Tecmo has revealed plans to jump into the family sports fray with Family Fun Football, scheduled to hit the field this fall. The arcade style casual game features 10 (unlicensed) teams, some wacky mascots, mini-games and an unlockable mode for players to use their own Mii creations.
Family Fun Football also includes a “Simple Playbook” feature, which Tecmo claims will “[make] it easy for everyone to learn and understand the game of football.” If that’s the case, perhaps most of the Joystiq staff should be picking this one up! Overall it sounds like some good family fun to us. Apart from having to unlock the Mii Mode. That’s kind of lame.
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?
We’ve been keeping a secret. You see, we’re absolutely scared to death of Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. That’s not going to stop us from picking the game up and playing the crap out of it though. We just felt we needed to share that with you all.
The above video for the game does a good job of depicting exactly what scares us. It’s got spooky ghosts, a dark and creepy environment and a girl we hope survives long enough to get her film developed.
For this blogger, sports is a big part of life. The competition, the stats and the camaraderie of sports is one that will never leave this blogger’s life. And, being a huge game nerd, the love of sports and games both played a big part in developing the individual typing out this post in both Tecmo Bowland Super Tecmo Bowl. Seriously, you have no idea how many hours were dumped into those games …
And now, like a lost puppy finding its way home, the franchise returns to Nintendo consoles. We don’t have any information other than a confirmation from Tecmo that the franchise is coming to Wii, but we’re pretty sure it’ll be branded the same as the new DS game.
Publishers in South Korea are pulling out all the stops to make sure gamers pick up their launch titles when the Wii officially debuts in the country on April 26. Though these aren’t as glamorous (or as scandalous) as the Zack & Wiki pearl necklaces, Tecmo is giving away free shirts featuring characters Kooh and Arin with preorders for Swing Golf Pangya 2nd Shot.
Interestingly, the golf title will be released in Korea four months after the game arrived in the states, despite being a console spin-off of a Korean MMO. At least they’ll get free shirts to make up for the delay! And they’re still getting it before Europe (July 4th)!
Tecmo’s Team Ninja will finally release a sequel to the Xbox classic in 2008. InNinja Gaiden 2 Ryu Hayabusa is on a mission to avenge his clan and prevent the destruction of the human race. Armed with an assortment of ninja weaponry, players must help Ryu skillfully maneuver through a world fraught with peril and danger. Armed with his ninja skills and an auto-generation health system, he must do battle with huge new enemies that will team up on you or turn suicide bomber, with it all taking place in beautiful locales like spiraling towers and New York.
The 1UP guys got to preview the game. The video preview shows new gameplay, characters, as well as story info (endboss spoiler after 6 minutes). Enjoy some bloody satisfaction:
Click on the bottom-right corner arrow to view it fullscreen.
Most Japanese teaser trailers and advertisements for games are a little weird, but we never knew the struggle on the links could be so epic. Battles are waged and balls are struck in such an unrealistic manner that would make even Happy Gilmore say "that's just too much." But, it's a video game, so things don't have to be ultra-realistic
What do you all think? Is the game looking like fun, or do you not go in for golf games, no matter how different they are from the traditional sport?
When we wrote about the adorable Tecmo Bowl-inspired costume in Swing Golf Pangya 2nd Shot!, we mentioned a couple of other Tecmo game characters we would like to see playing cutesy golf, making sure to name the most ridiculous-looking Tecmo characters we could think of at the time. Specifically, we said "We're looking forward to future Rygar and (especially) Mighty Bomb Jack costumes, ourselves."
The official Swing Golf Pangya 2nd Shot! homepage was just updated with a bunch of new Tecmo-related costumes, and who do we see? It's Mighty Bomb Jack! And Rygar! True, it's the "new look" Rygar from the Wii port, and not real Rygar, but close enough for us to feel completely responsible for this development.
The game also features character designs from Tokobot, Ninja Gaiden, and Solomon's Key, all of which are adorable. But we have to test our theory that Tecmo grants our wishes: This game would be awesome if you could play as a Tecmo Stacker.
At Tokyo Game Show last week it was revealed by Tecmo that they hired Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture to create the horror game Fatal Frame 4 for the Nintendo Wii.
When Grasshopper finishes work on their Wii-exclusive game No More Heroes before December 6th 2007, they will begin making Fatal Frame Wii. Given that No More Heroes was developed on Wii, Grasshopper seems content on Nintendo’s console. As you can read in our Fatal Frame 1 review, taking photographs of ghosts is a big part of Fatal Frame series, so Wiimote motion controls would make perfect sense.
1UP also notes the console-shift for the series, since last we heard about the next Fatal Frame it seemed to be for Xbox 360 and PS3. Producer Keisuke Kikuchi said about Fatal Frame 4 back in 2005: “I already have some ideas that I’d like to do if I had more development time and a more powerful system.” But then again, in 2005, no one knew about the Wii’s upcoming success.
The first Swing Golf Pangya (as Super Swing Golfwas known in Japan) featured costumes that made your golfer look like Tecmo characters Kasumi or Ayane from the Dead or Alive series, or Ryu Hayabusa from both DOA and his own Ninja Gaiden series. For the sequel, Tecmo apparently wanted to make available the most Tecmo-y costume possible, and chose a recognizable uniform from a game that is not only well-known and well-regarded, but has Tecmo in the title. And, since it would be extraordinarily hard to swing a club dressed up like a Tecmo Stacker, they chose Tecmo Bowl.
We're looking forward to future Rygar and (especially) Mighty Bomb Jack costumes, ourselves. There'd be no question about whether or not we'd be interested in a game that let you play golf in red tights and a horned helmet.
Tecmo throws a Hail Mary, announces Family Fun Football originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 23 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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