Localizations: Denied! When Games Don't Cross Over the Pond

SuperPhillip Central's "Localizations, Please!" series of articles has gotten lucky with how most of the games I've wished for have received localizations or localization announcements. However, there are the occasional moments where a game stays in its native homeland, never to be translated and played by the rest of the world. This article delves into those specific games with the first segment of "Localizations: Denied!"

Dragon Quest X (Wii U, Wii)

The first game to not be released in the West is one that all of the odds against it. It was released near the end of the Wii's life, the system's successor that the game also was on sold like sand to a man in the desert, and it was a massively multiplayer online RPG. That hat trick of negative aspects meant that the tenth mainline installment of a series that already didn't have much selling power compared to, say, Final Fantasy, which has seen two MMORPG entries released on this side of the Pacific, would not find it crossing over the pond.

Dragon Quest VII (3DS)

Silence is golden, but not for localization news. It makes sense that Dragon Quest fans are wanting the eleventh installment of the series to arrive on a Sony platform because then the odds of it being localized are much stronger. After all, Dragon Quest Heroes recently released in the land of the rising sun, and it's already set for localization, though only on the PS4 instead of the PS3 as well. Dragon Quest VII's Nintendo 3DS form is a full fledged 3D remake. As prices for the PS1 original fetch a high price and so many missed out on it, it would have been nice to have received word of localization.

Disaster: Day of Crisis (Wii)

Xenoblade creator Monolith Soft's Disaster: Day of Crisis is the odd gem in this batch of six unlocalized games, as it was the only one that actually reached the West. It released in PAL territories, but unfortunately, it never hit North America. Filled with action, rail-shooting sections utilizing the Wii Remotes, jumping puzzles, mini-games, and quick time events, Disaster: Day of Crisis had players trying to survive a city caught in a nasty mix of natural disasters and terrorism. The biggest disaster, ironically enough, was sales, as the game did horribly in retail, leading to Nintendo of America deciding not to bring it across either the Pacific or the Atlantic.

Zangeki no Reginleiv (Wii)

Returning to the Japan-only lineup of games on this list, Zangeki no Reginleiv (or as it was originally called "Dynamic Slash") featured copious amounts of violence through the form of slicing and chopping off enemy extremities with the Wii MotionPlus peripheral, offering precise sword slashing action with one of over 300 weapons. Up to four players could hop onto the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to participate in group beast slaying. No doubt both Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America felt that the demographics for Zangeki no Reginleiv didn't fit in with the ones they had in their respective regions. It's a shame, as the game looked like a mighty amount of simplistic and savage fun.

Soma Bringer (DS)

Another title that most likely didn't get localized due to demographics was the Nintendo DS' Soma Bringer, also developed by Monolith Soft. The game was deemed a cooperation RPG by the developers, favored by players for its combat system, visuals, and music. In a time where Nintendo was localizing the Dragon Quest series, and third parties were releasing a wide variety of RPGs such as Final Fantasy, Radiant Historia, Etrian Odyssey, Rune Factory, and more, it remains disappointing that Nintendo itself didn't bring over Soma Bringer or allow another studio to do the duties for them like XSeed Games did with the Wii's Pandora's Tower.

Mother 3 (GBA)

A commercial and critical success in Japan, Mother 3, the sequel to EarthBound, released at the end of the Game Boy Advance's life. This was at a time when the GBA was slowly entering the old folks' home and the Nintendo DS was taking its spot on center stage. Due to this, Mother 3 did not get localized in the West to an official capacity. Instead, a fan translation is available for download via emulator, but it would have been a lovely treat to have the game released in some aspect in the West.

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What games that never released where you live do you feel bummed you missed out on? Drop me a note in the comments section below.

Best Boss Battles in Gaming History - Part Fourteen

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING GAMES:

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)
• Rayman Legends (Multi)
• Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
• Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)
• Mario Party 10 (Wii U)

Welcome to the fourteenth installment of the long-running series of articles, Best Boss Battles in Gaming History. This is where you, me, and anyone else who wants to join in delve into some of the most climactic, enjoyable, entertaining, clever, and downright fun boss battles in the history of gaming. Whether it's a hardcore final boss or a creative take on a normal boss, these boss battles are some of the best gaming has to offer.

If you missed out on a previous entry of Best Boss Battles in Gaming History, look no further than these links:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six 
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen

Catch Part Fourteen after the break due to spoilers and all!

