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1

Nintendo Gaming / Sigh. Eshop stole my money.

« on: March 30, 2016, 11:57:55 PM »

I just wanna pout with somebody.


I have a Japanese Wii U, living in Japan, and sometimes I make a purchase or two off its Virtual Console. The easiest way to pay is to tap an NFC train pass to the gamepad to zap the record of funds off its stored value. Not a credit card, but a cash-charged up NFC.


Last night I got frisky and bought one Famicom Castlevania game and one GBA Castlevania game (Circle of the moon). Those both went through just fine and deducted from my card in an instant. They started downloading in the background. Then I went, just to look at the other game I might want to get some day: GBA's Aria of Sorrow.


The most ridiculous thing you've ever heard immediately happened. A message popped up informing me that I had just purchased Aria of Sorrow. Wut.


Now I have some pretty slow internet where I am, and I genuinely think that the Wii U's data got backed up before it could process properly. I was sitting there thinking, "what is this, buy two get one free day?" So I returned to the main system menu and peeked at the download screen. Sure enough there was Aria of Sorrow nearly finished.


The other two never came. Ever. I went back to the eshop and saw that they were there, unpurchased. I looked at my purchase history and only the one I DIDN'T buy was in the list. My WiiU didn't know I had bought them. The next most recent purchase on record was Mother 3 from a couple of months back. So I went down to the train station before it closed and got a physical print-out of my purchase history with this card. They of course had both been deducted from my value, one Famicom price and one GBA price.


In the morning it still wouldn't register. It was just a hit and run by my console. Now I am honestly fine with getting Aria instead of Circle. They are the same price and I like them both. But my Famicom cash went poof. So I called Nintendo, because I knew my payment receipt record didn't match my purchase history in the console Mother 3, my second most recent purchase, is more money than a Famicom game, so the history is impossible. The discrepancy is provable. Tech support in Japanese is tough, though, and the call is not free, so I was taking a stupid gamble over a cheap price. So, obviously she told me to look at my purchase record in the console, the two games I paid for not there, and she told me there was nothing she could do.


I wanted some tech support email address so I could mail the visual evidence of the payment record vs. the internal data, but she just shut that possibility right down.


I made a very clear point (as clear as my broken Japanese can be) to say that Nintendo's NX platform had better have a central user account system so the records can stand and support staff can see the clear payment records for themselves even if someone's console bugs out.


It really, really makes me want to not give Nintendo any more money. Not digital, and discs from used shops only.


And definitely not in Miitomo, which I have tried, where literally the only ultimate point is to buy dress up stuff (mostly female clothes and cat/baby chick/apple/flower cosplay) from daily questions/the drop game/actual money. All that dumb app ever does is ask me about my favorite accessories, dream first kisses, school uniforms, and up and coming pop divas, even though I clearly made a male Mii. "We've gotta show off this photo!" (Dances with hands clasped below his head, bending his knees so that he bobs up and down with his eyes closed in delight while flowers jet out from him in every direction...) Oh, and the new MyNintendo gold points redeemable for game purchases expire after 6 measly months so you had better do your buying in bulk and not over time.


Ok, I'm done. Vent.


Has anyone else ever had an unresolved digital purchase in a Nintendo console? If you pay via NFC, the console will deduct the money and do nothing with it if the connection is slow. Be warned.

2

Nintendo Gaming / N64 button remapping on Wii U. Woo!

« on: April 30, 2015, 07:48:25 AM »

This is going to be a rather detailed description of my own predicament, but bear with me.


After moving to Japan, I went a long time without getting any new games, because the language barrier intimidated me. But as I improved my Japanese and even decided to use games to practice, I dove in sometime last year with a used J-Wii and a bunch of cheap used games. Rediscovered the Virtual Console and downloaded classic N64 games for the very first time. Played Majora's Mask for about half an hour before realizing that I somehow straight up sucked at it. Like bad. Like "how do I swing the sword, hurrr" levels of incompetence. Slowly it dawned on me. These buttons were mapped wrong. Not like A and B were switched. The whole layout was rotated a mindboggling 90 degrees counterclockwise. I confirmed it with Kirby 64: I can't do this. I can't continue to suck air at holes I meant to jump over. I can't continue to run into bosses I meant to attack. I can't go on accidentally throwing away my element power ups, like...


