Topic: Nintendo launches "Player's Choice" budget re-releases for Wii

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo is launching a Budget Title re-release program for the Wii in Japan. But this "Player's Choice" selection isn't determined by Nintendo or by game sales, it's decided by player ratings of games on the Nintendo Channel. So since we hope this makes it to the US, we better get online and starting rating those games.

Nintendo Starts a Budget Lineup

Nintendo will be including only those titles that scored a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum user rating on the Everyone's Nintendo Channel on Wii.  This presumably means that only quality games will make the cut.

At present (as of January 13), 75 games qualify for the lineup, voted on through over 1 million votes. Of these, seven will see release on February 25:

    * 428 (Sega, Platinum)
    * Muramasa Demon Blade (Marvelous, Gold)
    * Arc Rise Fantasia (Marvelous, Silver)
    * Family Ski World Ski & Snowboard (Namco Bandai, Silver)
    * One Piece Unlimited Cruise Episode 1 (Namco Bandai, Silver)
    * Tales of Symphonia: Ratatoskr no Kishi (Namco Bandai, Bronze)
    * Dragon Ball Z Sparking! Meteor (Namco Bandai, Bronze)

Each game will be priced at ¥2,800.



All these games are from third party publishers.  Nintendo's official page for the lineup does not specifically refer to this as a third party program.

Also, it should be noted that the official site does not indicate that this program will continue beyond the first seven titles.  It's possible that this will be a one-time lineup, and not the continuous stream of titles offered in Sony and Microsoft's budget lines.

This better make it outside of Japan. I'm sure there are lots of games that could use a second chance, and since Nintendo is re-releasing these themselves, I'm sure there will be some sort of advertising campaign behind it to let those that missed it the first know what it is that they missed.

*It's been mentioned on the MMV site that the artwork you see above is a sleeve and the game retains it's original artwork.

[Chozo Ghost]

Wow, those boxes actually look pretty cool. I remember everyone seemed to hate the baby-puke-yellow of the GC's player's choice titles. But these ones are actually pretty snazzy.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I edit the OP to contain this:

*It's been mentioned on the MMV site that the artwork you see above is a sleeve and the game retains it's original artwork.


edit: What games would you guys recommend for the "Players Choice" lineup outside of Japan?

Zack & Wiki
Deadly Creatures
No More Heroes

Depending on when this comes out
Rabbids Go Home
Silent Hill
A Boy & His Blob

[UltimatePartyBear]

It's pretty epic that this is actually "Players' Choice."  I wonder if all the titles being third party has anything to do with Nintendo's new policy this gen of not dropping prices.

[BlackNMild2k1]

This is probably Nintendo's way of finally giving that Marketing support that 3rd parties have been crying for. Only Nintendo found a way to give it only to those games that deserve it and not for the games that the developers just want to have supported.

[TJ Spyke]

I wonder if all the titles being third party has anything to do with Nintendo's new policy this gen of not dropping prices.

This gen? Nintendo has ALWAYS been resistant to price drops. Hell, I think Super Smash Bros. Melee was $50 for like 3 years before they finally dropped it do $30. Nintendo only drops prices for games after they don't think they can sell anymore at its current price.

[Caterkiller]

Very excited for this! What would Nintendo fans think when Nintendo themselves go out of their way to say that "this game is good"? I actually think this is fantastic, and could build better relations. Sack and Wicki getting platinum from me thats for sure.

[Ian Sane]

Wow, those boxes actually look pretty cool. I remember everyone seemed to hate the baby-puke-yellow of the GC's player's choice titles. But these ones are actually pretty snazzy.

Agreed.  I think in North America they make the "hits" versions have ugly packaging on purpose to disuade people from waiting until the price comes down.  The discounted packaging then becomes a badge of shame.  Hell, maybe in Japan these boxes that we think look snazzy are considered unattractive. 
 
Good first step.  Now let's see if NOA does this.  Has Nintendo done this in Japan before?  Is the Player's Choice program normal practice there or is it a Western thing?

[Mop it up]

Zack & Wiki
Deadly Creatures
No More Heroes
Rabbids Go Home
Silent Hill
A Boy & His Blob

Those would be great choices, as I own none of them but will get them all eventually.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I own all of those except for Deadly Creatures.
Muramasa, Okami & Little King Story might also be a good addition to the list

[vudu]

Your horrible grammar in the topic offends me.

Nintendo is launching a Budget Title re-release program for the Wii in Japan. But this "Player's Choice" selection isn't determined by Nintendo or by game sales, it's decided by player ratings of games on the Nintendo Channel.

Bull ****.  If it were truly determined by player ratings why are there 3 silver and 2 bronze games in there?  It's a ploy to get people to pay a little more attention to these re-releases.  Nothing more.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm just going by what the original story said.

Nintendo will be including only those titles that scored a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum user rating on the Everyone's Nintendo Channel on Wii.

