What a fabulous way to kick off 2018: the Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love English translation patch has been released

Eight months ago, I published a post that declared an English (fan) translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love for the Nintendo DS was nearing completion.

Well, a patch containing that translation was released last night, just in time to close out 2017 with a wonderfully fabulous bang. (Download it now at tingletranslation.blogspot.com.)

I plan to start through it this coming week, and I'll do my best to share at least a few thoughts on the experience here by the end of the month.

In the meantime, those of you who are curious to learn more about the Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love fan translation should check out my interview with the guy chiefly responsible for getting the project off the ground.

Ten questions with the guy chiefly responsible for the (nearly complete) English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love

You're all waiting with bated breath for the English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love to be released, right?

Don't tell me this is the first you're hearing of it. I wrote about it back in May--in a post titled, "Coming soon-ish to a DS near you: a fan translation of Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip"--for crying out loud.

Unfortunately, we've still got a bit of a wait before the patch is finished and made available to the hand-wringing masses. In the meantime, here's an interview with the guy who not only got this project off the ground but is seeing it through to its release.

I can't share his name in this post for reasons that should be obvious. I can, however, share the handle he tends to use for his fan translation work: joesteve1914.

With that out of the way, let's get to the 10 questions I recently asked joesteve1914 about this tantalizing project as well as his responses to them.

The Gay Gamer: Why did you decide to translate Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip? Are you Tingle fan from way back? Or maybe you're more of a general DS, Nintendo or Zelda fan?

Joesteve1914: I'm a big Zelda fan. I've loved the Legend of Zelda series my entire life, and I've played almost every game in the series. When I learned of the Tingle series, I was instantly intrigued since Tingle is one of my favorite characters. (Not many people share that opinion!) I played Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and liked it, so I wanted to experience its sequel as well.



The Gay Gamer: When did you start this project? You launched its blog in early 2013, but based on your first posts, it sounds like the project began before that?

Joesteve1914: Yeah, the blog was something I thought of a few months after I started working on the game. If we're being really technical here, I suppose the project started on July 31, 2012, at around 5 pm EST. That's when I posted in the RHDN forums asking for help with hacking the game, since I had never done ROM hacking before. I basically spent the next two years trying to learn about ROM hacking in my spare time. I didn't have the help or the knowledge to start a long-term project like this until the beginning of 2014. So realistically you might say the project started “for real” in 2014.

The Gay Gamer: How many people have worked on or are currently working on the patch? Also, can you explain what each person on the team has worked on or is working on now?

Joesteve1914: In total, around 13 people have contributed to the project so far. At the moment, our team consists of five people. First up we have our translators, waldrumpus and DaVince.

DaVince joined in early 2014, right around the time a major development occurred that made the translation of the script a realistic possibility. He translated the first “page” and some other miscellaneous stuff in the script. He also sometimes stops by our Slack channel and helps us with localization decisions (names, how to translate puns, etc.).

As for waldrumpus, he joined in August of 2014. Like me, this was his first time working on a fan translation. Despite this, he went on to translate nearly 90 percent of the very lengthy script by himself. The dedication waldrumpus has had over the last few years has been amazing. He also is going to be involved in the editing process and will be there to assist the other editors if they have questions.

Next up we have chir-miru, who's been helping out here and there since 2012. At the beginning of the project, chir-miru and I both worked on hacking, which included figuring out how to edit the script and the graphics in the game. We parted ways for a while, but chir-miru came back in 2016 and helped out with some graphics editing.

Zell0s joined in July of 2016 as a graphics editor. He’s been a great help to the graphical side of the project. He did, by my estimate, nearly half of the graphics in the game himself before he left the project this year. We also have masterofzoroark on the graphics side of things. He joined in June of this year. He's been a great help in recent months, too--especially as we near the end of the graphics editing. Finally, we have Pandamanu, who very graciously did the English graphics for the chapter scrolls in the game. There’s around 44 of those, so this was a big help and sped the project up a lot.

And then we have our script editors. We’re still assembling this team, so that work hasn’t really begun in earnest yet.

Although not part of the team, these next few people have also been a huge help to the project. There’s DarthNemesis, who coded the awesome script dumper and extractor (I can’t even imagine editing the text manually), as well as FShadow, who created the new English title logo.

There’s also Auryn, Kelebek, Normmatt and FAST6191; they have given advice and assisted me with some of the more difficult (at least for me!) hacking.


The Gay Gamer: What has been the biggest stumbling block to the project so far? Or what has been the biggest problem you've encountered since you kicked it off?

Joesteve1914: For me personally, the biggest stumbling block in general has been my inexperience with rom hacking. When I started this project back in 2012, I had no experience whatsoever in hacking; in fact, I decided to learn rom hacking for the purpose of translating this game.

