Konami Updates Gradius Rebirth

They need to update games on the Wii more often.

Where's Metal Gear ReBirth Konami?

Where's Super Metroid Rebirth?

I thought Nintendo had some dumb rules against this kind of title update...?
If not, I still want the controls for Lit updated in North America.

Nintendo doesn't like downloadable games being updated or patched, as a rule. That being said, occasionally, they'll allow it as we've seen a couple of times already.

I wish they were more lenient about patches. Some games could use them, and it could be a nice way for developers to reward customers on successful games by adding a few additions periodically like you often see for (iPhone) Apps.

I'll have to remember to download this some time. I keep forgetting about it.

I´d rather see that developers upgraded their software more often instead of putting out completely new versions all the time. For an online game it would be super as the fanbase wouldn´t be put off to buy a new version, instead new users would arrive to the existing user base. Just think about the upcoming "updated" tetris game. How many Tetris Party owners do you think will upgrade to the next game (read buy a full new licence)? my guess is about 0.2%. And if developers instead provided some upgrade path? My guess somewhere well over half of the players would upgrade, leading to an ever growing number of happy online players.

@7

I know I'm not 'upgrading' to the new Tetris Party.

The graphical enhancements are mostly welcome. The Moai level has Moais in the background, the base level has more detail and animation which fixes the "flat" look it had before. They also added an asteroid belt added to the approach of the base level, but I find this quite disorientating.

The music is ok. They changed some of the boss themes and the theme that plays during the first part of the base level. It's not bad and makes the game less repetitive, but I liked a few of the old themes better. They didn't remove anything thankfully, just added more variety.

Overall, it's a welcome update and it's nice to see Konami touching up this game a year after its release.

What are a few goodies worth checking out? Are they making the game easier?

I don't know why nintendo doesn't like little updates or patches. Maybe because they don't have a good system in place to support it. Anyway, hope konami has some more rebirth titles in store for us. They are a great blend of retro and modern sensibilities.

This has been around for six months in europe.

Can you confirm the block size of the game now. 206 was the size after i updated.

I think I can see Nintendo's reasoning. If they allowed anyone to patch, a lot of developers would get lazy and release half-assed games thinking "ah, we'll patch it later" which would be particularly annoying on a highly anticipated game.
I'm fine with just the rare, optional patch. Tweaking a game that sold well, but had one glitch or frequent complaint makes sense.
Though, I guess patching a broken game, that otherwise would have sold better, wouldn't be a bad idea either...
Well, so long as crappy games aren't released, and crappy developers aren't expecting the gamer to be patching stuff all the time. I like console games exactly because I shouldn't have to be a technician to play my games.

I;m suer I heard about this update months ago. In fact I remember writing about it somewhere in the forums. Must have been a region specific update.

Interesting, Corbie. I wonder why Nintendo are against updates and bug fixes...that's one of the benefits of online gaming, isn't it, the chance to fix stuff? As lojng as it doesn't, as Primeris warns, lead to developers rush releasing broken stuff with the intention of fixing it later...

I discovered this myself and put it on the forum and gamefaqs.

In japan on the konami website they listed the details of the update last year. Went into the european shop channel and the update option was available as well adding 30 or so more blocks to the file size.

The game was fine as is, just a free touch up and im not complaining. More of that please.

Developers should be releasing code that runs. If the game isn't as they want it then it shouldn't be submitted to Nintendo for lotcheck, full stop. Having broken games on the download service would be a far bigger PR issue for Nintendo than having shovelware on the service, so I'm totally behind them restricting this kind of thing.

So technically it is possible to do updates and patches to WiiWare games by just releasing a new version of the game and making people download it again.

Whats wrong with them updating gradius rebirth. they havent charged anything.

If your talking about last ninja 3 though totally agree although I wouldnt get something like that anyway.

Confused sorry.

As already stated in the comments: How is this a news? The update has been around for quite a long time already. Or is this news about the US version finally receiving the same update as Europe did way before?

@20: No North America has had this update since february 6, 2010. Old news.

This is only very loosely related, but Capcom needs to update Dark Void Zero so it stops freezing.

Unless the update makes it fun, too, this is not too exciting.

excitebike was another wiiware title that got an update after release, but I have no idea what got updated.

I downloaded this when it hit the japanese wii shop channel and paid to get it legally. Now i don't have access to the japanese wii shop channel anymore since they patched the security hole that allowed to access any wii shop channel from any region, so i can't update this.

Thank you Nintendo !

IMHO updates are what made PC games better in some aspects. I like how patches fix errors and balance issues that beta testers and programmers did not catch in the game release. I think Nintendo should soften it's stance on "updates (patches)." Patches can even extend the life of a game! I remember crying foul when my Pokemon Sapphire had the berry bug; I only went back after it was actually fixed.

@Rerun
Yeah, but at the same time, is it possible that PC games get rushed out of the gate more often due to this ability to just "patch it?"

I know, I know, console games are never perfectly tested, but I wouldn't laud this aspect of "yeah, the PC games are broken, but we give you tons of patches to fix them" argument over, I don't know, how about: just test all games better!

For all the people going "this news is old", news about a North American (and I assume European) update is near-impossible to find.

If anything that shows a massive PR problem with the service. It is a shame as this update is more than random bugfixes (as mentioned above, more music, some better background graphics and changes to the scoring system).

@rerum: which is the berry bug in pokemon ruby/sapphire?

i forget i want this gradius game