Top 5 Botched PC Game Launches [1UP]

Super Paper Mario announcement [Nintendo Europe - Thanks Martin]

A few weeks ago, Stephen Munn over at Aeropause reported that Nintendo was replacing Twilight Princess discs (Wii version) that had been affected by the "Cannon Room Glitch." Stephen unfortunately got caught in this trap and dutifully returned his disc to Nintendo for replacement. Well, the new disc came back and Stephen says that once again all is well in Hyrule.

Starting the new Zelda disc the first time brings a message, "Initiating System Update." On confirmation, it does a very quick update (apparently from the disc), and then brings you back to the Wii Menu... Upon opening the game, Shad is in the room. Speaking to him makes him leave.

The problem with this bug was that the character of Shad was nowhere to be found in the room to talk to after saving and shutting off the console in the Big Cannon Room. If you talked to Midna and tried to warp out of the room, she would tell you you couldn't because "That guy is watching us." Searching for Shad in the room came up with nothing despite what some forums would have you believe about him being "invisible", thus making it impossible to leave the room.

So, if you were a victim of this unfortunate incident and were unsure about sending your disc back, you can rest assured that the new replacement will fix the issue. There is no word yet on whether this will also fix the Eldin Bridge glitch that was also present on some versions. Flynn De Marco

NOA replaces my Zelda disc, and then some. [Aeropause]

Despite repeated warnings and articles about it all over the internet and certain forums, Stephen Munn over at Aeropause got caught in the dreaded Twilight Princess Cannon Room Bug. Now, I am not dogging him for this, because I did exactly the same thing back in December and ended up having to repeat three dungeons.

As he was researching an answer to the issue (which until now didn't exist) he came across a random posting on the official Nintendo forums claiming that Nintendo was replacing the glitchy discs. Not only that, but if you are stuck at that particular point in the game, the new disc will resolve the issue.

So, Stephen did a little investigating and after an email exchange, got a Nintendo rep on the phone that confirmed the replacement policy. The rep went on to explain to him exactly how the exchange works:

Write a letter explaining how I encountered the issue, along with my name, address, and daytime telephone number, and mail it along with just the game disc (no case) to the following address:

NINTENDO OF AMERICA
ATTN: CS ADMIN
4900 150TH AVE NE
REDMOND WA 98052-5171

A big shout out to Stephen for following this lead to it's conclusion so we can all get our buggy discs replaced. I'll be sending mine out tomorrow, anyone else going to take advantage of this? Flynn De Marco

Nintendo replacing buggy Zelda discs [Aeropause]

Ew. Let's hope this is just a one-off, as reader Ozhan gave us exactly this much information about his GoW wonkiness: "Skipping error on GOW; ruined the game!" Really? RUINED? But everyone seems to love it. Anyone else seen this? We've heard no other reports of Cliffy B and company's mega-hit acting up on us. Michael McWhertor

Dear Taito: we know that making games is hard. Heck, that's why we pay you guys to do it. Still, perhaps in the future you might want to budget for more than 30% of the game to be play tested?

Because your latest game? Bubble Bobble Revolution? It's clear no one bothered playtesting this past level 30, the level in which a big boss who is supposed to appear to allow you to proceed absolutely, positively doesn't.

And this? It's not cutting it:

We have been looking very hard into this issue with Nintendo and have now determined that all of the cartridges that have been shipped in North America are faulty. Needless to say we are extremely sorry that this situation has arisen and would like to apologise to you for this issue.

We have already started the process whereby a corrected version is to be manufactured and will ensure that all customers have their copies replaced. Unfortunately this will take 8-10 weeks (simply because of the time required to manufacture new carts). We will update you with what you will need to do to get a replacement game, as soon as this has been determined.

8-10 weeks for people to actually play the game they already paid you for? Are you out of your flippin' gourd? Florian Eckhardt

Bubble Bobble Revolution DS production issues confirmed *UPDATE* [Go Nintendo]