Regarding Game Regions
7 years ago
New York, USA

So, I am BRAND new to speedruns. I don't want to give a lengthy biography on my experience so I'll get right to my question.

I want to learn to speedrun Minish Cap but am trying to figure out the best way to do it. As I understand it the fastest platforms are:

GBA (Physical) > Wii (Virtual Console) / 3DS Virtual Console > VBA (emulator).

I want to run an NTSC version of the game which I understand to be the Japanese version of the game but being from the U.S. and new to speedrunning I am not sure about the best way of getting my hands on this version of the game.

If I purchase a Wii from Japan can I access the store to purchase the NTSC version from the store, or will I not be able to access the store being that I live in the U.S.

I'm sure this question may come off as basic to some experienced runners, but I was hoping someone could help me out.

Thanks!

Antarctica

well for game specific questions it's best asked in the forums of the game http://www.speedrun.com/tmc/forum.

But I can help a bit. There is no Minish Cap on the Wii, only the Wii U VC. Idk if it's possible to homebrew a Wii U to access an out of region shop (it's possible on Wii for sure, but Wii doesn't have GBA games). If you absolutely have no way of running on GBA (through Gameboy Player) then I would recommend just doing English Wii U VC and save up to buy the equipment needed to run on GBA.

When/If you move to GBA, you just have to buy a JP Minish Cap cart (Amazon and Ebay are your friends). GBA games aren't region locked so as long as you have a Gameboy Player, you can play a GBA game from any region (just make a note, the Gameboy Player startup disc MUST match the region of your Gamecube - so US Gamecube needs US GBA Player Startup disc but can play any region games).

Hopefully all that made sense and helps, good luck and if you have additional or more in depth questions, I'd take it to the Minish Cap forums (they even have a discord linked there). They can offer you more specific help.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Shakikhan likes this
New York, USA

Thanks guys, I definitely got the info I was looking for.