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - Get N or Get Out Edition

Time for a special Nintendo-themed edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, an edition full of bright and bouncy music. This week SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs have music from Pilotwings, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Tetris Attack, and Super Mario 64. As always, if you'd like to see and listen to the previous VGMs featured in this weekly segment, check them out at the VGM Database.

v871. Pilotwings (SNES) - Light Plane (Vocal Mix)

This version of the Light Plane theme from the original Pilotwings comes from the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U soundtrack. It plays during the Pilotwings stage, featuring battles aboard multiple airplanes as they soar around Wuhu Island from Wii Sports Resort and various other Nintendo titles. The vocal mix version is my preferred version of this happy-go-lucky theme.

v872. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) - Main Theme (Vocal Mix)

Another version which comes from Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Donkey Kong Country Returns itself had a relatively nice soundtrack, though it paled in comparison to the Rareware sound team's efforts from the SNES trilogy. However, this vocal theme based off the menu music is absolutely wonderful, featuring what appears to be the Kong crew singing along.

v873. Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii) - Mt. Slide

Mt. Slide in Kirby's Epic Yarn is a level where fast-paced snowboarding is the order of the day. It's a very perky and triumphant theme, perfect for slip sliding down slippery slopes in search for beads. Good Feel, the team behind Epic Yarn, is now pretty much wrapping up work on their next project, the hype-inducing and incredibly adorable Yoshi's Woolly World. While Europe gets the game in a month's time or so, us North Americans will have to wait until the fall unfortunately.

v874. Tetris Attack (SNES) - Forest World

We go back in time to the Super Nintendo with Tetris Attack's Forest World, hosted by the Wiggler enemy of Super Mario fame. Known as Panel de Pon in Japan, the game was given a Yoshi coat of paint for its Western release and a new name, Tetris Attack. The soundtrack is a mix of cute, charming and catchy themes.

v875. Super Mario 64 (N64) - Encore (Slider) - Mario & Zelda Big Band Live

This version of Super Mario 64's Slider theme comes from the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live concert from 2003. It featured music from Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Yoshi, mostly focusing on then-recent games like Super Mario Sunshine and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. This version of Slider was the final theme played during the concert, the encore.

Bloo Kid 2 (3DS eShop) Review

Last night I covered the first of many Nintendo 3DS games to be reviewed this month, the second annual month of 3DS reviews! It was a digital game, much like this second title to be reviewed, Bloo Kid 2. The original Bloo Kid, released on mobile devices, is not for offer on the Nintendo 3DS. Hopefully that will change, as this sequel on the Nintendo 3DS (also on mobile devices) is quite the enjoyable romp. See how with my review.

A fun platformer comes out of the Bloo

Once every little while a game comes out of nowhere to surprise me with its quality. When I decided to review Bloo Kid 2, a game that originally released on mobile devices, I didn't think much of it. I knew it was a game in my favorite genre, but I didn't expect it to be anything above average. Fortunately, the old colloquialism "you can't judge a book by its cover" comes in here. Well, in this case, we're talking about judging a game by its screenshots, but that is neither here nor there. Bloo Kid 2 manages to successfully hearken back to a bygone era in gaming. While that is nothing original by itself, it doesn't have to be. Instead, Bloo Kid 2 puts fun over originality and day of the week.

Bloo Kid 2 is an old-school style platformer through and through, whether it is in its visual appearance, sound effects and music, or complexity. Bloo Kid himself has very little moves in his arsenal, making for a game that is accessible to nearly everyone. He can jump, double jump, bounce off enemy heads, and swim. That's pretty much the extent of Bloo Kid's repertoire. It's the actual level design that keeps Bloo Kid 2 from feeling stagnant.

You slimeballs know that they have corrective
surgery for lazy eye, right?

With Bloo Kid 2's levels, you get sprawling affairs with plenty of split paths that eventually converge to a return to a more linear path, plenty of hidden areas uncovered by walking through invisible walls, and tricky enemies to contend with. The levels are short enough that repeated play-throughs don't come across as tedious.

Depending on the difficulty chosen, Bloo Kid has more or less hearts to work with than normal, the basic health bar of the game. If you're hit when you have zero hearts shown, it's game over, and you have to retry the level from the very start. Again, level length allows for fast runs through them. It's just when you get to meticulously exploring levels (a task that is completely optional, but adds longevity to Bloo Kid 2) that the amount of time it takes to beat a given level is longer.

The enemy variety in Bloo Kid 2 is quite high.

There are nine levels in each of Bloo Kid 2's five worlds, the final being a boss battle that is highly reminiscent of bosses from other games. For instance, the boss of Green Hills, the first world of the game, is pretty much Whispy Woods from Nintendo's Kirby series. This is even down to the way it attacks and takes damage.

Each level has its own set of goals to complete, but you can simply rush through a level and beat it if that's all you want from the game. However, it's through completing the six goals of each level where you get a better satisfaction out of playing Bloo Kid 2 and more appreciation for the game's level design.

For instance, one goal is to collect all of the stars in a level or defeat every enemy. There are also three hidden silver stars in each level that require some fanatical devotion to acquire them all. Not just because they are hidden well, but also because many require careful and cautious platforming to attain. Despite a blue flower indicating a silver star is nearby, there is some a lot of searching to be done, whether it's through hidden walls or death-defying platforming prowess. Other goals include beating the level before the timer hits zero, completing the level with full health, and hitting the rising balloon at the level's goal before it escapes the screen.

