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Pandora's Tower review: Chained blades
It's hard to say for certain what a platform's last game will be, but it's pretty easy to guess what a platform's last noteworthy release will be. I'm sure the endless parade of impulse-buy, waggletastic Wii shovelware will continue to trickle out for a while yet, but the last significant Wii release for North America looks to be Pandora's Tower. As the last of the three Operation Rainfall games brought over from Europe (via Japan), it was bound to garner plenty of attention, regardless of its quality. The good news is that Pandora's Tower deserves it.%Gallery-187276%
Pandora's Tower opens its doors April 16
The long awaited North American release of Pandora's Tower finally is finally upon us. Publisher XSEED has announced that the Wii RPG will finally launch on April 16 for $40. For those who haven't been keeping track, Pandora's Tower tells the story of a girl cursed to become a monster. The only cure? Munching down pieces of nasty monster flesh. It's a love story.
Begin scaling Pandora's Tower in April
Pandora's Tower, the last game in the original Operation Rainfall campain – and likely the last major Wii retail release, is coming out this April, XSEED revealed.The new trailer released today details the storyline, and introduces the character Elena, who you fight to save by braving the tower. Somehow, the trailer manages to simultaneously give the story emotional weight, and convey that it's about feeding chunks of twelve giant monsters to a sick girl.
Pandora's Tower streamlining to NA without a special edition
Publisher XSEED isn't looking at bringing out a Pandora's Tower special edition when the game finally reaches North America this spring. The Wii JRPG did get one in Europe, which came with an art book and steel case, but XSEED tweeted that this time around it had to "go a bit more streamlined." That streamlining may still incorporate a reversible cover and manual art, but we'll have to wait and see.Pandora's Tower is the last of the Operation Rainfall Wii JRPGs to get North American localization, and is now available for pre-order at GameStop, priced $39.99. Its release represents a comprehensive victory for the 2011 grassroots campaign, and we suspect those involved are just happy to see it over here, special edition or no.
XSEED erecting Pandora's Tower for Wii in NA this spring
Publisher XSEED has come to the rescue for American Wii owners again. Once thought lost to the dungeons of Nintendo localization, XSEED will bring Pandora's Tower to North America this spring. Pandora's Tower tells the story of a hero tasked with saving a young girl from a terrible curse. The only cure: feeding her lots of freshly slain monster flesh. Check out the trailer above (made for the European release last year), for the gritty, nasty details.Last year, to the dismay of many fans, Nintendo infamously stated it had "no plans" to localize three major Japanese Wii RPGs, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade Chronicles (though it did eventually localize the latter). Now it seems XSEED has made a habit of snatching up discarded Nintendo properties in North America, last year localizing The Last Story, which went on to be its most successful game ever.
FIFA Street fights back to top of UK charts
FIFA Street returned to the top of the charts when sales were tallied in the UK last week, scoring its fourth number-one finish. Chart-Track notes the title has now matched the rank history of the original FIFA Street, which also owned the hard charting streets for four weeks back in 2005.It was a pretty quiet week in the battle for rankings otherwise, with the entirety of the top ten playing musical chairs. Last week's chart-topper, Kinect Star Wars, was not the game more people were looking for, and slipped down to fourth.The only new release last week to break the top 40 was Pandora's Tower from Nintendo, which debuted in spot 38. Check out the UK top ten after the break.
Pandora's Tower gets an English trailer from Nintendo of Europe
Don't get too excited -- there's still no North American release of Pandora's Tower to speak of. But in the meantime you can still enjoy this (kind of gross) English trailer for the Japanese export, coming out April 13 on the Wii in Europe.
Pandora's Tower coming to Europe in April, enjoy gross Valentine's Day cards now
Pandora's Tower is the next European Wii RPG release for us all to be jealous of. Following this month's The Last Story, Pandora's Tower will arrive in Europe on April 13, ensuring an oddly impressive 2012 Wii lineup for the region.Pandora's Tower is an action-RPG game in which soldier "Aeron" traverses a series of towers to gather monster meat with his magical sword and chain, and then feeds the aforementioned flesh to his cursed friend Elena. Yikes.Speaking of "yikes," Nintendo chose to mark the announcement with a set of grotesque Pandora's Tower-themed Valentine e-cards. You can view them in the gallery or download them from Nintendo, for any relationships you need to end.%Gallery-147423%
The Last Story, Pandora's Tower due in Europe in 2012, more Euro releases dated
The Wii does have a lifespan beyond 2011 -- in Europe. Nintendo of Europe sent out a list (PDF) of upcoming titles today, including the two other games for which Operation Rainfall is campaigning: Mistwalker's The Last Story and Ganbarion's Pandora's Tower. Both are slated for 2012 in Europe now, and have yet to be announced in North America. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be released in Europe November 18 while Kirby's Adventure Wii is coming in December. The release list also provides November and December windows for Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 on 3DS, respectively. Super Pokemon Rumble will also be released in Europe this December. On DS, DQ Monsters Joker 2 is coming October 7, Kirby Mass Attack is due October 28, and Professor Layton will answer The Spectre's Call in November. Cave Story will finally come to DSiWare in Europe in Q4. A few standout downloads listed: in Q4, the 3DS Virtual Console will see releases of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Metroid II, and the Game Boy Bionic Commando game. Nintendo previously blocked the NES version from Virtual Console.
