Remember StarTropics? No? Well, it was a much beloved Nintendo game from the glory days of the NES. Playing something like a tropical spin on The Legend of Zelda, it followed the adventure of a kid named Mike Jones as he scoured an island in search of his lost archaeologist uncle. It was a very charming adventure, but it's since been lost to the annals of time; Nintendo gave up on the franchise after Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II sold poorly due to being one of the last games on the NES, when most players had moved on to the SNES.
Interestingly enough, avid gamer Brad Smith noticed a problem with a couple of music tracks as he was playing the game on an emulator. After digging through the files, he realized that one of them had too large of a file size and the other had an additional zero entered into a line of code. For those of you playing through StarTropics on an emulator, a patch from Smith can be downloaded here that will fix these issues so you can hear the tracks in-game as they were originally intended. It's all very fascinating stuff and Smith explains the process quite well in his video:
This makes one wonder if Nintendo will ever do another StarTropics. After Kid Icarus: Uprising, you can never be too sure as to what Nintendo is planning.
Did you ever notice this flaw? Would you like to see another StarTropics from Nintendo someday? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 31
One of my all time favorite NES games. I was blown away when I realized I had to soak the letter that came with the game in water. And how screwed I was on subsequent playthroughs because I lost the letter.
I really hope Startropics gets the Kid Icarus treatment. If it was released earlier I bet it would have been a hit. Such an under appreciated gem.
Before that can happen we'd have to see the main character in Smash.
@NESlover85 That's the big advantage of these new digital manuals. You just have to soak your 3DS in water instead to read the letter these days.
Wait, that's not right.
I'd really like to see this game return--along with about a dozen other franchises, but Nintendo seems content on just pushing out annual Pokemon games, continuous Zelda remakes, and endless nonsense with Mario on the cover because those are apparently the only things their fans will buy.
If it did come back, I would expect anything more than a one-off title like Kid Icarus: Uprising, and then for it to be promptly ignored again because it'd be time for another Zelda remake or 3 more games with Mario on the cover.
Man I miss the era when Nintendo liked making more than three franchises.
A Nintendo franchise is like a volcano.. it may lie dormant for ages but can suddenly become very active.
Mike Jones really could have been a sweet fighter in Smash, plus it would be the perfect way to reignite interest in the series much in the same way that adding Pit to Brawl sparked interest in Kid Icarus again and hence why we got Uprising.
@Vineleaf
lmao
I love StarTropics so seeing this made my morning!
Interesting stuff.
@Mk_II
There's still way too many dormant ones.
That's why I get annoyed by seeing 3~6 games every year with Mario on the cover, or the 3 Zelda remakes in 4 years we had to deal with. Like, really Nintendo? They couldn't, maybe, just maybe replace two of those Mario games with another Punch-Out, Star Tropics, Eternal Darkness, Geist, Custom Robo, F-Zero, Wave Race, Sin & Punishment, Battle Clash, Mother/Earthbound, Ice Climber, Devil World, Golden Sun, Excite Bike/Truck/Bots, Wario Land/World, Wild Gunman, Tin Star, Teleroboxer, Project HAMMER, Disaster, or a worthwhile use of the Urban Champion IP?
Ahh grumble grumble grumble.
Of course I remember Star Tropics! I still have it on NES cartridge, and I first read about the series back in a.... either December 1993 or January 1994 volume of Nintendo Power.
Along with other retro hybrid-genre titles like Guardian Legend, this is a type of game that is past due for a revival. Here's hoping someone sees fit to make it happen.
I always figured that "bip bip BOOP..." sound effect leading to a silence in the higher pitched background for the main soundtrack when he entered the town was just one of those not unusual NES era mishaps in sound production. Interesting to find there was something behind that all this time!
I've always wanted to play Startropics. Here's to Nintendo releasing it on Wii U VC.
I had this on Wii VC, tried giving it an honest attempt at a playthrough a couple times, but couldn't get into it.
The gameplay was just too stiff for me. Only being able to walk in a grid (4 directions) while enemies can move in up to 8 directions proved to be very frustrating.
The music was great though and how he fixed these tracks is interesting as well.
@WiiLovePeace
Well, it's already on the Wii VC, and has been since 2008. Just get that one. When and if they do a Wii U version, you pay a $1.50 to upgrade.
