To recap: the PAL Virtual Consoles sometimes run a little thing called the Hanabi Festival. Means a bunch of rare, usually Japan-only games get made available for a limited time. Well, they’ve kicked off another one this week, and the update’s a cracker. While one of the games has already made an appearance – Mario 2 – the other is a sight for sore eyes. It’s Super Mario RPG. Yeah, Super Mario RPG. Which never, ever graced these southern shores, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to catch up with my good friend 1996.
Last year Nintendo ran a little party for PAL customers called the “Hanabi Festival”. For a month, they put a bunch of Japanese games up on the Virtual Console, games that had never been available outside of Japan. It went down well! So well they’re running another one. This week, European and Australian Wii owners have been able to pick up Final Soldier, Columns III and Gradius II. In coming weeks? A lineup that includes Star Parodier, Puyo Puyo 2 and, amazingly (awesomely?), the original Cho Aniki.