Gamasutra has an interesting article about the disappointing sales for two portable rhythm-action games - the PSP’s Patapon and terrific touchscreen tapper Elite Beat Agents on the DS.
While the former was a niche title which arguably overperformed - partly thanks to a low price point - EBA (based on the Japanese game Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan) was always expected to do better, with Reggie Fils-Aime having confessed that he’d hoped for roughly 300,000 sales - the game limped out of the charts with a comparatively paltry 179,000.
Yet the feature’s comparisons with Guitar Hero: On Tour seem a little unfair - the latter being an established franchise backed with officially licensed songs and a strong marketing push. While EBA theoretically had the might of Nintendo behind it, the big N was comparatively reluctant to heavily trail the game - any title without immediately obvious mainstream appeal tends to fall foul of Nintendo’s timidity when it comes to promoting new core IP.
Anyway, the cost for procuring the licenses to cover the songs featured in EBA would have been a not insubstantial amount, and thus - despite the success of Ouendan 2 in Japan - a western sequel seems very unlikely. Shame.
Nintendo’s official Japanese site for the Metroid franchise has an interesting little banner on its front page, which seems to suggest that the Metroid series is set to get a new side story, possibly based on the Space Pirates.
Spotted by an eagle-eyed NeoGAF forumite, the banner mentions ‘Another Side Story - coming soon’. Naturally, there’s much fevered speculation as to what it could be, but with strong rumours that Retro Studios isn’t currently working on a Metroid game, it’s unlikely to be a new 3D Metroid. A 2D outing on WiiWare, then? Perhaps, but I’d suggest it might be some kind of anime series, or maybe a manga comic. Or possibly even just a bit of background info on Samus’ enemies on the site, to tie-in with the Wii-releases of the first two Metroid Prime games in the Wii de Asobu/New Play Control range.
Still, there was that mention of Metroid Dread in Corruption…could it be that Wii’s Year of Hardcore brings us a new space adventure for everyone’s favourite bounty hunter?
Gaming Target is reporting on a rumour that Fatal Frame IV will get a US release later this year, but that it may not have that title when it finally comes out.
The spook-snapping horror has been pencilled in (very lightly) for a European release for quite some time now, but it’s certainly not going to make the February date the site suggests - indeed, it’s not down for the entire first quarter, and still hasn’t been 100% confirmed for launch in PAL territories.
Yet Gaming Target claims to have spoken to an unnamed industry analyst, who claims that it may not be released as Fatal Frame IV. “Why any publisher would throw away the cult of popularity the series has gainded over the years is questionable,” it adds, but then concludes that “the desire to start fresh and make Fatal Frame more of a cult series could be the impetus behind that decision.”
I think ‘popularity’ is the wrong word for the series, which has never performed particularly well in the west, and perhaps under a new banner it could sell a whole lot more. Anyone for Ghost Photography Training?
IGN has an interesting feature about a Wii title from Geist creator n-Space named Winter - a game which, sad to say, is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
The concept seems to be a mix of Silent Hill-style survival horror, and the elemental obstacles of SOS: The Final Escape or even Disaster: Day of Crisis. It features a lone female protagonist battling against sub-zero temperatures and a host of otherworldly creatures, one of which - featured in the creepy trailer above - would look right at home in Silent Hill: Homecoming.
For a game developed in such a short time by a minuscule team, it looks pretty good - certainly comparable to Disaster, while the sections which see our heroine rummaging through drawers and cupboards aren’t a million miles away from Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.
Of course, it’s no surprise to learn that, two years on from IGN taking a look at the game, it remains unpublished, even after a very positive critical reception to the game’s early demonstration. The studio’s creative director, Ted Newman, explains:
“We left GDC that year feeling very confident about placing the title quickly and on our terms. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. In almost every case we got hung up with the sales and marketing groups. They simply could not get behind a survival horror title on the Wii. In spite of great sales for Resident Evil 4 and the Umbrella Chronicles, these groups were unable to support the projections required to create a viable P&L for the title. The idea of an “adult” game on what they perceived to be a “kids” console was simply too big a leap for them, regardless of the enthusiastic support of the PD department and the Wii’s total domination in the marketplace.”
There’s a tiny silver lining in that n-Space has been offered plenty of work on other titles since then, purely off the back of that impressive initial demo. Hopefully IGN’s story might convince a third-party publisher that Winter is worth investing in, particularly given Newman’s insistence that they could make it look even better. But I’m not going to get my hopes up - until more than a couple of core titles sell in big numbers, no-one is going to take the risk on anything that’s not aimed at Wii’s expanded audience, particularly in the current economic climate.
According to this translation of a piece on Japanese site Inside-Games, the Wii remake of Monster Hunter G will launch on April 23rd in Japan, and will come with a demo of the highly-anticipated Monster Hunter Tri.
The game will cost just 3990 yen (£24.73), which equates to the same as the two Biohazard remakes. This feels slightly less of a con given that G never appeared on GameCube and that it comes with a demo that’s likely to be a very big deal in Japan.
Capcom will also be releasing a special Monster Hunter G Starter Pack, which contains the game, the demo and a special edition Classic Controller - pictured above - for the sum of 5220 yen (£32.36).