If you really want it, there it is. You can already play it on your Wii U.
Im honestly surprised it took this long.
considering when things like The Cutting Room Floor is around.
I'm with everyone above saying they love StarTropics and wish it would return. It's one of my all-time favorites. Just look at the banner on my Twitter page!
@Quorthon But then I have to go into Wii mode, not be able to use the buttons on my gamepad & have to find my classic controller... Eh.
I had to come running as SOON as I saw StarTropics lol. It definitely was a footnote game in Nintendo's history, and given that I don't even think this was released in Japan (please correct me if wrong), this franchise will stay forgotten unfortunately. I was shocked to even see it make it to the VC, let alone part 2. I'll never forget how pleasantly surprised I was when I took a chance on this game over Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers cause the box art "looked" interesting and the commercial "looked" similar to Zelda gameplay. I will not be holding my breath for this game unfortunately, but I will quickly tell ANYONE who hasn't played it to DO so... it's pretty awesomecola
I must admit, I never tried the game on an emulator so I would not have noticed. I own the original cart (north american version) so I don't really have a need to emulate it .
Holy nuts and fruit chocolate! I was personally and obsessively looking up info on StarTropics for the past few weeks, and suddenly there is new development appearing on a 25 year old game?! My mind is blown - it's like it was meant to be!
I recently acquired a license to download the sequel - Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II - on my Wii, thanks to Club Nintendo, and been trying to beat it for the first time, although it's a pretty tough game. However, it is a shame Club Nintendo didn't include the first title, and I still need to use an emulator and ROM file to play the original just because I am unable to purchase anything from the Wii Shop Channel on my own. This is simply because Nintendo won't accept my debit card info as it is not issued by a bank in the United States or Canada, and Nintendo Points prepaid cards have long been outta print. Why couldn't Nintendo of America revamp the system so that eShop prepaid cards work with the older digital stores like it does on the PAL and Japanese systems?
Does this only happen when playing on a emulator, or did it happen on the NES as well? If it's emulator only then it's not really a big deal.
@Vineleaf no, you'll have to soak you water in 3DS
wait...
Like any good dog, 3DS can get dirty and you need to bathe it ever so often so it don't stink so much. Maybe I'll give my MM Edition New 3DS a bath sometime. Fill up the sink and squirt some Ajax in it for a scrub down with an SOS pad to buff that shine out of the finish. And forget the hair dryer, microwave is the only proper way to dry off your freshly soaked console...
That end theme remastered is amazing. And just like everyone else in this thread, I have a deep love and appreciation for this game. I was surprised that it was never released in Japan, and that it was exclusive to Americola.
@WiiLovePeace
I admit that it's annoying to have to go through Wii Mode for anything, but seriously, if you want to play the game, just go in there. Saying that you want it but the only way is for it to be on the Wii U VC is just a useless thing to say.
If you really want to play it, there's nothing stopping you but your own weird hang-ups. It's like the kids who wanted to play Majora's Mask before it came out--yet again--on the 3DS. What they really wanted was slightly prettier graphics. If they really wanted to play the game, there it was, this entire time, already on the Wii, for less than half the price.
It's not like the game you're saying you want to play is so hard to find. It's ridiculously easy to get. It's not like, say, Blasteroids. A game I want to play, but which only appeared in arcades and some 80's PC systems. That game is not remotely easy for me to get a hold of, so hoping for an update is actually much more reasonable.
Honestly. This is the equivalent of you saying you really want a hamburger, but McDonald's is too far away when it's across the damn street.
@Ferkner: It happens with the original cart obviously, otherwise people emulating the game would have noticed and fixed it long ago. He talks about the mistakes in the original code in the video and it's mentioned in the article.
You can't hear the fixed tracks without an emulator, hence all the emulator talk.
I would love a new star tropics game, preferably on the 3DS eShop. They are a very interesting and secret laden series of games that I discovered much later in my life and I thank God for the internet for making it so I didn't have to track down a worn out map to soak in water. I also believe that in recent years this game and it's sequel have garnered quite the fanbase of gamers who may have missed it on it's first outing, and a return to the series would be extremely welcome.
did he dip anything in water?
@HopeNForever Actually, they do still have Wii and DSi cards in stores - often below the display of eShop cards, hidden covertly.
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