Good news to classic Pokemon lovers, Nintendo announced today that Pokemon Crystal will be coming to the Nintendo 3DS eshop on January 26th 2018.
Pokemon Crystal will be compatible with the Pokemon Bank as well as have wireless trading and battling with the other 3DS Pokémon games.
Well, it seems like it’s happened again. Another 3DS game has been pulled from the eShop because a homebrew exploit was found that utilised it to run custom code on the system.
This time however, it’s indie platformer VVVVVV that’s been hit. This is due to an exploit called (v*)hax, which uses an ‘exploited’ savegame and buffer overflows to run. Interestingly, this exploit on its own isn’t actually enough to run the hacked code. Instead, you need an existing ‘homebrew entrypoint’ like Browser Hax, Smash Bros or Cubic Ninja to get it working. So it’s perhaps not as big of a deal as it could be.
None the less, it’s enough for Nintendo, who have pulled the game off the US eShop as a result. The game’s creator seems pretty fine with the findings though:
So apparently there's a way to use VVVVVV on 3DS to run homebrew! That's unexpected! https://t.co/UHcwm7T2Ue
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) May 2, 2016
Apparently it's not really a big deal because it's not a "primary" exploit – as in you still need another game or something. I don't get it
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) May 2, 2016
So hopefully that means I won't need to patch anything, woo
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) May 2, 2016
Related note, if you're into doing 3DS homebrew, it's possible to load VVVVVV player levels onto the 3DS version! https://t.co/nvZIfxVya9
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) May 2, 2016
So will it come back? Well, possibly. It all depends whether Terry Cavanagh decides to patch the game to fix the exploits, since a similar thing happened with Ironfall Invasion back in August 2015. But for now, the game is unavailable on the eShop until further notice.
Source:
VVVVVV Pulled from North American eShop Following Discovery of Homebrew Exploit
As of today, Project X Zone (the original game) is now unavailable to download from the US (and European) eShop. There’s now a message saying ‘this product is currently unavailable’ where the download button should be.
Above: The game that was removed from the 3DS eShop
But while it’s not as bad as it could be (Project X Zone is out and apparently much better than the original game), it still doesn’t really make sense if you ask me. I mean sure, the sequel might be better. Yet the original game was great too, and some people might want to try it out. Heck, some people who enjoyed Project X Zone might want to give it a shot too, to see what they missed originally.
Games and other media shouldn’t be taken down because they’ve been ‘replaced’ by a sequel. Super Mario Bros 3 may have been better than Super Mario Bros 1. Earthbound may have been better than Earthbound Beginnings. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time may have been better than A Link to the Past.
Now admittedly, this might not be the main reason for its removal. Apparently, the licensing for the game may have ran out or something similar, hence its take down. But that doesn’t seem very logical either. I mean, they’ve already got the rights for the second game, so why is a game using the same IPs and content something that can’t be left available as well? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Either way, it’s gone now. If you want to get a copy of the game in any of these regions, you’ll have to find a physical version of the game in a shop’s bargain bin or something.
Source:
Original Project X Zone Removed from 3DS eShop – Nintendo Everything
Yes, it’s another rumour, but this one is certain to interest a few people! To cut a long story short, known gaming writer Emily Rogers (who apparently has a fair few insider contacts at various companies) has been posting messages on Twitter hinting at an official localisation for Mother 3. Presumably done in the same style as Earthbound Beginnings (which was released on the Wii U eShop last year), the game would apparently be released on the eShop to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the title’s Japanese release.
Above: Seems like a pretty big hint if you ask us…
One last thing before I vanish: Don’t be surprised if Nintendo celebrates a game’s 10th anniversary this year…Just some food for thought.
Above: As does that one (from a deleted tweet)
But is it true? Well to be honest, that’s a hard one to judge. On the one hand, Emily Rogers has shown some legitimacy as far as leaking information about new games goes, and hey, it does seem like a good time to finally bring this game to the Virtual Console. But on the other hand… there’s also a lot of talk that Mother 3 is a legal nightmare for Nintendo, and that a significant amount of the music would have to be altered to avoid risking a lawsuit from the artists who inspired the pieces in the first place. Are Nintendo really going to go through all that effort for a game with a limited (albeit enthusiastic) fanbase and no existing English script?
What do you think about the possibility of Mother 3 getting an official localisation this year?
Source:
Rumours Start to Swirl about Mother 3 Localisation – GoNintendo
With Nintendo releasing details about the 2DS bundles for the games and related download cards (and showing pictures of said cards in the process), the file size of the first four Pokemon games has been revealed. But how big are they? How much space does it take to download Pokemon Red, Blue, Green or Yellow to your 3DS from the Virtual Console?
Above: It might also be on this box, if you can read it.
11MB per game. Doesn’t that sound a bit excessive for original gen Game Boy titles?
Yes, yes it does. In fact, as a quick search of the internet wil tell you, the file size for a Pokemon Red or Blue ROM is under 1MB in size. For example:
That’s the ROM size as per Data Crystal, a ROM Hacking wiki giving information about the original games the mods are based on. So somehow, adding the game to the Virtual Console and making its link cable functionality work with the 3DS wireless system has made the game ten times larger.
No, that’s not the emulator, at least if it’s a moderately well written one. The likes of VisualBoy Advance (a Game Boy emulator that plays games from the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance and comes packed with extra features) is merely 2MB in size. Somehow, Nintendo’s minor edits and built in emulator have somehow made a single Pokemon game bigger than all four ROMs running on one of the most complicated emulators ever released.
Either way, that’s 11MB you’ll need per game, and 44MB if you want to own Pokemon Red, Green, Blue and Yellow for the 3DS. Hope you’ve got some extra room on that SD card…