No word of a western release, but I’d say this one is pretty likely to stay in Japan. Tri might be a different story, though - I’m sure we’ll hear about that more nearer the new game’s launch later in the year.
Sigh. The official Japanese site for Another Code: R has opened - mere hours after I said news of its delay wasn’t worth a story of its own - and, besides some lovely relaxing music and a nice water ripple effect on its front page, there’s a bit of background about the characters and four gameplay videos.
Naturally, it looks completely brilliant and pretty much exactly how a modern-day point-and-clicker should look. The art style is delightful, the animation impressive, and the puzzles look to make excellent use of the Wii remote, much as the original DS adventure did with its host console (the stamp and mirror riddles in particular).
You’d think Nintendo, with its vast sums of money, might take the occasional chance with this sort of small title - a game which surely wouldn’t cost too much to bring to the west and could potentially be a surprise hit with a bit of decent marketing and good word of mouth. (Much in the way movie giant Miramax funds small critically-acclaimed indie titles with the profits from its bigger films.) But sadly, it’s likely the game will never be seen outside Japan.
Not only does Nintendo UK know nothing about the game - never a good sign - but a poster over on NeoGAF received an email from Nintendo of America that gave a pretty clear indication that the game wouldn’t be likely to see the light of day in the US, either.
So in all likelihood we’re not getting it. Which is hugely, hugely disappointing. I’ll import and hope for a GameFAQs translation guide, but it won’t be the same.
It could be worse, of course. If this does well in Japan, it makes a Wii Hotel Dusk sequel more likely. And if that remained Japanese-only…well, I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.
It’s another of those please-let-this-get-a-western-release games that Japan teases us with every so often. I’ve talked about Fragile in the past, and its gameplay still remains something of an enigma - this trailer shows brief glimpses of melee combat, but it looks like an action-adventure with the emphasis on puzzle-solving and exploration to me - but by golly gosh, it looks really quite stunning in places. It has slight horror leanings, but the feel here is oddly melancholy, the gorgeous music accompanying this trailer suggests a story that could well be a bit of a tear-jerker.
Fragile is out in Japan on January 22nd. Let’s hope for a good Famitsu review and decent sales, as that would certainly make a western release that bit more likely. Alas, it seems to me that it’ll be one of those games that’s warmly embraced by a small niche audience, with only Japanese gamers and westerners fluent in the language able to really get the most out of it.
Japanese Wii owners are set to get another dose of Monster Hunter next year, with the announcement in this week’s Famitsu magazine that PS2 title Monster Hunter G is being remade - presumably as a stopgap until Monster Hunter 3 emerges from its slothful development progress.
The latter game was revealed to be just 40% complete in the mag, so evidently rumours of a Spring 2009 release were a little optimistic to say the least. It looks like an autumn/winter launch at the very earliest for the much-anticipated sequel, so Capcom has offered a crumb of comfort by way of this retooled PS2 game, which looks like it could well charge a fee for its online mode. Monster Hunter G Wii is apparently 77% complete, and will launch at some point in the Spring. All that was shown of Monster Hunter 3 was a new desert area.
It’s probably a good thing that Capcom is taking its time with what could be the biggest third-party release on Wii next year, but will a Wii-make be enough to slake the thirst of those hardcore critter-bashers in the interim? I guess we’ll find out in just a few short months.
A clear attempt to do something a bit subtle and arty for this Wii sequel to one of the DS’s most underrated games, but for me this just doesn’t work. What kind of boxart has the main character cut in half at the top of the picture? Too much space reserved for the writing at the bottom, too. Bah. Let’s hope the Japanese public don’t judge a book by its cover - I’d like this to sell well, so CING can carry on making those compelling adventures I love so much.
Still, this obviously means it’s not long before Another Code: R - Kioku No Tobira is out in Japan - indeed, it’s due out on January 22nd - but with Nintendo’s PAL release schedule for the first-quarter of 2009 looking a little barren, it seems as if it’s going to be April at the earliest before we see this…if at all.
UPDATE: I’ve just heard from Nintendo UK - it has confirmed, indeed, that there’s “nothing announced at this time”. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that it’s being localised as I type this.
Back in 1987 a publisher named Rainbow Arts released a game for home computers which bore more than a slight resemblance to Super Mario Bros. The Great Giana Sisters (do you see what they did there?) was obviously an attempt to introduce computer users to the traditionally console-based platforming genre, but owing to its similarity to Super Mario Bros., Nintendo’s legal arm got involved and Rainbow Arts was forced to withdraw the game from shops. This actually helped it to achieve something of a cult status, and original copies of the game are still highly sought after by collectors.
Over twenty years on, and in a somewhat ironic twist, a Nintendo console is set to play host to a remake of The Great Giana Sisters, with publisher DTP releasing a brand new version in June of next year. This new version will feature 80 levels, and retain the simple gameplay of the original while adding a few DS-exclusive features (the press release mentions both microphone and stylus use). It seems strange that Nintendo is allowing this - perhaps it’s become a bit more relaxed over the years, or DTP is hoping to shunt the game out on the quiet in the hope that no-one notices while they make a quick buck - but if you’re after a bit of old-school platforming action, then this might just do the trick. If it ever gets released, that is.
 
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