Well that was productive: Kimura leaves Grasshopper

As Siliconera reports, both Yasuhiro Wada and Yoshiro Kimura have departed Grasshopper Manufacture after a little less than a year at the company. What’s the reason? Nobody seems to be saying but I’m willing to bet that the sheer weight of personality employed by Goichi Suda and Akira Yamaoka left little room for any personal creativity. But that’s just idle speculation.

As far as we’re aware, neither Kimura or Wada has produced any personal projects while at Grasshopper but I suppose it is possible that the pair has helped the developer become more productive. The studio has released two titles already this year (three if you include No More Heroes: Red Zone) and currently has a ridiculous five games in development.

Where will the pair go now? Who knows, but a small part of me hopes that they’re both off to help out on the recently announced sequel to Little King’s Story on PlayStation Vita – which I really should have reported on here had I not completely forgotten about it. A larger part of me hopes they do something wacky and unexpected. And an even larger part wants them to go make Moon 2.

Skip and Vanpool worked on Wii Play: Motion

Thanks to Quinton A. Klabon who got in touch this weekend to draw my attention to this Japanese edition of Iwata Asks, focused on Wii Remote Plus: Variety Pack – better known in the western world as Wii Play: Motion. Why is it of interest to you? Because the mini-games in this variety pack were developed by a clutch of Japan’s finest boutique developers, including both Skip and Vanpool as well as Prope, Feel Good Inc, Chunsoft, Mitchell and Arzest – all brilliant studios with some excellent games under their belts, and apparently selected by Nintendo to bring some of their own identity as creators to the Wii Play: Motion project.

The interview features contributions from Jun Taniguchi of Vanpool and Keita Eto of Skip, who reveal that they developed the mini-games Umbrella Rider (Vanpool) and Pose Mii and Balloon Drifting (Skip). Of the three, Umbrella Rider seems to be the most fun and may even be the pick of the bunch if the trailer (below) is anything to go by. So well done Vanpool!

It’s difficult to make out exactly what they’re saying through Google translator, so hopefully this one will be translated for the US or UK version of Iwata Asks soon as the story behind the collaborative development of Wii Play: Motion seems pretty interesting. Like many I’d dismissed Wii Play: Motion as yet another watered down party game for a console that’s quickly running out of compelling software. It may still be that, of course, but I’m now much more likely to check it out.

Of course, it’s just a relief to hear that these two studios are still working. Neither of their websites give much indication of any activity these days – Skip’s hasn’t been updated in over two years! – and I was beginning to get worried. In fact, not only are they alive and well but it seems they’ve been more productive than first thought. The information in this Iwata Asks has revealed to me that Skip managed to sneak a game out last year without my knowledge – it’s a WiiWare game called Penguin Life and actually got a US release under the (frankly rubbish) name of Snowpack Park. Looks like I need to get downloading!

A guide to our guides

As you may have noticed, I’ve just uploaded a MASSIVE walkthrough for Captain Rainbow. This guide was originally hosted at NTSC-uk.com but as reader Robert S recently informed me, the site has now gone offline and taken the rather handy Captain Rainbow guide with it. NTSC-uk has recently re-lanuched, at ntsc-uk.co.uk and the staff hope to have all their content back up as soon as possible but, in the mean time, NTSC’s editor Charle Rodmell has kindly granted Lovedelic Life permission to host both this and the Giftpia guide. Thanks Charles!

The guides themselves were written by Jason Muir and are presented here in as close to their original form as possible. Jason can be found on the NTSC-uk message boards under the name of Importaku, and I implore you to head over there and thank him if you found either walkthrough helpful.

Finally the Captain Rainbow guide can be read here, while the Giftpia guide should hopefully be online tomorrow.

Captain Rainbow walkthrough

Lovedelic Life presents, in association with NTSC-uk, the one and only English language walkthrough for Captain Rainbow.

Appy Days

While searching around the websites of a few ex-Lovedelic team members I came across an iPhone game that was released way back in 2009 and that I’d somehow managed to miss. It’s called Bug Hunter is made by Kazuyuki Kurashima and Hikarin (formerly of Skip). It’s a pretty neat spot the difference game that reminds me of Namco’s Magikai Museum on DS and features some wacky paintings from Hikarin and some pretty cool classic game parodying pixel art from Kurashima. Oh and it’s only 59p. Get it here.

