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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

The Nin Godzilla?!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - This could be a new IP... via self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the deep depths of the Technology news of the Wall Street Journal in the business section for today (page B4, Tuesday, January 24, 2017) was a short story about Nintendo! What'd they do now? It was written by a seemingly strange man, the Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki, who is their technology reporter in Tokyo. It was headlined,
“Possible New Character Is Teased by Nintendo”
Wall Street Journal newspaper Takashi Mochizuki Nintendo Nin Godzilla technology business news
(It's an easier read than the above “Ford Invests to Promote Online Auto Loans”.)

What is it? This thing... the Nin Godzilla. Otherwise known as ニンゴジラ. (ニン is the “Nin” in Nintendo's Japanese name, and ゴジラ is “Godzilla” in Japanese.)

Nintendo Japanese Store Nin Godzilla error message server overloaded
Source: An error message at store.nintendo.co.jp
Note that ニンゴジラ doesn't appear, so that's a fanon name.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo's Japanese site's online store is allowing customers to pre-order “semicustomized versions of the Switch console”, and the dinosaur appears as “an error message saying the site is overloaded and can't take orders.” Well, at least that means there is demand for the Nintendo Switch! (Or Nintendo has healthcare.gov-esque server problems.)

So... is it a new IP or something? 

For that, let's look at the web version of that Wall Street Journal article, which I believe has a much better headline:

Wall Street Journal wsj.com Nin Godzilla Nintendo Takashi Mochizuki
Source: wsj.com


The trade-off of “Nintendo Fans Get a Possible Godzilla Sighting” versus “Possible New Character Is Teased by Nintendo” is that it's unclear why this gets to make the business section of the paper, since this isn't exactly newsworthy. Not that the Wall Street Journal writes a new article every time a new Nintendo character is introduced to the world, which is something we've done with better dragon/dinosaurs than Nin Godzilla, such as Turtonator.

The article further suggests the existence of pretentious “Godzilla fans” stating that the dinosaur looks nothing like Godzilla.

My first thought is that it's Ice Dragon from the Kirby series, but Ice Dragon has spikes down its back and Nin Godzilla does not.

Regardless, the Japanese are known for weird meme creations inspired by unfortunate circumstances, and in this case, #ニンゴジラ was trending and is filled with interesting fan creations for Nin Godzilla. This includes a browser-based game, playable here, featuring Nin Godzilla running from right-to-left while either burning down buildings or jumping over them.

Here is my expert opinion, as someone who would know all about Nintendo characters (if you don't understand why I would say that, think smarter, not harder): Nin Godzilla is not going to be some new intellectual property with a whole series. He was never meant for that. The dude is just around to be an error message scribble made in a few seconds. It was either that, or put a picture of a Nintendo character facepalming or something.

It'd be nice to know what error message existed prior to the Nintendo Switch existing.

That said: Now that people THINK Nin Godzilla will be his own character, Nintendo has little choice but to put him in some game to placate this new fanbase. Maybe he'll be in a new BoxBoy! game, or it'll appear in some obscure level in a Snipperclips-esque game. Perhaps, going back to the Kirby series, Nin Godzilla could appear as a background character in the next Kirby game.

Hey, it wouldn't be unheard of for Nintendo-making-something-and-fans-make-a-bigger-deal-than-intended-so-Nintendo-references-it-later to happen. Luigi's Death Stare got referenced in Paper Mario: Color Splash, after all. Continuing obscure side-stories with minimal effort is kind of fun, isn't it?


KoopaTV is all about continuing its own obscure side-stories and tangents from article to article, and you can't predict when it'll happen. You better read all 1,000+ articles on the site, then! When you're finished with that, let us know what you think of Nin Godzilla. ...If anything. The Wall Street Journal obviously used this as filler, and so will KoopaTV!


For KoopaTV's own fan-based browser-based games, click here for a whole list of them!
Japan-centric stories like this is exactly why KoopaTV has been asking for someone to be our Japanese Marketing Manager for exactly three years now (give or take two days)!
KoopaTV is hoping for clueless Live Chat Paratroopa to also get his own game.

4 comments :

  1. I think it's supposed to be a reference to Google Chrome's offline dinosaur game.
    http://apps.thecodepost.org/trex/trex.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't feel like going to Chrome and figuring out what that is. :(

      Delete
  2. Aren't isolated, stranded dinosaurs usually represented to identify server shutdowns, though? Such as, as stated by Kody, in Chrome?

    Besides, dinosaurs are starting to "die no~w" as we speak!
    ...(bad jokes)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uhhhhh I dunno.

      Well I found a screenshot of that game, I guess:
      http://d0od.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/chrome-dinosaur-game.png

      Nin Godzilla does look like a Japanese version of it.

      Delete

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