Missing in Action – Games that Never made it to Australia
Ever wondered why Australia missed out on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney? What about Trauma Center Under the Knife? Are the fish missing in your Electroplankton ocean? Well fret not readers we’ve done the research and now have the answers. Find out why these games are Missing in Action, and whether you should care.
Keep reading! Electroplankton
What is Electroplankton?
Firstly Electroplankton is not a game, its a more of a music program. What you have is a series of 10 different Plankton, each one generates music in its own each way. Like Volvoice for example, Volvoice lets you record your voice or any other sound via the DSs Microphone and then allows you to play back the sound in a variety of ways. Or Beatnes which has on screen 4 Plankton that all look identical, each consists of 10 segments, pressing on of the segments will play a sound clip from an old NES game, the sound byte will then loop for the next minute allowing you to mix a whole heap of sounds together.
All of the Plankton are controlled with the touch screen, and by interacting with them in different ways, you can create different sounds. The one major gripe with the game is that you cant save the sounds you make and mix them together with sounds from the other Planktons, but anyone with a PC and the right cables would be able to do this if they really wanted to.
Why it’s not coming to Australia
At this time it seems highly unlikely that Electroplankton will make it tout down here. It came out in Japan in early April last year where it sold alright but maybe not as well as Nintendo was hoping. At that point in time no one was really sure if it would even make it out of Japan. It was finally released in the US on January the 9th 2006 initially available only on the American Nintendo website and from the Nintendo World store in New York.
It was announced to be released in Europe on April 21st but this was pushed back to July 7th, since then it seems to have been canned for Europe due to various reasons. With a possible future release in Europe extremely unlikely, it seems all chances of this game coming out here are gone. The game has sat on the TBC for a year now, we dont expect it to be there much longer. Electroplankton won’t make enough money for Nintendo for them to bother releasing it.
Should I Import it?
Tthats a tricky question, due to the nature of the title, your either going to love the game or hate it. In the end if you very musically inclined, if you love those quirky little titles, that are great for killing half an hour, then this is a very good piece of software to pick up. If after looking at all the reviews out there you still arent sure, heres a little tip head over to the official Electroplankton Japan website, then main menu is intractable in much the same way Electroplankton is, it doesnt really compare to the game, but you should kinda get the idea, http://electroplankton.com.
I honestly think the best thing to do with this game if you are considering importing the game is to do lots of research, make sure you know what you are getting yourself into, as I said some love others hate, if you love it, then it could be one of the best buys youve made, if you hate it, your never gonna touch it again.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Whats Phoenix Wright all about?
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney also known as Gyakuten Saiban is an adventure game starring a prestigious lawyer, Phoenix Wright. The game was originally released in October of 2001 for the Gameboy Advance only in Japan. Fast forward to today, and the game has now been re-released in Japan, Europe, and America translated with all the cases as well as new one which was built specifically and exclusively for the DS. The game uses the touch screen as well as the microphone to guide Phoenix through his adventure, which spans 5 cases.
Why is Phoenix Wright not coming to Australia?
No doubt you have a heard many a reason as to why Phoenix Wright is not coming to Australia, which range from the title being cancelled or delayed to the much loftier statement of Its just not getting a release. Well sadly its the latter, from the best of our understanding of it and from the research we have done on the title it seems that the game didnt have a publisher.
Well, to be exact it did, two in fact, but neither one of them released it. Thats right; Phoenix Wright had two publishers and thats what contributed to the problem. As far as we know, September 2005 was when Phoenix Wright was to be released it was also at this time that distributing rights for Nintendo (Gamecube, DS, GBA etc) games from Capcom was to be taken over by Nintendo Australia from THQ. While neither company will confirm this for us, we believe that since Resident Evil Deadly Silence, and last years two Viewtiful Joe titles were published and distributed by Nintendo, it is good evidence this switch took place. So in the time between the switch, THQ decided not to publish/distribute the title and when Nintendo Australia picked up the distributing rights they decided not to or werent allowed to distribute.
Of course any company reading this who may want to clarify exactly can contact us.
Should I import it?
Of course the decision up is up to you and if you plan on buying the sequel coming out later next year (if it does indeed come then) then youll need this one for inevitable back-story. Of course finding a copy even overseas could be a problem as the game has been plagued with supply problems due to a short printing run. It has since been reprinted and now is also released in the UK; between those two places you should be able to find a copy. Phoenix Wright is a great game, if a little short but absolute fun.
Trauma Centre: Under the Knife
What is Trauma Centre?
Trauma Centre: Under the Knife for Nintendo DS has to be one of the most unique games in recent history. Off the top of my head I cant think of anything else like it. In the game you assume the role of Derek Stiles, a young surgeon fresh out of residency. The game starts out with you being slowly introduced to the other main characters as well as the various tools you will get to use. As the storyline progresses, you learn more about a new Disease that is wrecking havoc on the world.
The game is almost exclusively controlled by the touch screen. There are various tools at your disposal including, such as surgical laser, scalpel, needle, syringe, bandage and many others. So if you need to remove a tumour you need the scalpel to cut it out, then the forceps to remove it, and then the needle to stitch over the wound. Trauma Centre has a puzzle game feel to it, however I guess the best way to describe it would be as a medical simulation. The game itself is one of the hardest games on the DS Ive ever played, while it starts out nice and easy the difficulty level picks up rather quickly and at 45 odd levels your not gonna finish it in a day.
So why isnt Trauma Centre coming out in Australia?
Mainly the same reason as Phoenix Wright; publisher and distributor issues. Trauma Centre got an unbelievably short production run and the demand has since triggered three reprints. We have also contacted Altus USA on the subject, however they were unable to tell us who was the distributor, but we have found out recently that Red Ant do some distribution for DS games in Australia with another Altus title SBK: Snowboard Kids getting a VERY limited release here. We have contacted them for comment however no response of yet is coming back.
Should you import this game?
With out a doubt! It is one of the best games on the DS and it is a real shame it has not been released down here. If you love challenging puzzle games, Trauma Centre is a must get. In my opinion, it’s a must for every DS owner. If dont have a DS though you could wait for the Wii version which Atlus says is the “”perfect version”” of the game.
One of your favourite games MIA? Maybe we can help drop us a line here and we’ll look it up!
