Nintendo of Europe's apparent decision to publish this makes Reggie's snub seem just a bit more painful, though we believe that it would be good business for the newly-combined Tecmo/Koei to publish it in North America themselves.
Posts with tag tecmo
Fatal Frame IV may disturb Europe in February
Nintendo of Europe's apparent decision to publish this makes Reggie's snub seem just a bit more painful, though we believe that it would be good business for the newly-combined Tecmo/Koei to publish it in North America themselves.
SPRay trailer oozes into sight
Team Ninja open to Wii
Gamasutra spoke with Hitoshi Hasegawa and Yosuke Hayashi of the post-Itagaki Team Ninja about the current and future state of the high-profile development team. So far, those plans don't include the Wii, but the new Team Ninja seems more open to experimenting with other consoles than before. The studio is looking to expand their audience, and "If that lends to one console," Hayashi said, "PS3, or if that's going to be the Wii -- that's just the direction we will go."Hayashi had similarly vague statements last year, but they were more personal at that time than business-oriented. If Team Ninja decides it would not only be fun, but profitable to create a Wii game, that's more likely to justify the expense and development time.
Team Ninja may not be working on any Wii projects themselves, of course, but their company, Tecmo, is, and the expertise gained from that stuff may help Team Ninja. "We will continue to work in that path. We have a lot of Wii console fans within the company, so hopefully there's something that we can work on."
Playshake: the game you play by shaking
The one minigame we've seen so far gives you three seconds to shake the remote vigorously. The more you shake, the higher your score is. In this minigame, Tecmo has even eschewed frivolity like characters and backgrounds in favor of a utilitarian, yet stylish, display of your score and remaining time.
We give a lot of Wii titles trouble for promising revolutionary experiences and then ending up as waggle-fests, but what if something makes no effort to hide its waggle-fest status? We wouldn't mind shaking our way into the leaderboards.
Reggie 'answers' questions about Disaster, Fatal Frame IV
Regarding Disaster: Nintendo of America is waiting to see how the game performs in Europe before making a decision. That means that we at least have to wait for a while after October 24 to hear anything.
As for Fatal Frame, he offered the following frustrating response: "you're going to have to contact the publisher for questions on that." So it might be coming out here -- just not from Nintendo, despite Nintendo of Japan publishing it. Who wants to start cold-calling publishers?*
*Note: Wii Fanboy does not encourage the cold-calling of publishers.
[Via GoNintendo]
Two 'new' Rygar videos
Want to see what Rygar: The Battle of Argus looks like, six years after the release of the game on which it's based, and more than one year after the remade version was announced? After the entire project was scrapped and started again? Certainly you'd expect a significant jump over the PS2 version. As these latest gameplay videos demonstrate ... not so much. But the good news is that Rygar on the PS2 looked pretty good anyway.
The "Minotaurs" (don't know why his name is pluralized!) boss fight is featured above, and there's a bit of platforming after the break. We've also included the PS2 Rygar trailer. If you want, you can pretend it's a new trailer for this one.
Wii Warm Up: Rygar redux
Are you up for this Rygar? If so, is it because you wanted to play the PS2 version but never did? Or because you really liked the PS2 version and want whatever new content is attached to this one? Or general fandom of the Rygar arcade, Lynx (unlikely) or NES (more likely) game?
Wii Warm Up: Tecmoei
It looks like Tecmo and Koei are going to be BFF (and also Tecmo needs a bunch of money). Both companies will probably keep their normal franchises as they are -- Koei's unlikely to make any changes to the streamlined, probably automated Dynasty Warriors production process, and Tecmo will keep making horse racing games and the occasional "prestige" fighting or action game as always. But there is the possibility that the merger could change some stuff up! Square didn't really become a Final Fantasy spinoff factory until the Enix merger. Do you think this is a good move? Would you like to see one company's influence on another? Perhaps a Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball game with really detailed statistics?
Cashing in on Rygar is harder than it looks
Apparently, the port was conceived as a cheap-to-develop game (surprise!), but ended up "so disastrous and unportable that Tecmo had to go back to the drawing board with it." That would certainly explain all the delays. Next time you complain about PS2-to-Wii ports, remember this! Companies are working very hard to bring you all those games from 2002.
Square Enix takeover denied, Tecmo goes with Koei
Square Enix isn't willing to call it quits, however. Their original buyout offer was for $206 million and they're planning to further investigate the terms of the Koei and Tecmo merger. We guess we'll be hearing more about this in the future.
[Via Joystiq]
Stream some new SPRay videos
We're a bit conflicted about Tecmo's SPRay. On one side, we think that a game built around the concept of using fluids with various useful properties to cover terrain is a unique and fun idea for a platformer. In the above video, a thick coating of a sticky slime allows the player to walk upside down. However, this concept also lends itself to an overreliance on grossout humor, which would be kind of a shame in an inventive adventure game like this one. We hope nothing like that happens in this game.
After the break, a video in which ghost vomit is used to reveal invisible walkways.
Rygar remake coming out for real?
We were certain this game had been quietly cancelled. Why else would over a year pass before the release of what is essentially a port? Maybe it's turned into less of a port in the intervening period. Check Kotaku for a bunch of new screens!
Square Enix casting Takeoveraga on Tecmo
According to the vaguely legalese press release, SE "cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances surrounding TECMO" -- and thus they wish to save Tecmo by purchasing them. Tecmo would retain its existing brand and company organization, like Taito.
Tecmo's board of directors has until September 4 to respond to this offer. Should they fail to make a decision ... Square Enix won't buy them. That sounds anticlimactic, but without some fresh Dragon Quest money Tecmo's probably toast.
Chew your nails through Fatal Frame IV videos
Okay, let's try our best to forget about all the bad stuff that's recently been revealed about Fatal Frame IV, and concentrate on what the game does best: scaring people like us who can't resist watching/playing it absolutely witless. With this in mind, we'd like you to do something for us. Switch off all your lights and close all curtains/blinds, pull up a seat, grab the most expensive set of headphones available to you, and watch the video above. Now go past the break and watch the other two.
Done all that? Good. Now that's two of us who won't be able to sleep tonight. Yeah, you're welcome.
Continue reading Chew your nails through Fatal Frame IV videos
Fatal Frame IV plagued with bugs
We've been riding the Fatal Frame IV hype train as enthusiastically as any other site in recent months. The Tecmo/Grasshopper Manufacture crossover has long looked beautiful, engrossing, and hiding-behind-the-sofa scary. Furthermore, it's being published by Nintendo, which more or less guarantees a good time, right?
Wrong.
The game released in Japan last Thursday, meaning early importers are just now getting their copies in, and already several new owners are complaining about a host of collision detection issues, unselectable menu options, a ghost database that doesn't record all ghosts, and -- far more depressingly -- a game-freezing bug. Nintendo is acknowledging the glitches, and has released a statement featuring advice on how to best cope with them. We'll just have to hope some of this mess is cleared up when (and if) the game comes to the west.