I’ve had a lot of problems in terms of hacking that I’ve had to overcome, but the most major one would be figuring out the game’s text engine; specifically how to fit in more text, since English takes up more space than Japanese most of the time. Thanks to the help of Kelebek, we now know that the game uses an unconventional way of determining the length of text. Long story short, it ranges from extremely painful to impossible to expand the amount of text displayed manually. Fortunately, DarthNemesis’s text editor makes editing the text as easy as editing a .txt file.



The Gay Gamer: Have you been pleasantly surprised by anything while working on this translation?

Joesteve1914: I think what surprised me the most was the support and encouragement we got from people. Seeing hundreds of people view the blog every day, as well as the comments that people leave, is very encouraging. I’ve even received a few offers to donate money to the project! Unfortunately, if we accepted anything we’d be asking for a cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo.

Coming soon-ish to a DS near you: a fan translation of Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip

Most Nintendo fans know about two of the Tingle games the company published for the DS a few years back.

The first, of course, was the Zelda-esque Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, which hit the streets of Japan in 2006 and Europe in 2007. The second, Tingle's Balloon Fight DS, also was a 2007 release, although it never left the Land of the Rising Sun. (If you'd like to see some snapshots of the latter title's case, cartridge and instruction manual, by the way, you can do so here, here, here and here.)

Well, Nintendo offered up a third DS game to Tingle fans two years after Tingle's Balloon Fight dropped. Its name: Irozuki Tincle no Koi no Balloon Trip, which apparently translates to Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love.

Unlike its predecessors, this title isn't an action RPG or a rehash of an arcade classic. Instead, it's a point-and-click adventure game.

As if that weren't appealing enough (I don't know about you, but I've long been attracted to point-and-click games), the story that envelopes the gameplay of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love is based, at least in part, on The Wizard of Oz.

Combine all of the above with a rather glorious art style (see screenshot on the right) and you've got a game that looks to be right up my alley--if my understanding of Japanese were in a more advanced state than it currently is, I mean.

Thankfully, I probably won't have to wait another year or two to stumble my way through Balloon Trip of Love's oddball story. That's because an English fan translation of the Vanpool-developed game is rapidly approaching its finish line.

Unfortunately, no one really knows when the patch containing Balloon Trip of Love's English translation will be offered up to the masses. Considering the most recent update on its progress suggested the project was nearly 80-percent complete, though, I have to imagine a release by the end of this year is a possibility.

In the meantime, you can keep an eye on how things are going by checking out the translation team's blog at tingletranslation.blogspot.com. (Threads devoted to their efforts can be found at gbatemp.net and romhacking.net as well, if you're curious.) Something else to keep an eye on: my upcoming interview with the person heading up this ambitious project.

See also: my Tingle's Balloon Fight DS review

A fairly gay Q&A with Aedan Roberts (aka the artist behind the 'Nüdtendo' portrait series)

Although scores of people have produced illustrations, paintings and other pieces of art that depict Nintendo's characters in various states of undress, few have done so with the kind of whimsical verve that's on display in each and every one of Aedan Roberts' "Nüdtendo" portraits.

You see, all 18 of the portraits Roberts has completed so far render the Japanese giant's extensive stable of colorful protagonists and cohorts as both naked and, to varying degrees, surprised and embarrassed.

Roberts recently agreed to answer a handful questions about what prompted him to start the series, why he decided to focus on Nintendo characters, how many more he plans to produce and much more.

The Gay Gamer: When did you start creating these "Nüdtendo" portraits, and what prompted you to do so?

Aedan Roberts: I began creating this series back in the summer of 2012. Up until that point, all my gallery work was intentionally devoid of work that contained other people's intellectual property. I was still trying to figure out a way to do it without falling directly into the "fan art" category while also doing something fun and original.

At the time, I was doodling some of my favorite characters and was up to Mario. I tend to draw my characters naked when I'm working out their proportions and then add the clothes in a later version. But before I could progress, my boyfriend stopped me and told me I had something with this stout, squat, embarrassed creature I had just doodled. So I finished him up, painted him, and then did another two vignettes (Link and Samus). The results were so popular that I decided to go whole hog and make it into a series.

The Gay Gamer: Why did you decide to focus on Nintendo characters?

Aedan Roberts: The decision to concentrate on Nintendo characters was both because I love the long, storied history of Nintendo intellectual property and because it gave unity to the project.

I grew up as a fan of Nintendo. Our very first console was an SNES and from there I have owned every single generation (barring the Wii U at the moment). I have such an emotional attachment to these characters, and if I was going to create a satire where I reproduce a famous series of characters, I wanted it to be these.

