If you were among the unlucky people who purchased Last Ninja 3 on Virtual Console, you were no doubt quite annoyed that the game would, without fail, freeze after the first level, making any further progress impossible. Nintendo recently announced they would be removing the game from the Wii Shop, and have since done so.
Commodore Gaming is now sending out apologetic emails, confirming that this bug is unfixable (So don't expect the game to ever make a return) and asking for some details to give you your points back. If you send them these details, you will receive a 500 Wii Points code to enter in the Wii Shop within ten days. This is the email you can expect, if you got the game:
Dear Customer,
Despite the best effort of the Commodore Gaming development team, the crash in Last Ninja 3 occurring at the end of Level 1 could not be resolved due to a technical problem. Unfortunately this game uses Commodore 64 hardware specific features that can not be emulated by our software.
We are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused by the defective software. We will reimburse the 500 Wii Points you spent to purchase the game.
In order to do so, we would kindly like to ask you to provide the following information:
1. Your Wii serial number
You can find it on the bottom of the console, marked as “Serial No:”. The serial number begins with the letter L and ends with a number in a square.2. Your contact email address
Please send this information by email to wii@commodoregaming.com.
You will receive reimbursement in form of a Wii Points code within ten business days. Please note that, based on your Wii serial number, your purchase of the game will be verified before reimbursement.
It took long enough, but at least now you can buy something else instead!
Comments 20
Translation: We at Commodore Gaming do not wish to expend the time and energy into fixing the game as that would cut too deeply into our profit line.
What a shambles... 15 months to get a refund!
I'm guessing we won't get anymore C64 games on the VC.
Well, if this team is the only way they show up on the VC, then yeah, but hopefully other rights-holders will duplicate their efforts - they just need to see the potential for profit to jump on board!
This is not cool at all.
Where's my refund for Tower Toppler? There is a bug on the 5th stage you can't beat it!
I agree with Mr. Thomas Joseph. (I wish the companies involved with retro releases seek help from fans or at least get departments specifically for the retro releases...)
See folks, it was NEVER as easy of a process as just throwing roms up on the Shop Channel. This fiasco should prove that it actually takes a bit of effort to add new VC games and this company obviously didn't bother.
what ever happend to product testing?
they should have checked that the game works first before they put it out as a finished product.
It was a real pity. I just wanted (and still want) to play the damn game.
Darn I really wanted to play this one too. How is it that Last Ninja 1 and 2 work just fine and use the same hardware yet they couldn't get 3 to work?
Link79, one possible answer can be found here:
http://www.vc-forums.com/showpost.php?p=97050&postcount=17
When should arrive these e-mail? In these days? Or in the next week? And, how can they know who had bought LN3? The letter will arrive in a normal e-mail box, or it will arrive in the Wii Memory, whne I will connect next time (tomorrow?)? Is it not possible send an email to the address wii@commodoregaming.com from now? They hasn't give us many details...
Tiranytar, mine arrived in my junkmail on the 10th. Rather odd that I got one seeing as I never actually bought the game. I'm presuming that I'm on the their list because I'm the one who has kicked up a fuss about this and reported Nintendo to trading standards over it.
Other people (ones who had complained) seem to have already received their refund direct from Nintendo. It's all very odd.
It smacks of Nintendo not wanting to reinburse everyone so leaving it up to people to actually know about the problem and raise it directly with commodore gaming.
Disgusting really.
This is a shame, as it really is a very good game.
I don't buy this "can not be emulated" business either. Unofficial C64 emulators don't seem to have the same problem, and they're programmed by hobbyists! So I hear, anyway.
If Commodore Gaming is going to be this LAZY about emulating a game, than I think there should never be another C64 game released on the VC ever again. This just shows how much Commodore Gaming does not care about us gamers. Even Nintendo of Europe should be ashamed of this, because NOE could have playtested and disapproved the VC version of Last Ninja 3.
Thank for the answer, Betagam 7. I haven't had nothing from them, so... I will try to use the upper form, sending an email to the wii@commodoregaming.com with the datas required. I'll hope to be refunded (it's Hanabi Festival time!). But... Maybe they refund only US customers? I'm italian, maybe they ignored us (as they - videogames companies - usually do... For example, to take a copy of the Bayonetta Collector's Edition, I had to use Ebay and buy an UK copy...)
Man this is a total sham, Commodore emulators work fine with this but the company that created the hardware and has access to full source code can't fix this bug absolutely stupid
That's pretty awesome considering nintendo constantly reminds you that VC purchases are non-refundable
Am I the only who still hasn't received any refunds yet? I've emailed CommodoreGaming several times regarding my refunds, but not replies.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...