Bloo Kid 2 makes no attempts to hide
that it was inspired by 2D platformers of old.

Bloo Kid 2 features color pixel visuals that look like a nice compromise between what one could find on the Super Nintendo and what one could find on the Sega Genesis. The 3D effect is pronounced but imperfect. Bloo Kid and the platforming environment have the same depth, but some platforms are further back in appearance in 3D. This makes it so Bloo Kid occasionally looks like he's standing on midair. Other than that, the 3D effect works well and looks great. The music is chiptune goodness that sometimes had me bobbing my head around as I played. The only problem really with the game's technical performance is that it crashed on me once in the fourth world, resulting my Nintendo 3DS system to go back to the home menu and restart.

Careful, Bloo Kid. You definitely don't want
to go for a dip in that lava!

Bloo Kid 2 doesn't attempt to do much that is original, but that's okay, as what is here is exceptionally fun. The level design houses an abundance of secrets, allowing players to comb over every inch for hidden areas, as well as the option to speed run with ease. The ability to play with physical buttons instead of a touch screen setup is a marked improvement, making a nicely designed game play even better. If you're tired of searching for an inexpensive 2D platformer that does its job well, Bloo Kid 2 won't give you the Bloos.

[SPC Says: B]

Review copy provided by Winterworks.

Boxboy! (3DS eShop) Review

Boxboy! kicks off SuperPhillip Central's month of Nintendo 3DS review in style. Nothing like a greatly reviewed game to start things off. There will be even more Nintendo 3DS games reviewed this month, both digital and retail, so I hope you'll look forward to them. For now, take a peek at HAL Laboratory's latest, Boxboy!

It's hip to be square.

From the developer behind Kirby comes Boxboy, another in the line of creative titles from HAL Laboratory. Although the game appears simple in concept-- you play as a box name Qbby, able to extend boxes of the same size from his own body to solve puzzles and reach otherwise inaccessible platforms-- Boxboy quickly turns the complexity dial up to 11 in a rather fast fashion.

Things start out simple enough, but Boxboy
can get mighty challenging in its level design!

As stated, Qbby's most pronounced ability in Boxboy is the power to create a chain of boxes from his body that can be situated to solve puzzles. One of the early uses of Qbby's abilities is to spawn three boxes resembling a staircases so he can reach a higher platform. Another has him creating an amount of boxes in the shape of a hook to hang off of another higher platform. With a press of the Y button, Qbby can contact the chain of boxes, allowing him access to the platform where the box that served as the "hook" once was.

Qbby can unlatch himself from the box chains he makes.
It's paramount to do for this particular situation.

The catch with summoning boxes is that each level has a set amount of boxes that can be summoned at one time, and each time Qbby extends a series of boxes, the last series of boxes disappears. Getting crowns in levels, collectibles that when all are collected in a level give the player a "perfect clear" rating, means that Qbby can only use a set amount of boxes total before the the crown(s) disappear.

On many occasions, boxes spawned by Qbby can
be used a protection against harmful hazards.

Beating a level earns the player credits that can be spent on time and score attack challenges, new costumes for Qbby (each with their own impressive amounts of animations), and even tips and tricks for different level mechanics within the game.

Each of Boxboy's worlds houses a specific set of themed challenges. Some deal with buttons that open and close doors when force is pressed on them that Qbby must place boxes on to hold them down. Others deal with conveyor belts, electrically charged blocks, gravity, and many more. The great thing about Boxboy and how it handles new twists and mechanics is that the game eases you into each new level gimmick. You're rarely unsure of how to go about solving a given section of level because the game did not prepare you for its challenge. Perhaps the only negative concerning the level design and new twists introduced to players is that many of the mechanics in Boxboy only show up in a handful of levels (aka one world) before the game moves on to a new mechanic.

Hold down this button with one of Qbby's boxes to
make this dark trio of squares appear for Qbby to walk on.

Levels in Boxboy feature plenty of checkpoints, so failure is seldom truly punishing. It definitely is never frustrating. No, when Qbby fails by getting stuck or taking damage, he starts at a checkpoint, which is always at the start of a new puzzling section of a level. Players can also press the shoulder buttons of the Nintendo 3DS to manually restart from a checkpoint if they get stuck.

If for some reason a section of level is something a player can't wrap his or her head around, the option of getting a hint is available through spending one of the Nintendo 3DS system's Play Coins. A quick picture of the location and amalgamation of boxes needed to progress in the level is shown, meaning that as long as a player has enough Play Coins, they can ask for a hint if they cannot come up with the proper solution on their own.

Much like Pushmo, Boxboy is yet another excellent Nintendo 3DS eShop entry from HAL Laboratory, showing that the developer still has plenty of creative bones in its collective body. Containing clever puzzle design, an innovative concept, and a creative and helpful hint system to allow for any and all players to beat its many levels, Boxboy is a fantastic offering that shows that it's truly hip to be square through its four hour plus playtime and affordable price.

[SPC Says: A]