WonderSwan The WonderSwan was robbed

thanonyx

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Ever since I found out about the WonderSwan I've felt that it had great potential that it just didn't get the chance to live up to. If it got released internationally I would've given it a shot. It had some great Digimon games and I love Digimon. It also had some great ports of Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 4 (y no 3 tho?). It even had a few Super Robot Wars games in its library. It even had some really neat original titles like Rhyme Rider Kerican, DicingKnight., and Vaitz Blade. It even had a dev kit available, the Wonder Witch.

This little handheld had some great games and there were even special edition ones made. If this came out internationally wouldn't you have gotten one?

WonderSwan Color assortment.jpg
 
Not only did it have what would be the base for most Final fantasy remakes up to 5 (excluding 3) but it had portable Klonoa and Clock Tower

It tried turning a survival horror masterclass into a portable game and it has the first spiff in the best platofrm series ever alongside warioland And it has a tate mode; on top of looking like a sleek late 90s-00s jap cartoon gadget. Bless it.
 
I would love an English patched Clock Tower on WS, same with all the Junji Ito games! Considering how insanely popular Ito is now in the west, I wonder if anyone is working on patching any of them? :)
 
Today, the WonderSwan is a neat curiosity but I probably wouldn't have gotten one. The library wasn't as strong as the Game Boy series but that might have changed if it made it overseas.
Also, a FF3 WonderSwan version was planned but it got scrapped because of lost source code.
 
Today, the WonderSwan is a neat curiosity but I probably wouldn't have gotten one. The library wasn't as strong as the Game Boy series but that might have changed if it made it overseas.
Also, a FF3 WonderSwan version was planned but it got scrapped because of lost source code.
Seriously?! Someone lost the source code! Oh c'mon man!
 
Knowing myself at the time, during Poke-mania, maybe not gotten one had it competed.
Going back now, the Digimon titles are super great, but those were what peeps were gonna compare to the Poke-Giant that was the GB/GBC/GBA.
 
I Genuinely Love the WS/C i played most the games on it, at one point or another. and my Favorite little 2D fighter <SNK Gals' Fighter> is on it, I Honestly would have bought one of them, over a Gameboy back in the Day. but i love Most SNK games so XD

Yeah i agree, it was Robbed. it never really got a shot here, and honestly. till i started Emulating things, i never heard of the System TBH.

shrug.gif
 
Yeah, and nowadays it's even harder to get into console business for companies. It was much easier back then. It would be awesome if we could allow companies to make "retro" games again so we could have things like a new Bandai console with games on par with DS. I dream about it for some time. Yet in a current state of gaming it wouldn't be profitable so the only new consoles there are are emulator machines or a very limited standalone PlayDate
 
I agree with you
 
I grabbed a Wonderswan Crystal when I was in Japan and I love it. The form factor is great and the ability to play horizontal or vertically-oriented games is very forward-looking. The screen is also very nice despite the lack of backlighting.

You have to know what you're getting into though. It has a very small library, especially with the language barrier. It has some exclusive Squaresoft RPGs that have yet to be translated. And it had a ton of quirky add-ons, from a cellular Internet connection to a home dev kit, which are pretty obsolete now. Had it been released internationally I don't think it would've dethroned Nintendo simply due to lack of third-party support.
 
Yes, I would have bought it. But once the GBA arrives, it would have stood no chance. But until then, it could have enjoyed some success in the West like the NGP did, but more depending on the games they choose to release here.
 

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