Special Wrap-Up: Earthbound Trailer Edition

So, Nintendo decided to release Earthbound in both North America and Europe this past Thursday with absolutely no warning. Could they have planned the launch a little better to get people properly hyped? Probably. Could they have released it at $7.99 instead of $9.99? Maybe. But who cares? Earthbound is finally available again. Not only that, but Nintendo actually made a trailer that isn’t just some game footage with a lame voice-over. To celebrate, the Operation Rainfall Retro Commercial Research Team (in other words, me) will show you said commercial in this week’s Special Wrap-Up.

Here are the highlights from this past week.

Daymond Traphold interviews John Rhee, the creator of the upcoming strategy game Liege.

Soulcalibur II is getting an HD remake for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. No Wii U version has been announced, as of this writing.

Steve Baltimore reviews Muramasa Rebirth for the Vita, Charlotte Buckingham reviews Freedom Fall for PC and iOS, Will Whitehurst reviews Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut for the PS3 and Guy Rainey reviews Vanguard Princess for the PC in this week’s Games of the Past review.

Capcom’s bringing Strider back! A shame it’s being made by Double Helix.

The Downpour Podcast crew talk about Final Fantasy VII’s Steam release, various topics regarding video game graphics, and more in this week’s Downpour Podcast.

Namco files two new trademarks for the Tales series. Will this lead to an announcement for a new Tales game in the future? My guess: Probably.

Intellgent Systems files two new trademarks for Fire Emblem and just Emblem.

Charlotte Buckingham interviews Lisa Rye, the creative mind behind the recently reviewed Freedom Fall.

Game Freak releases a teaser website hinting at a collaboration involving a “well-known game”. Unless HarmoKnight or Pulseman suddenly got super popular in the last few months, it’s probably going to involve Pokemon.

Justin Graham reviews Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade in this week’s Anime of the Past review.

A box set of all six Legend of Zelda Strategy Guides will be available this November.

Nintendo reveals how the new StreetPass Relay works. Now you’ll be able to get more StreetPass hits at specific locations.

Rose Weitz explores the character of Cyrus Addington of Dysfunctional Systems in this installment of Building Character.

Konami released a patch for the PS3 version of Zone of the Enders HD Collection that fixes the frame-rate issues.

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f is coming to the PS3 later this year, but it’s rumored that it will also be coming to the Vita.

Atlus announced that Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl will be coming to North America on October 1^st this year.

Finally, we’re holding a poll in collaboration with LAI to see which SEGA and Konami games you want to see get localized. Cast your vote now!