Topic: DSiWare in Australia and New Zealand.

Exactly what happened here?
I recently picked up my DSi again and have been looking at DSiWare games that I might want to try out. I saw a few interesting ones. Maestro Green Groove and Zenonia look pretty good. I can't help but notice that a ton of games are missing from the Australia/New Zealand DSiWare store. None of the GO Series games except for Ivy the Kiwi? (which is a bit pointless when I already have the retail version), no Flipper or Flipper 2, no Pop Island, no Mighty Milky Way, and perhaps most disappointingly, no Shantae: Risky's Revenge. I thought that was considered the system seller for the DSi? It strikes me as bizarre that they'd choose to not release that game worldwide. All these games were released in other PAL countries too, according to Nintendo Life's release dates.

Was an explanation ever giving as to why we missed out on so many games? I'm fairly frustrated by this, because unlike WiiWare, where most of the best games available for it were on other systems, DSiWare has a lot of interesting looking exclusives. I'd like to at least know why we missed out on so many games.

In before generic "No good DSiWare anyways" post.

The most likely explanation is the expensive ratings system, which defeats the purpose for a service where sales are really poor.

At least you still got X-Scape IIRC.

Yeah, Australia's rating system is probably why a bunch of DSiWare titles aren't in Australia/New Zealand. If @WhiteKinght shows up, he could tell you a lot more about it, but it's basically this: the Australian rating system is very expensive compared to NA, Japan or Europe, there's a smaller market for video games in Australia and New Zealand (because there's fewer people), and when those two combine, a lot of smaller developers just can't make money in that region.

Yeah, I know, it's WOEFUL here, but if you have a 3DS you can change your region settings to a European country, and when you go on the Eshop, it's the version for that country, so you can get all those great games like Shantae by doing that.

But if you have a DSi, there basically nothing you can do about that, unfortunately...

Jeez, you're OBSESSED with that game! I've seen your obsessive rants on other threads about it!

Oh, good to know! I'm planning to get a 3DS before the end of the year, so I'll be able to check those games out then.
Are your points transferred over to the European eShop if you bought the points on the Australian/NZ eShop?

@Shock-and-Awe no they're not, unfortunately. Each region has its own wallet, although you can download demos and whatnot. You'll need a credit card and if you're stingy you might want to watch the exchange rates haha

At the moment, it seems to be a "sucks to be Australian" kind of situation :/

_{you mean, 3D Space Tank?}

Unfortunately, your points are locked to your region.
However, if you go to another region and come back to the original, you will still retain your points.