Yesterday's bombshell news that Scribblenauts Unlimited has been delayed in Europe didn't exactly go down well with fans. The game has been available in North America since late last year, and with both the Wii U and 3DS in dire need of fresh titles, it's a real shame that we've got to wait a little longer for 5th Cell's popular sequel.
According to GoNintendo, the release of the game in Europe very nearly went ahead. Apparently copies of the game were actually shipped to retailers, but Nintendo issued a recall when it became apparent that additional bug fixes and changes were needed.
If this is true, then those copies could potentially be worth a lot of money in the future - it makes you wonder if anybody at the stores actually got their hands on one?
[source gonintendo.com]
Comments 23
The alleged bugs would have be related to way that the multiple languages are being parsed, which makes me wonder what's changed in the engine from previous versions to cause this.
Damo, as side note, could somebody at NL investigate how come Australia and New Zealand were saved the pain of delay in this game's instance yet are held back (or on occasion, hold back) on the majority of other "European" releases, please?
We probably ended up with a PAL locked version of the NA release.
Isn't this precisely what patches are for? Presumably these bugs didn't prevent the game from booting?
@GazPlant Then it's a wonder how the testers missed this game breaking glitch. :3
Silly 5th Cell.
Maybe it was something really dumb, like they forgot a starite shard.
This game isn't that fantastic... I guess on principle it's annoying that it got delayed but seriously nobody is missing much.
I don't mind delays i just wish they would explain! Tell us what needs changing then i'd be happy the game works fine in the US what could possibly go so bad that Nintendo would have to shell out the expense of recalling items?
I am assuming it is because of some "bad" words in various languages being allowed or something. Or something which Nintendo decided would be offensive to Europeans.
@Schprocket: We probably got a PAL version of the NA release, just with slightly altered spelling for words such as "colour". We don't have as many European languages needed to cater for over here.
Another explanation could be that we saw it published by Warner Bros. Interactive in Australia, but Europe are getting it published by Nintendo of Europe, so go ask James
I think there may be some substance to this rumour. My local CEX seems to be offering big money for this game (£45 from what I can remember...)
More Germany censoring? I've played the game and there isn't a single bug. Strange that the European launch is going through so much tread.
@Dogpigfish & others
Now what on earth would there possibly be in Scribblenauts of all games that would force Nintendo Germany to censor anything from it. We're not talking about ZombiU here.
Probably is language-related, as the game was released here in Australia in December (pretty sure it was December...), and Aus is generally regarded as part of Europe by the three hardware manufacturers--to the extent that Animal Crossings seasonal weather reflects that of the northern hemisphere.
Still, it baffles me that they'd go to the extent of recalling the already-shipped stock instead of firing out a patch.
Anyone in the UK desperate for a copy might get lucky if they can find an Australian website that'll ship.
@Chunky_Droid Truth be told it could just as well have been the NA version because even CRT TVs have had multi-sync since the days of the PS2 here in Oz, so the chances of it not working are mighty slim
That said, I take on board that WB released it in Oz not NoE, so it makes me wonder why other third party ANZ distributors of games, regardless of platform, can't do the same.
Just bring it out and do day 1 DLC!!
James found a typo.
@Schprocket: It is a bit baffling, I remember JB Hifi distributing Punch-Out!! for Wii, with Nintendo having hardly anything to do with it, talk about weird, lol.
@Chunky_Droid I suspect that there's a few family businesses in this country who have a stranglehold on local distribution for a variety of products.
I know that toy distribution in Oz tends to be 'one size fits all' with very little depth of choice and catering to the capricious whims of the Kmarts and Targets strangles the specialist stores who aren't allowed to import for themselves.
... then they wonder why we opt for eBay and overseas internet stores...
Someone. Find these discs and become Scrooge McDuck.
Nintendo sent out retail copies to press last week. Oops.
@Marioldent
Exactly! Why not release like originally intended, then release a day one patch to solve the problem. It's happend a few times on the XBOX 360 where day one patches have had to be released to fix a bug. Hell it even happens with games released on Apples app store (Final Fantasy Dimensions) been one of them.
Lol! There probably where some offensive words in it!
Anyway, this isn't the first time! It also happened with Earthworm Jim 3D on the N64! I saw it in a dutch shop for a very short time and it wasn't even officially released in Europe yet. I think it took a year or so before it finally appeared again in the shop as a official release!!
Just received my pre-order of this off Amazon! Seems fine to me!
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