Monolith Soft's Open-World Action-RPG Xenoblade launched last year in Japan to rave reviews and...no word of a US release

Hardcore Nintendo fans are tired of being ignored.

While suffering from a severe drought of good games in America for quite some time, in Japan, the Wii has had plenty of hardcore, Nintendo published games over the years. Yet, most of them have yet to be released overseas. As a result, the fans, sensing that they just might never come, have gotten to work trying to convince Nintendo to release these games.

Kotaku reports on a snail-mail letter writing campaign, called Operation Rainfall, started by IGN forum-goers with the intent on letting Nintendo of America know how badly gamers want games such as Monolith Soft's Xenoblade, Mistwalker's The Last Story, and Ganbarion's Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side to hit their American Wiis.

Mistwalker's The Last Story, headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, is another Wii exclusive that's high in demand

In addition, fans have taken to Nintendo's Facebook page to repeatedly comment that they would like to see these games, as well as others like the Wii-exclusive Fatal Frame IV and DS titles such as Fire Emblem: Hikari to Kage no Eiyu (the second Fire Emblem for the  DS) and Soma Bringer. One comment thread in particular has reached over 1,500 comments due to fans requesting these games. Now there's been talk of trying to make #Xenoblade a trending topic on Twitter, to help the cause.

However, what's most impressive, and unique to the cause, is how the fans have been using Amazon to show how much they want the game. For some strange reason, despite no announced plans of releasing the game in America, there is an Amazon page for Xenoblade, under its original title, Monado: The Beginning of the World. Up until yesterday, the page was largely ignored. But, thanks to the fans who have come to pre-order the came in mass numbers, the game has shot up from not even being on Amazon's "Bestsellers in Video Games" list to taking the #9 spot (out of 100) as of this writing. And, again, that's just by the amount of pre-orders it's been getting, beating out  upcoming video game juggernauts such as Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, and The  Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Given a few hours, it's likely that the game may reach #1 on the list, at the rate it's been going (It jumped seven spots during the writing of this post).

It might not look the prettiest, but Ganbarion's Pandora's Tower has been getting great reviews in Japan

If you're a person that still owns a Wii and is looking for an excuse to play it, like me, then this is a cause that should be right up your alley. The Wii deserves a good run in its twilight years and, considering the only things on the horizon are a Kirby game and Skyward Sword, it just isn't looking good right now. That can change, as long it's possible to convince Nintendo there's an audience.

IGN also has started covering the campaign.

EuroGamer has too, ironically enough.

It's ironic, because Xenoblade is already confirmed to be coming to Europe this September, while The Last Story and Pandora's Tower are rumored for European release in 2012.

Here are some link related to the cause, if you're interested in supporting this cause:

The site for Operation Rainfall, including a form letter to send

Kotaku's story on the letter writing campaign

IGN coverage

EuroGamer coverage

Monado/Xenoblade's Amazon page

Nintendo's Facebook Page

Nintendo of America's Twitter Page

General info on Xenoblade

General Info on The Last Story

General info on Pandora's Tower

Info on Fire Emblem DS 2

Pandora's Tower/The Last Story might be coming to Europe

Info on the excellent Soma Bringer

And on Fatal Frame 4 as well

A NeoGAF thread with general info about the whole issue

Last, a NeoGAF thread detailing other games Nintendo has failed to bring overseas, for the DS and Wii

Another Monolith Soft RPG, Soma Bringer, has failed to reach the West as well sadly enough

UPDATE: 3:20 PM CST

As of right now, Amazon preorders for Monado: The Beginning of the World/Xenoblade have launched the game into the top spot of Amazon's "Best Sellers in Video Games" list. Here's a picture of it:

It's a VERY glorious picture to be sure. We're number one! We're number one! We're number one...

Update2: Also, this doesn't mean we should let up with the preorders either. We need to keep going and keep it up there! If we can do it for at least a week, Nintendo and Amazon can literally not ignore it.

Update3: There's a Facebook page dedicated to this cause now. :)