Operation Rainfall begins phase 2, asks fans to buy Final Fantasy on Virtual Console August 19
Operation Rainfall, the fan-driven initiative to promote North American releases of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, begins its "phase 2" today. This phase is meant to coincide with, and take advantage of, the August 19 launch of Xenoblade Chronicles in Europe. "To all residents in the regions of Europe and Oceania," the organizers say, "we encourage you to pre-order and purchase it at your earliest convenience. In the Americas, we encourage you to promote awareness of these titles. Good sales abroad will be a strong indicator for the title making it to American shores." The initiative also includes a rally of letters to Nintendo of America, to be mailed from August 13 to August 17 in order to arrive at roughly the same time. The group also posted an open letter to Satoru Iwata urging him to greenlight the games for North America, and promising to help promote them. Finally, "phase 2" includes one (hopefully) attention-getting stunt timed for August 19. As a show of interest in RPGs, the initiative encourages people to purchase Final Fantasy on Virtual Console that day -- if you already have it, you can gift it to someone else or donate to Child's Play through a widget on the site. Can the Virtual Console's servers even handle multiple people buying a game at once? Has that ever been tested?
Nintendo: 'No plans' to localize Xenoblade, Last Story, or Pandora's Tower
On Sunday, Nintendo of America's Facebook page promised "more updates soon" regarding the status of Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower, the three Wii games that are the focus of the ongoing grassroots campaign for localization, called "Operation Rainfall." On Monday, it posted a Super Mario 64 trivia question. Then, today, it provided the response that fans were waiting for -- but not the one they wanted. "We never say 'never,'" the company stated, "but we can confirm that there are no plans to bring these three games to the Americas at this time." A brief response on Twitter thanked Operation Rainfall-ers for being "such incredible fans," but reiterated that "there continues to be no plans for NOA to release these 3 games right now." Not that we want to give false hope regarding the actions of a company who is always pragmatic to the point of angering dedicated fans, but "no plans right now" is far from a death knell, especially for Nintendo. Some things that there were "no plans" for in America: the black Wii, the Classic Controller Pro, the Wii Sports Resort hardware bundle. Basically, there are "no plans" until the company decides to tell people its plans. So even that denial leaves the door wide open for one of these games to be announced at a "Media Summit" or similar event in the fall. We're just mentioning that possibility, to be perfectly honest, so that we can say we totally called it should that happen.
'Operation Rainfall' campaign seeks localization of Wii RPGs
Normally, online petition efforts seem doomed from the start. But a grassroots campaign, born on the IGN forums, and aimed at getting Nintendo to localize Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower outstrips the normal, futile campaign through cleverness and pure vigor. Fans have taken to spamming Nintendo's Facebook and Twitter pages and email with requests for those three games. "Operation Rainfall" also involves coordinated physical mailings of letters to NOA headquarters, aimed at one game at a time. Even more clever -- and likely effective -- is a campaign to pre-order "Monado: Beginning of the World" from Amazon. Back in 2009, before it was even called Xenoblade, Nintendo announced this game at E3. Amazon accordingly added a pre-order listing, which has been sitting dormant for two years. Now, that orphaned pre-order listing is Amazon's top seller in video games. Unlike most petitions, this can be translated directly into purchase intent -- i.e. money on the table -- and is more likely than anything to attract Nintendo's attention. It's at least attracted the attention of Nintendo's social media intern: the company tweeted, "Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!"
Pandora's Tower revealed, and coming soon to Japan
In late January, Nintendo of Japan launched a teaser site for "Pandora's Tower," a (total) mystery Wii game said to be near completion -- no kidding! The site was updated today with a trailer (which has also been released on the Wii's "Everyone's Nintendo Channel" in Japan), revealing a release date of May 26, 2011. See for yourself after the break. So, what is Pandora's Tower? According to a preview in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu (via Andriasang), this straightforward-looking if not melodramatic action RPG assigns the young hero, Ende, with the absolutely morbid task of de-fleshing enough beasts to end a curse suffered by the lovely singer Ceres -- who's supposed to be gracing the harvest festival! Ende must butcher these foul creatures (in a colorful cartoon-style suitable for ages 15 and up) throughout a series of twelve towers before the curse consumes Ceres. Pandora's Tower has been developed by Ganbarion, best known for its pair of Jump Stars DS fighting games in Japan.
Nintendo opens teaser site for Wii 'Pandora's Tower'
Today, Nintendo of Japan posted a teaser site for a new Wii game called "Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side." Not a thing is known about it other than what can be seen and heard on the site, which means all we can confirm at this point is a back tattoo and the spoken line "Dying and becoming beautiful, or living even though you're ugly. Which will make you happier?" (as translated by Andriasang). If we had to guess, we'd say this looks like the work of Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft. Despite the total lack of information, Nintendo of Japan president Satoru Iwata said in an investor presentation that the game is almost complete, and Nintendo plans to launch it this spring in Japan.
