Nintendo releases EarthBound for Wii U Virtual Console – Gaming news
The Japan-based video game industry giant Nintendo has released its classic role-playing game (RPG)EarthBound on Wii U Virtual Console in North America and Europe.
The company announced via a Nintendo Direct Mini video that the title is now available on Nintendo eShop, a digital storefront that Wii U owners can access via their console, at a price of $ 9.99.
Aside from the title, the publisher has also released its player’s guide, which was originally part of the box when the game first arrived on Super Nintendo in 1995. It is now available on Nintendo’s website and has been optimised for viewing from Wii U’s
GamePad, an interactive, tablet-based controller.
“Unfortunately, we haven't figured out how to make scratch-and-sniff technology work on the Internet just yet, though,” Nintendo's Bill Trinen said in the video, alluding to the smelly cards that accompanied the player’s guide.
Developed by Ape and Laboratory and published by Nintendo, EarthBound first arrived on Super Nintendo during 1994 in Japan and 1995 in North America.
The depiction of American culture and parody of the RPG genre itself got the game some attention, though it failed to do well in terms of sales. Despite being a commercial failure, the game earned itself a reputation of being a cult classic.
Nintendo ported the game to its hand-held video game device 3DS in 2003 and later announced that it will be releasing the game on the Wii Virtual Console, though that never happened.
However, the company announced at the beginning of 2013 that it will be releasing EarthBound on the Wii U’s Virtual Console service, which was to start from March 20, 2013. The release date for the title was not given at the time.
During a Nintendo Direct presentation, the company conceded that it would release the game internationally in late 2013, which also meant that the game would be releasing in Europe for the first time.
Finally on July 18, the company confirmed that the game is now available on the Wii U Virtual Console eShops in both North America and Europe.
It remains to be seen if EarthBound manages to get more gamers interested than it did upon its release on Super Nintendo.
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