[Chozo Ghost]

Only Nintendo found a way to give it only to those games that deserve it and not for the games that the developers just want to have supported.

Let's hope it stays that way. During the GC era Nintendo really dropped their standards in terms of what could be considered "Player's Choice", so a lot of garbage was pushed as being a P.C. title, even though it was crap. On the GC that was somewhat understandable though, because it didn't have a lot of huge selling titles (especially among third parties). But the Wii has a lot of huge sellers to choose from so Nintendo shouldn't need to turn to desperation this time around. It is important that the Player's Choice lineup not be diluted with shovelware, because if it is then it loses its meaning and you might as well call it "bargain bin choice" or something like that.

[BeautifulShy]

Well I was thinking that that might be a problem but this system uses the Recommendations of players from the Nintendo Channel. So I figure it works like this there has to be lots of recomendations for a certain game for it to be avalable for this program. There is likely a certain number that the games have to be at to be avalable for this program. Basically if someone rates a shovelware title highly there has to be more people that support that notion.More than likely the good titles will get more Platinum recomendations than shovelware titles.

[TJ Spyke]

Nintendo never dropped the standards for Player's Choice (BTW, this is not a Player's Choice lineup, it's name is translated to something like "Everybody's Recommendation lineup"). PC titles were determined by how many copies a game sold. Take Sony for example, their Greatest Hits lineup required a game to be out for at least 6 months and sold 250K copies.

Vudu, it's not BS. You are assuming they would start with the top-rated games (i.e. the #1 rated game, #2, #3, etc.). These games are some of the top rated.

[BlackNMild2k1]

BTW this IS "Player's Choice" since it's the Player Ratings that make the Choices for the games chosen not the amount of blind sales a game happened to make. This way even good games that were financial bombs can get the second chance that they deserve.

[Kairon]

Bull ****.  If it were truly determined by player ratings why are there 3 silver and 2 bronze games in there?  It's a ploy to get people to pay a little more attention to these re-releases.  Nothing more.

Well, I think the publisher has to agree to the rerelease as well, as well as it making sense in other ways. I mean, the OP quote does point out that 75 titles qualify under the basic bronze-or-better criteria, so obviously out of those 75 there are other factors affecting release.

[NWR_insanolord]

I think it's still pretty much going to be the games Nintendo wants to do; the stipulation that they be highly rated on the Nintendo channel is just to encourage developers to work harder in order to get Nintendo's support.

[KDR_11k]

Whether the selection was fair or not those games are recognized as very good and it makes more sense to put actual good (though underperforming) titles into a "choice" series than just anything with high sales (I believe I've seen Kane & Lynch in some choice series...).

[Chozo Ghost]

I agree with KDR. This would be a good way to push games that didn't quite get the sales they deserved by giving them a second chance to shine and breathing some new life into them. Games that have already sold well don't really need this boost, but something like Dewy's adventure and Zack & Wiki certainly do.

Sales of GTA on the DS have also fallen short of expectations, so that game could use this sort of boost as well.

[Ymeegod]

Glad player's choice is finally coming but either someone rigged the votes because We ski and snowboard was a very poor game.   

Still the boxart kicks major ass though.

[Ymeegod]

Also, the PC price point is at $30ish.  Alot of those games listed are already marked lower than that?

[BlackNMild2k1]

But I think they barrier for getting into the PC lineup is being under a certain amount of sales in a region (i.e. U.S.).

Didn't We Ski & Snowboard do pretty well sales wise?

[KDR_11k]

I believe We Ski did well, We Ski & Snowboard improved upon it but I don't think it sold much.

[BeautifulShy]

For those that are wondering these titles are eligible for this program if there is a second round of budget titles for Japan.

Gold
Tales of Graces
New Super Mario Bros Wii
New Play Control Pikmin 2
Wii Fit Plus
Monster Hunter 3
Wii Sports Resort
Super Smash Bros Brawl

Silver
Samurai Warriors 3
Monster Hunter G
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball Next
Taiko no Tatsunjin
Animal Crossing:City Folk
Jikkyou Powerful Powerful Baseball 15
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Super Sluggers
Winning Eleven Playmaker 2008
Family Ski
WiiFit
Super Mario Galaxy
Resident Evil 4:Wii Edition
Zelda:Twilight Princess
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Wii Ketteiban
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes

Bronze
New Play Control Pikmin
New Play Control Mario Power Tennis
Wii Music
Karoke Joysound Wii
Diaster:Day of Crisis
Fatal Frame 4
Battaleon Wars 2
Metroid Prime 3:Coruption
No More Heroes
Zack & Wiki
Resident Evil:The Umbrella Chronicles
Naruto Shippuden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX 2
Fire Emblem:Radiant Dawn
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
Minna No Joushiki Ryoku TV
Momotaro Densentesu 16
One Piece:Unlimited Adventure
Wii Sports


I didn't type out the titles that are already listed in this topic.