First Skylanders hits Japan in July, gets Wii U port

That’s… weird

We are so used to waiting insufferably long periods of time for Japanese games to be localized and brought out West that we often imagine Japan as this floating island of privilege and good fortune. How easily do we forget that the reverse is also true: Western games don’t always arrive in Japan in a timely fashion.

Many of the more adult Western games, like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption, either receive a near-simultaneous worldwide release or sit tight for a few short months. But what about Skylanders, a kid-friendly series with a focus on collecting tons of adorable real-world figurines? How much more Japanese could you get? I assumed Activision would have tried to bring it over as soon as possible, but it’s only now that the first game is making landfall. Crazy.

On July 12, nearly two years after its Western launch, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure will drop in Japan. The Wii, PS3, and 3DS versions are arriving intact, but the 360 version seems to have been axed in favor of a completely new Wii U port, which will use the GamePad for off-TV play, menu navigation, and the lock puzzle minigames.

I don’t know about you, but I find such regional discrepancies fascinating.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure finally hitting Japan, getting Wii U version [GoNintendo]