Bug Hunter isn’t the only Lovedelic related app that’s circulating right now, actually. Grasshopper Manufacture has just released Frog Minutes, a completely bonkers game for iPhone and iPad that has you collecting bugs and feeding them to frogs in a strangely tranquil rural setting. On a mechanical level it’s pretty simple stuff but the odd presentation, and audio commentary, makes it a lot more appealing. The Lovedelic connection, of course, is Grasshopper’s recent hire Yoshiro Kimura who’s credited on Frog Minutes as a supervisor. Like Bug Hunters, Frog Minutes is just 59p and there’s the added bonus that all proceeds got to the Japan Red Cross to help survivors of the Tohoku earthquake. Get it here.

Giftpia translation complete

Good news! Indie translation group Kirameki has finally completed its English translation of Skip’s Giftpia. The translation can be found here, and though there’s currently no patch so you can play in English on your telly, Kirameki is eager for any interested hackers to contact them. Text is better than nothing, of course, and I for one will be taking advantage of the translation, with the GameCube on my TV and the script running on my iPad. And if I get a bit stuck, well there’s always NTSC-uk’s handy guide.

Now how about that Captain Rainbow translation that Kirameki’s also working on? A member of the group got in touch with me and said, “Sadly, captain rainbow is still ongoing.” Doesn’t sound too promising does it? Well, until it’s done, NTSC-uk (again) has you covered with a nice little guide.

Vote to get Little King’s Story in the Smithsonian

As detailed here, the Smithsonian Institute is planning an Art Of Videogames exhibition and is asking the gaming community to select which games will be exhibited. And Little King’s Story is one of the games that has been nominated!

The voting process divides games into various categories, first era, then console then genre and asks you to pick one game from three nominated entries. You’ll find Little King’s Story under Next Generation/Wii/Strategy and you should DEFINITELY go there and vote for it. This brilliant game was criminally overlooked at launch and the more second chances it gets the better.

You should vote in every category while you’re there, however. I did and I was surprised by how much fun I had picking my favourites.

PS – If you don’t vote for Shining Force II in the Mega Drive/Strategy category then you’re dead to me.

Rising Star releases Little King’s Story concept art

Just as the title says… Get yourself to the Rising Star Games website, sign up as a Hoshi member and you can take a behind the scenes peek at one of the best Wii games around.
And that’s about it. See you in another month!

Nice To Tweet You

Everyone seems to be on Twitter these days, and the Lovedelic clan are no exception. A fair few of them spend all day tweeting away, so why not follow them? Ok, most of the posts are in Japanese but you’ll occasionally see something in English or a link to an interesting new project, maybe even a cryptic clue to a big secret.

Here are the Lovedelic Twitter accounts I’ve found so far, please add any more in the comments below if you know of them.

Kenichi Nishi of Route24 (formerly Skip)

Yoshiro Kimura of Grasshopper (formerly Marvelous, Punchline)

Kazuyuki Kurashima character designer for Lovedelic and Vanpool

Keita Eto of Skip

Ryuichi Sakamoto composer on Lack Of Love

Hiroshi Suzuki of Skip and Fieldsystem

Audio Inc (Contact, Sakura Note, Space Agency)

Vanpool (Endnesia, Tingle)

If you’d also like to follow yours truly then you can find me here. It’s my personal account so mostly contains my mindless ramblings but you may see something Lovedelic related from time to time.

Finally, I don’t believe this is a verified account.

 

Lack Of Love back in stock at Genki

Genki Videogames has a copy of Lack Of Love in stock once again. It’s a little pricey at £42 but copies of this game don’t come around very often and it seems to be getting rarer and rarer. I still think it’s worth the price though, you’ll get much more entertainment out of it than say a £55 copy of Call Of Duty: Black Ops. So if you haven’t already played LOL then do yourself a favour and snap it up before someone else does. You won’t regret it.

And if you have already played it then why not buy it for a friend as a late Christmas present? It may be the greatest gift you ever give.

EDIT: And as AGS says below, VideoGameImports also has one in stock for the bargain price of £36. VGI is traditionally more expensive than Genki in my experience so £36 really is a good deal.