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| Liz Maas |
The latest on the fan campaign Operation Rainfall's progress.
06.27.11 - 10:00 PM
If you're a Wii owner whose console is seriously in need of RPGs, you're not alone. Chances are you've heard of Operation Rainfall, a letter campaign started over on the IGN forums and has caught fire around the web over the past few days to encourage Nintendo of America to bring over more Wii RPGs - namely Xenoblade, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. The campaign also covers Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and just about any other way that fans can get through to Nintendo - including making Xenoblade the top-selling pre-order title on Amazon under the name Monado: Beginning Of The World. (As of this writing, it's currently #3 on the bestselling video game list.)
Monolithsoft's Xenoblade was originally announced at E3 2009 as Monado, but has received little to no news stateside since. The game was released in Japan a year ago and was rather well-received, and Europe is set to see the title this fall. Mistwalker's The Last Story was out in Japan in January, and Ganbarion's Pandora's Tower hit Japanese shelves last month. Although neither The Last Story nor Pandora's Tower were ever announced for Western localizations, the lack of news on Xenoblade frustrated a lot of fans - as did the lack of RPGs on the Wii in general as of late.
After the campaign took off this weekend, there were some reports floating out there of Nintendo reps confirming Xenoblade's release stateside under its original name. Does that mean Operation Rainfall was a success after all? Not yet. This is the answer that Nintendo's customer service has been giving fans for many months, and it's worth noting that Xenoblade was never officially cancelled in North America. It's likely that the Nintendo CSRs just don't know much more than we the fans do.
That's not to say that Nintendo hasn't taken notice though. Yesterday, NoA left a message on Facebook and Twitter which sounds encouraging, if nothing else: 'Hey fans, we appreciate your enthusiasm. Look for more updates to come soon!' Mistwalker also thanked fans for support on their own Twitter, as well. If you want to see any (or all) of these three titles out West and haven't participated yet, more support couldn't hurt anything. Destructoid detailed the letter-writing campaign here (and it's also the first post in the IGN thread), although I'd suggest that a letter in your own words might be more effective.
Here is all the relevant info for both parties:
Monado: Beginning Of The World (Amazon listing)
Operation Rainfall:
Twitter
Blog (The blog contains updates on the campaign more contact info for Nintendo and relevant links and a handful of Xenoblade videos)
Facebook
E-mail
Nintendo of America
Facebook
Twitter
Snail mail:
Reginald Fils-Aime (President and COO)
c/o Nintendo of America
4820 150th Ave. Northeast
Redmond, WA 98052
(Fear not, Canadian fans: Canada Post is being legislated back to work this week so your letter will still get there.)
Below you will find the relevant links for all three games are at RPGFan, and we will keep you updated as soon as there is more info!