The Gay Gamer: Was your plan all along to create a series, by the way, or did that just come to you after you'd made a few?

Aedan Roberts: I decided to turn it into a full-on series after the original three proved to be so popular. I then gave myself a goal--52--that I don't know if I'll reach, but I'll definitely try.

The Gay Gamer: Can you tell me a bit about how they're created? Based on the descriptions you've included on your etsy shop, I'm guessing they're paintings? Regardless, what kind of process do you go through to produce them?

Aedan Roberts: Each character is drawn out so I can translate it into my style. After that, I try to make sure the proportions are in line with the previous characters and then I re-draw the sketch onto hot press watercolor paper. I then glue the paper to a small wooden board, paint the character and then place the board into a custom-painted shadowbox. The color of each shadowbox is made to coincide with the character within. That way, when the shadowboxes are placed together, it forms a pixel-like color grid.

King Boo's balls and Birdo's bits

What would King Boo, Birdo and all sorts of other Nintendo characters--yes, including Mario, Luigi, Link, Peach and Zelda--look like in the buff?

Brooklyn-based artist Aedan Roberts answers that question in a most amusing way via his recent "Nüdtendo" portrait series--two pieces of which can be seen below.

Here, for instance, is King Boo--and, er, his "bits":

Unsurprisingly--given the above, at least--Birdo's bits also are on display in Roberts' humorous portrait of the much-loved Super Mario Bros. 2 baddie.

To see the rest of Roberts' Nüdtendo series--my current favorites are Wario, Tingle, Peach and Link--check out his site, aedanroberts.com.

If you're interested in either of the pieces shown above, by the way, the King Boo one can be bought here (for $275), while the Birdo one can be bought here for the same price. (A few others also are for sale via Roberts' etsy shop.)

(Via boyculture.com)

Let's Play: 'Which Box Art is Better?' (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD edition)

Because I'm a few days late to this particular parade (the one that's centered around the unveiling of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD's box art, of course), I thought I'd give this post a bit of a boost by including the original GameCube cover illustrations as well.

Speaking of which, here's the colorful piece of cover art that greeted gamers when they wandered into Japanese stores searching for copies of Wind Waker back in 2002:

And here's the cover art that North American (and European ones, too, basically) gamers looked for when the cel-shaded title hit store shelves in their region three months later in early 2003:

Thankfully, Nintendo's designers decided to stay far away from the latter version's minimalism while creating Wind Waker HD's cover art.

In fact, I'd personally go so far as to say the Japanese--and European, in this case--box art (above) for this Wii U-based re-release is the best of the bunch.

I can't say the same for the North American version's cover imagery (also above), though, due to the over-the-top and out-of-place filter that makes it look like Tingle emptied his bladder on it.

As always, that's just my opinion on the matter. What's yours?

Note: the Japanese and North American Wind Waker HD covers were nabbed from tinycartridge.com.

Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Week Five

Life in Animachi was a bit less frantic this week than it was in weeks one through four. That's not to say it was boring, though. For instance, Mayor Aino continued her quest to pimp out her ever-expanding, not-quite-humble abode--including the trippy "balloon room" that can be seen below.

As effervescent as that room is, Aino doesn't spend much time in it. Instead, she spends most of her time in her brand new (and still-in-the-works, admittedly) study.

Aino also erected a few more public works projects in the past week, including this "illuminated heart":

And this "stone tablet":

As exciting as those events were for the citizens of Animachi, both pales in comparison to the opening of the town's first cafe.

That's not to say Aino ran around like a headless chicken the entire week. She also relaxed a bit. Case in point: one day, she spent a few minutes (with Ankha and Winnie) taking in the sight of a double rainbow.

She also had a nice--if exercise-centric--chat with her main "brozinsky," Hamlet.

She hoped to have a similarly enchanting tête-à-tête with Barold, but, well, those of you who've met him know how can be...

Matthew Elliott x Pokémon

Warning: I've spent a lot of time perusing deviantart.com lately, so you should expect a number of upcoming posts to focus on fabulous game-related drawings and the like.

Cases in point: the following Pokémon illustrations, produced some time ago by Matthew Elliott (aka pseudonymjones).

"Team Rocket Grunt F + KOFFING"

"HAUNTER used Sucker Punch"

"MAGIKARP used Splash"

I came across the pieces above after stumbling across Elliott's take on everyone's favorite closeted game character, Tingle, by the way. Check out that illustration here, and check out his tumblr (which he seems to use more than deviantart these days) here.

My body's ready for the North American release of Denpa Ningen RPG

If the name Denpa Ningen RPG doesn't ring a bell, how about "that previously Japan-only eShop RPG that features characters who look part Teletubby, part Tingle, part Pikmin, part Mr. Driller and part Mii"?

