Operation Murasame Ca$ale

So here's a tale about a Japanese game titled Nazo no Murasame Jō (which can be spelled a number of different ways).  It was a relatively obscure game for the Famicom Disk System, a peripheral for the Famicom, Japan's equivalent to the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), that stored games on floppy disks.  Many other popular titles had games for the FDS, including Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.  In the case of Nazo no Murasame Jō, though, it was moderately popular, though not too popular, and because of the Japanese flair, it was considered too niche for a Western audience and never saw a release outside of Japan...

Until recently anyway; after years of mere cameos in various other games from Pikmin 2 to Samurai Warriors 3 to NintendoLand, having bit parts like being a sticker in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and being one of the many forgotten Nintendo characters featured in the other Japanese exclusive game Captain Rainbow, Nazo no Murasame Jō is finally seeing a release outside of Japan, under the name of The Mysterious Murasame Castle!  On the Nintendo 3DS, players in both Europe (as of May 29, 2014) and North America (as of August 7, 2014) can finally experience the highly obscure cult classic for the first time!  Heck, such an announcement, plus the amount of attention it was getting at events like the San Diego Comic-Con and the aforementioned cameos over the years, made many, including myself, think that he might be playable in Super Smash bros. for 3DS and Wii U!

...Turns out, that wasn't the case, as he is a mere Assist Trophy in both games.  Many have lost faith that this is all Takamaru is ever going to amount to...  But perhaps not!  A new movement has started known as "Operation Murasame Ca$ale", where the goal is to make The Mysterious Murasame Castle popular in the West!  Why?  Well, for a number of reasons: for one, it'll bring attention to a pretty sweet, classic game.  For another, it can show Nintendo that people clearly have an interesting in this classic IP, perhaps enough to make a long-awaited sequel out of it.  Heck, the same thing happened to Pit and Kid Icarus, not to mention Saki Amimiya of Sin & Punishment, who similarly was an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and had a game available on the Wii's Virtual Console and subsequently got a sequel known as Sin & Punishment: Star Successor!  Heck, who knows, perhaps Takamaru will be like Little Mac, in that he'll be an Assist Trophy, get a new game that draws more attention to his franchise, then become playable in the next Super Smash Bros.!  There certainly wouldn't be any harm in trying the game out, and letting Nintendo know via Miiverse or other means how much you like the game and would like to see more!  For more information on the game and the movement, check out this tumblr blog:

operationmurasamecasale.tumblr…

...Oh, and apparently Digimon Adventure is getting a sequel series following Tai as a 17-year-old high schooler.  Yay~!