WHO DESIGNED THIS?! Whose bright idea was it that just because the names of the buttons on a Wii classic controller happen to match a right-side oriented SNES instead of the left-side oriented N64 that they would have to map A to a and B to b. Like, okay, the button names are the same now, but the thumb has to completely relearn 20+ years of controller standards. I was flabbergasted.


What was even more amazing was that when I searched the net for people's opinions on this, I could find literally one post mentioning a complaint in passing. How did the whole userbase possibly overlook this? Do they have superhuman muscle memory retrainability? Did very few people purchase the games?


Well, then of course I used my Gamecube controllers exclusively for the task. It works... okay. The Dpad is not great, and the A and B buttons are still the wrong diagonal orientation, but at least they are located on the left side. But trying to do a split second long jump in Mario 64 with a deep analog trigger is pretty bad. I'm always accidentally butt stomping because A is pressed before I can fully depress L.


All this led me to ask. "Why can't I freaking remap this mess?" I long for the days when you could tell Super Metroid anything you wanted for controls, like if you want Select to be shoot, go for it. Total customization.


Thus... when... I ... saw... that... glorious... Nintendo... Direct... in which Iwata-sama casually described Wii U N64 button remapping I literally stood up out of my chair, clapped my hands and bellowed out loud like the 800 pound gorilla with a red tie I suddenly decided was worth downloading.


I had my Wii U Xenoblade bundle already reserved at that point, but this was complete peace of mind. You see, I wasn't sure whether I would ever want to transfer my data from my Wii. Because you can't just plug in a GC controller and use it on Wii U Virtual Console. (I don't have the GC controller adapter, but even if I did, would it really work with DK64? Open question, seriously. I would like to know.) But now I had peace of mind that I wouldn't need to worry about losing functionality by putting my N64 titles on Wii U... In fact, it would be all pure gain!


Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Forum goers everywhere.


I have not yet performed the system transfer... I have just bought DK64.


皆さん。発表します。


The Japanese Wii U does not have button remapping.


...


It does not have button remapping.


I want to cast your mind back to the early 90s. You are a kid. So far you have found 90 exits in Super Mario World. One day, when you pick it up, spin jump has inexplicably and permanently become regular jump. Jump has become fireball. Have a nice game.


Now it is the later 90s. Ocarina of Time. You have just arrived in Ganon's Tower. Suddenly in order to roll you have to use C-down which is not for items anymore. Have a nice game.


It is the 2000s. Super Smash Brothers Melee. Middle of a Tournament. Lol, let's attack with a bean-shaped X from now on. Have a nice loss.


I am not quite able to describe in words how intensely disappointed I am. The worst part about it is that no one in this country will complain because... they won't even know to... Sigh, full confession. --> I actually did watch the Japanese version of the Nintendo Direct after the English one, and no, Iwata-san did NOT mention remapping at all. It got me nervous, but I held out hope. No one in Japan even knows about it. So what incentive will the big N even have. No one will bring it up. Such a seemingly minor detail like this is likely to go unnoticed.


As a last resort, could someone please tell/show me a picture of what specifically I am supposed to see in the Wii U home menu during N64 play just in case? I will give you all my internet affections if you can help me actually find it after all.


Do people really not care much about this issue? Google seemed to think so. Seriously, crazy_pills.gif here.


The end. Thank you for your patience. 今度からよろしくお願いたします。

3

Nintendo Gaming / Can't redeem prepaid card.

« on: April 29, 2015, 06:34:38 AM »

Not to make anybody jealous or anything, but I just got my Xenoblade X bundle today. Enjoying it up. I made my NNID and all that, but the Wii U eshop just won't accept the code for the 1000 point prepaid card that came with the bundle. I was able to add 500 yen via one of those NFC train cards, so I know my Nintendo account works generally for charging points. And I tried putting the Xenoblade X prepaid card in my old Wii console, and it worked. (Of course I backed out without confirming it and wasting the points.) The error code the Wii U system gives me is 107-3106, and there is only a smidge of information when googling that code. Some suggested waiting a while after your first eshop purchase. Why would that be?


It is a minor problem, but any help would be appreciated to the tune of exactly 1000 prepaid points.


よろしくね。