Note how I described it as a "previously Japan-only" eShop RPG. That's because this wacky, Genius Sonority-developed title is on its way to the North American eShop, according to at least one source.



No word on when it'll arrive, but the same source suggests a Denpa Ningen RPG demo will hit the eShop in advance of the full game's release, so we're sure to get at least a bit of warning before we're forced to hand over our hard-earned dough.

Still not convinced that the announcement above constitutes good news? Check out this trailer for the Japanese version of the game.

Who wouldn't want to play an RPG with characters who look part Teletubby, part Tingle, part Pikmin, part Mr. Driller and part Mii?

I don't know why, but I find this soon-to-be-released (in Japan only, for the time being) eShop game's characters--which look as though they're part Teletubbies, part Tingle, part Pikmin, part Mr. Driller and part Mii (I know, that's a lot of parts)--oddly captivating.

Actually, I find its gameplay to be oddly captivating, too. According to andriasang.com, you begin the game by capturing the aforementioned critters (actually, they're "electric wave people") using your 3DS' camera and AR technology before tossing them into dungeons to battle baddies, collect treasure and, of course, rescue "an important person from the demon king." (To see all of the above in action, watch this trailer.)

Denpa Ningen RPG--which was made by the folks at Genius Sonority, whose previous credits include Dragon Quest Swords and Pokemon Coliseum--will hit the Japanese eShop on Feb. 8 carrying a price tag of ¥800 (about $10). Here's hoping it eventually finds its way onto the eShops of other regions, too.

The Great Gaymathon Review #18: Tingle's Balloon Fight (DS)

Game: Tingle's Balloon Fight

Genre: Action

Developer: Vanpool

Publisher: Nintendo

System: Nintendo DS

Release date: 2007

I don't know what caused the powers that be at Nintendo of Japan to green-light a Tingle-focused remake--featuring spruced-up, 16-bit-esque graphics--of the Famicom/NES classic Balloon Fight, but I certainly hope whatever it was happens again. Sure, the content of this Japanese Club Nintendo release--which consists of the same "Balloon Fight" and "Balloon Trip" modes as its 8-bit predecessor, along with a gallery of concept art--is as thin as the DS cart on which it's delivered, but it provides players with more than enough enjoyment to make it worth picking up if they're Balloon Fight or Tingle fans. (It's currently going for as little as $29 on eBay, by the way.) The only negative associated with this Vanpool-developed game, other than its lack of depth: Spreading the action over the DS' two screens seems to sap it of a bit of the drama and excitement that's all too present in Yoshio Sakamoto's original effort.

See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts

Tingle's Ice Climber

In early 2007, Nintendo of Japan released a Club Nintendo-exclusive game called Tingle's Balloon Fight. It's basically a re-skinned version of one of the company's classic Famicom/NES titles--starring that odd Legend of Zelda character, Tingle, rather than the nameless, titular "Balloon Fighters" of the original, of course.

I played a bit of Tingle's Balloon Fight while on vacation last week. The experience took my mind to some crazy places. Case in point: The following doodle--of Tingle in Ice Climber drag.

Two similar drawings can be seen in my deviantart gallery and in my Flickr photostream.

Wouldn't it be cool if Nintendo released a bunch of these re-imaginings? Along with a Tingle's Ice Climber, they could make a Tingle's Wrecking Crew, for instance, or even a Super Tingle Bros. Hmm, I think I now know the subject of my next few doodles.

You say bento, I say brilliant

I love re-tweets. You know why? Because they make me aware of some awesomely random things, like the following Costume Quest bento box (created by the lady behind annathered.com):

(Software consultant and ludologist Jason McIntosh is responsible for the re-tweet that made me aware of the above-mentioned bento, by the way.)

Anyway, if you think Anna's Costume Quest bento is awesome, just wait until to see some of her other creations--like this Katamari Damacy bento, or this Noby Noby Boy bento, or this Tingle bento. (I also like this Pink Castle Crasher bento quite a bit.)

To see more photos of her Costume Quest bento (and her other bentos, too), check out her Flickr photostream.

Alternate New Super Mario Bros. Wii box art and 'Tingle tank' FTW

Someone over on 2ch posted a slew of photos this morning that seem to have been taken from pamphlets Nintendo of Japan uses to attract employees.

All of them are worth checking out, but the alternate New Super Mario Bros. Wii box art--featuring Bowser and the Koopalings/Koopa Kids--in the photo below takes the cake, in my humble opinion.

Of course, the "Tingle tank" that can be seen in the upper left-hand corner of the following photo is pretty damn cool, too.

Links to more such photos can be found here and here and here and here. Or, just scroll through this NeoGAF thread.