Snake Charmer on a bus

With Konami’s release of Metal Gear Solid Mobile , fans of the series are able to have a snake in their pocket at all times. Despite being on a smaller scale than is usual, it has been nothing but smooth slithering for the grizzled-veteran-of-sneak so far, having attained a solid 8.0 from IGN who have stated that it is “a great example of how to correctly bring a beloved franchise to a platform as modest as a cell phone”.

Whilst having a conversation regarding this game on the bus, a passenger sitting near to my posse served us an early Christmas present by informing us in an all-important manner that ‘Snake’ was in-fact nothing new to the mobile, and that he’d been playing good old snake for years. This would have been funnier still had the mobile metal gear been a port of MGS3 – Snake Eater.

The Cry of the Deprived

Nintendo Australia last updated their brawl section around a year before
'Pit' was announced as a newcomer for the game, and even that was almost a year ago.

As the long awaited sequel to Melee, 'Super Smash Brothers Brawl' swoops to glory in its Japanese and American releases, earning such titles as 'fastest selling game in NoA's history', Australian and European fans are still in wait of a release date.

However, some gamers in these areas have been rescued by the Vassal of interregional compatibility - 'Wii Freeloader', a nice piece of software developed by Datel that (as the name suggests) allows you to load up imported copies of software on your Wii.

I am both elated and annoyed at the availability of innovations such as this. On one side of the spectrum, Australian gamers that experience up to 6 month delays on games (to use the Super Paper Mario 'crisis' as an example) are now able to import and receive games roughly around the same time they release in 1st world countries - by the way, your eyes have not deceived you, I am in fact implying that game release dates are now part of the critera used to distinguish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd world nations.

On the other hand, if the 'hardcore' audience continues to import all their games, Nintendo Australia may perceive that those titles targeted at this audience are no longer profitable. This may cause them to 'forget' the hardcore title, and focus upon the release of casual numbers such as 'Wii Sports 2' & 'Mario Party 10', in effect, flooding the market with redundant party game compilations and further depriving the loyal Australian consumer of decent games for his drought-stricken Wii.

I am one of the latter, as I have solemnly sworn to await the Australian release of Brawl, in belief that my staunch support of 'hardcore' releases in Australia will eventually encourage others to take up the same cause, thereby coercing Nintendo Australia that these titles are in fact wanted here, and that something should be done to provide the gamers of Australia with the titles that we love at a reasonable time.