The most recent blog post on the Route24 website appears to claim that Kenichi Nishi’s dog, Tao, has died.

Anyone who’s ever looked at Nishi’s blog will know, despite the language barrier, just how much Tao meant to him, thanks to the hundreds of photos adorning the website and we can only imagine how bad Nishi must feel right now.

Millions of game designers across the world probably own dogs that have died, of course, but few developers’ dogs are as well known to gamers as Tao. Immortalized in several games – Moon, Giftpia, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow – Tao has a special place in the heart of many a Lovedelic fan, who I’m sure will join me in wishing Kenichi Nishi the sincerest sympathies today.

RIP Tao.

Just a quick post to say that you really should get issue 89 of games™* this month. It features a 4-page article on the Art Style series, in which the first six DSiWare titles are reviewed and various members of Skip talk about the making of the series. It’s a short interview but it does have a couple of revelations, including the previously unknown fact that Skip was once working on a Motionplus sports game for the Wii.

Who would have believed that? Not me. Sports games are about as far away from Skip’s usual output as it’s possible to get. But then Art Style Cubello did start out as an FPS, so maybe they would have done something interesting with the genre.

In other Art Style news – the bit Generations title, Digidrive was recently released under the Art Style label, on DSi, as Intersect. I didn’t report on it at the time, since the game is made by Q Games, and not Skip, but I might as well mention it here for completion’s sake.

*Subscribers should have their copy now, while everyone else will be able to buy the issue from this Thursday onward.

Ok, I admit it. I’m just not that interested in Lovedelic games at the moment. My retro glands have been pumping LucasArts classics for the past two or three months, swollen with excitement at the new Monkey Island series. And it’s October, so I’ve been indulging in the big Christmas hits like Uncharted 2 while drooling over forthcoming software like DJ Hero, Assassin’s Creed II and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

But who can blame me? There’s very little of interest going on in Lovedelic Land at the moment. Only Sakura Note seems to show any signs of life and, to be honest, I can’t get too excited about that at present. Fortunately, however, the lovely people at Tiny Cartridge have been doing a fine job of tracking Audio’s project on the new DS RPG and I heartily recommend that you check out their findings here.

Now then, I’ll have one more post for you today but then I’m off back to the PS3.

As is becoming far too common, the wonderful people at Tiny Cartridge have beat me to another Lovedelic related story. This time it’s about a competition Marvelous is holding, in which fans can send in nostalgic photographs from their childhood for inclusion on the site.

I’m not sure if they mean photos that were taken when you were a child or new photos that represent memories of your childhood, but this is a cool idea all the same. If you enter the contest then let me know how it goes below.

ALSO: Tiny Cartridge reports that Audio would very much like to see Sakura Note localised. Which is very good news in the current climate, when the last two Chibi-Robo games and the latest Tingle look set to stay Japan-only.

Well, folks. It’s been a hell of a long time since I last posted here and I really must apologise.

Sorry!

Where have I been? Well, I moved house back in the middle of July and didn’t manage to get the internet installed until this week. THANK YOU very much, Talk, Talk!

So what did this blog miss while I was away? A hell of a lot as it turns out. Here’s everything I can remember:

Welcome Home-Chibi Robo was released in Japan. I have my copy and I can confirm that it is a truly excellent game. It’s a lot like the GameCube version but with great touch controls and some lovely new gadgets. Sadly, I spoke to Nintendo a few weeks ago and they confirmed that there are no plans to release the game in the UK. Happily, however, it’s totally import friendly.

The new Tingle game – Color Changing Tingle’s Love Balloon Trip – was also released in Japan and has also been denied a UK release. My copy hasn’t arrived yet but, from what I’ve read, it seems to be quite a departure from the last game and is more akin to a point-and-click, consisting mostly of locked room puzzles.

Akira Ueda, longtime Lovedelic collaborator and creator of Contact, has announced a new DS game called Sakura Note. The official website has a few screens and some video footage that show off a rather unique art style, mixing 16-bit sprites with digitized photographic backgrounds. Hideo Minaba, who worked on Little King’s Story, is also developing Sakura Note.

