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VC Tuesday: Let's Catch Earthworms
This week is (slightly) special for the Japanese Virtual Console, because a previously import-only game is making its debut on the service, even if it isn't entirely new to Japan. The Genesis version of Earthworm Jim never made it overseas, so the VC release is the first for this particular version of Earthworm Jim. There isn't even a 100 point surcharge for the import!The other VC download is Jigoku Meguri, a Taito platformer about a monk in hell. The name "Jigoku Meguri" (Tour of Hell) also apparently refers to a real-life tour of a bunch of hot springs! Neat. Earthworm Jim (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Jigoku Meguri (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Along with those two games, three rather interesting WiiWare titles are available. Prope's Let's Catch is officially the first release from Yuji Naka's new Sega-funded studio, and probably the first game Yuji Naka has done any real work on in quite some time. Sorcery Blade is the first WiiWare RPG. And 1 Meke! Dasshutsu Game My Home-hen (something like One Extraction! Escape Game * My Home Edition) basically came out of nowhere. It appears to be a cutesy, comedic "room escape" game, like a colorful version of The Crimson Room. Let's Catch (1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Sorcery Blade (1-2 players, 1,000 Wii Points) 1 Meke! Dasshutsu Game My Home-hen (1 player, 500 Wii Points)
Sorcery Blade: so ugly it's cute
Teasing the December 16th release of their WiiWare RPG Sorcery Blade, Kemco released a few new screenshots. To be perfectly honest, the new screens look quite junky! But in some kind of nostalgic, PS1/N64 blurry-texture sort of way that we find charming. Were this a full-price retail title, we'd be skewering it mercilessly, but $10 is a massive bargain for a new RPG, so the fuzzy walls and oversimplistic character models are merely endearing. Speaking of character models, check out the totally mismatched NPCs, featuring Mii heads on realistically-proportioned bodies.Really, if there's anything at all to the timing-based combat, we could foresee having a great time with Sorcery Blade. That is, if Kemco decided to go to the trouble of translating it. A cheap WiiWare RPG is infinitely more interesting than a flood of color-matching puzzle games.
Sorcery Blade: first trailer of the WiiWare RPG
How do you make a cell phone RPG look great? Put it on an actual game system! World Wide Software's Sorcery Blade, a WiiWare version of the Sorcery Sword series, looks quite nice for a downloadable game. Rather than the action-oriented Monster Hunter cash-in we assumed it would be, Sorcery Blade is a "real" turn-based RPG. Either that or the monsters are just very polite.There's no word on an international release for this game, but there's so little risk to a downloadable game that we think it's worth publisher Kemco's time. We'd definitely be up for a low-commitment RPG.[Via Inside-Games]
Sorcery Blade: first brief look at a small RPG
When we first saw Sorcery Blade, all we knew was that it was some kind of WiiWare RPG based on a mobile game series. We may still not know all that much about it, but Famitsu has posted the first direct-feed screens, so we have a better idea what it looks like.Sorcery Blade, evidently set on Mars in the year 3000, uses a motion-controlled combat scheme, with special attacks and magic done by drawing shapes on the screen, prompted by icons. When not in combat, you'll return to the town (we're guessing there's just one), where you'll receive quests and interact with Mii residents.The idea of a tiny, downloadable RPG is very appealing. There's nothing in particular about RPG gameplay that lends itself to superlong games -- that's just how it's worked out. Maybe Sorcery Blade will be an enjoyable, but bite-size, action RPG.
Kemco reveals WiiWare action RPG Sorcery Blade
There are only two screens and a tiny writeup of this in this week's Famitsu, but this WiiWare RPG looks like it might be interesting. According to the (short) article, Sorcery Blade is a new entry in a popular mobile RPG series by publisher Kemco. We looked around Kemco's site and the best guess we have is that it's a Sorcery Sword game. If so, then a lot has changed in the transition from phones to WiiWare. We don't know much about the combat in the new version, other than that it uses the Wiimote for timing-based attacks, but it looks like it may be real-time. We suspect that it probably plays as much like Monster Hunter as it looks.
