. Yes, within days people with 3DS units from those regions will have access to free games, and they’re actually really good ones!

There are the games…

Nintendo has sure been quite quiet concerning that Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. You know, the one that’s supposed to ease hurt feelings after a lot of people paid $249.99 for the system at launch and then felt a bit screwed over because a few months later Nintendy dropped the price to $169.99. To help ease the sting of suddenly squandering $80, the company scrambled to offer freebies to anyone who had been stupid loyal enough to be an early adopter. You know, people like me.

So 20 free games were offered up, with 10 being NES Virtual Console downloads and 10 being GBA Virtual Console downloads. Nintendo was really quite speedy about getting the NES games out, saying they’d be out September 1, 2011. Some people, like myself, ended up being able to get them from the eShop on August 31, 2011. The company wasn’t as prompt with the second batch. Only a general 2011 release window was given. And then we never heard about them again.

Until now…

With Tales of Xillia being released on September 8, 2011 in Japan, it seems only appropriate this week to look back at the Tales series. It’s a fantastic group of RPGs from Namco Bandai that, for some reason, never seemed to get the respect and attention it deserved outside of Japan. However, with Tales of Vesperia‘s success and the forthcoming North American release of Tales of Graces and rerelease of Tales of the Abyss, that could change…

Like most every other gamer past the age of 30, I spent many an hour in the videogame arcade.

Arcades used to be a staple of every shopping mall, every other strip mall and even a few standalone places to kill some quarters. There are still a few such places sprinkled around but they’re pale shadows of what arcades used to be. even Disney’s Penny Arcade has but a few games of yesteryear.