Speaking of Little King’s Story. The rather brilliant Wii game has finally been released in the States and is about to be released in Japan, where it is being promoted in a typically wacky way.

Fans of the Art Style games should look forward to issue 89 of gamesTM, on sale at the end of October as, if everything goes to plan, it will feature an interview with several member of Skip about their popular DSiWare series.

And that’s about all I can remember. I’m sure there’s more I’ve missed but it’s been a busy couple of months. If I recall any other news then I’ll post it in the next few days.

In the meantime, I’d like to do something unusual and recommend a few non-Lovedelic games that I’ve been playing this summer. In the last two weeks I’ve been mostly playing Bionic Commando, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Professor Layton And The Diabolical Box, Blood Bowl, Wii Sports Resort, Machinarium, Tales Of Monkey Island and Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

If you have the chance to play any of these games then I suggest you do so. They’re all excellent in their own way.

Oh and look forward to Heavy Rain next year. I finally got a chance to play a little of it and I really do think it will change the way stories are told in games. Believe the hype, as they say.

Yoshiro Kimura, designer of Little King’s Story, developer of several Lovedelic greats (Moon, UFO, L.O.L, Chulip, Rule Of Rose) and friend of Lovedelic Life has given a rather excellent interview with N-Sider.com. The Q&A mostly focuses on the making of Little King’s Story but it also briefly discusses Kimura’s concept for a new game (pictured) that appears to be based on Little Red Riding Hood.

I personally hope that this idea goes into production very soon. The world famous fairy tale is extremely suitable for videogame form (I’m thinking survival-horror…) and the mixture of children’s fable and subversive sexual metaphor would make it the ideal follow-up to Kimura’s controversial Rule Of Rose.

Kotaku has a nice little report about the new Tingle games, including some fantastic Famitsu scans.

Game number one is a full sequel to Freshly Picked Tingle’s Rosy Ruppeland, this time called Color Changing Tingle’s Love Balloon Trip. The theme this time, it seems, will be love. So instead of greedily scouring the world for money he’ll be looking for a life-partner. I use this non-gender-specific term intentionally, of course, because of the general assumption that Tingle is gay. Preview images for the new game suggest that Nintendo will be setting the record straight by setting him up with a string of attractive women but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a hunky man-shaped twist toward the end of the game. This is a Tingle title, after all, and it’s bound to have some risque element to it… Unless the game has been specifically designed to break America by nixing the one problem that most yanks seem to have with the character.

Game number two, meanwhile, is less expected but no less welcome. It’s a DSiWare title appropriately named Too Much Tingle and seems to be a wacky collection of mini-games and utilities. There’s a fortune teller, a stopwatch, a calculator, a coin toss and, weirdly, a dancing marionette. Each one comes with its own unique twist, like the calculator that is designed for men and women to split the bill for their meal… And not necessarily equally.

Those of you who own a Japanese DSi will be pleased to hear that Too Much Tingle is already available for 500 Nintendo Points. The rest of us will have to wait for confirmation of a worldwide release.

]]> http://lovedelicgames.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/first-welcome-home-chibi-robo-screens/feed/ 3 imash 2h57j7s http://lovedelicgames.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/tingle-returns/ http://lovedelicgames.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/tingle-returns/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:26:26 +0000 imash http://lovedelicgames.wordpress.com/?p=330 ]]>

As many of you are no doubt aware, a new Tingle game has been announced by Nintendo and already has a teaser website that you can view here. While details are scarce, we do know that the game is heading for the DS and that, going by the illustration style, it is likely to be a sequel to Freshly Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland. No idea if Vanpool is the developer but the familiar art style, and the fact that the studio hasn’t produced a new game in ages, suggests they will be. We should know more on Thursday when Nintendo launches a a trailer for the game.

And in other news: I received an email from Yoshiro Kimura (designer of Little King’s Story) this weekend saying that he and Kazuyuki Kurashima are fans of Lovedelic Life. Aptly enough, Kurashima is actually the voice of Tingle as well as the monster designer on Rupeeland and LKS.

Kimura and Kurashima, Lovedelic Life extends a hearty Kooloo-Limpah! to you both!