Monday, January 11, 2010

On this week's episode of 'Why I Want a Japanese Wii' ...

Japanese Wii owners will be treated to two Virtual Console releases this week: The MSX version of Parodius and the MSX version of Salamander.

(No worries if you've never heard of the MSX. Basically, it was a standardized computer platform that was developed by Microsoft in the early 1980s. Although it became quite popular in Japan, it was all but ignored in Europe and the U.S.)



I'd buy the MSX version of Parodius in a heartbeat if I owned a Japanese Wii. It's hardly the best iteration of Parodius, a series I've loved since the release of Parodius Da! in the early 1990s, but it is the most unique (in my opinion, of course). It's also the hardest--and "cheapest."

Here's a video that shows off the game's (fan-translated) first stage. (Which, I hate to admit, I have yet to clear. Yeah, I'm weaksauce.)



If you're lucky enough to own a Japanese Wii--and you decide to plop down 800 Nintendo points for this title--but you can't tell your hiragana from your katakana, go here to download an English version of the manual.

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