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Aksys hopes to make visual novels big with Jake Hunter
Aksys, who has already earned a place at the top of our Christmas list for localizing Super Dodgeball Brawlers, is also taking on the heroic task of localizing, for the first time, a Detective Saburo Jinguuji game. Aksys's Gail Salamanca spoke to Siliconera about the decision.Unsurprisingly, when Jinguuji steps into his American persona, the world around him will be more Westernized, as well. Similarly to how Capcom has approached the Phoenix Wright series despite the whole Fey family being clearly Japanese and part of the game clearly taking place in Japan, Salamanca said that Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles will take place in America: "Yes, we took the Anywhere, USA approach when it came time to localize the game."If Jake Hunter does well, which it may in a post-Wright America, Aksys is hoping to bring over more visual novel games. "We're hoping Jake Hunter is the first in a long list of digital novel style games." Although, to be honest, we think their decision to localize this is based less on genuine interest in the game and more on taking whatever they could get from Arc System Works.
Hardboiled detective title coming to the US after all
Aksys Games is quickly becoming our favorite publisher of niche DS titles. Just last month, the small studio announced that it would localize Super Dodgeball Brawlers, blowing kisses in our direction. Then earlier today, Aksys revealed its plans to rebrand Tantei Jinguji Saburo (Detective Saburo Jinguji) as Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles and bring the adventure title to North America next spring. Despite having appeared on a variety of consoles since his debut on the Famicom Disk System 20 years ago, this will be the gumshoe's first visit to the states.Like with the Phoenix Wright series, you'll progress through the noir-ish plots with menu-based interrogations and clues you've found during your investigations. With Jake Hunter, however, you'll solve your cases with a Guile-styled haircut and a bebop jazz soundtrack. How wicked is that? We're not sure yet whether or not Aksys Games will leave in the Shinjuku setting and chain-smoking scenes, but we do know that Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles will be budget-priced at $19.99. Hit the gallery for five screenshots from the Japanese release.%Gallery-9685%
Insecticide site gets overhaul
After the game was announced, we were excited to see what Insecticide was bringing to the DS table. We imagined a feast chock full of delicious foods, allowing us to gorge ourselves until our heart's content. Well, until that time when the game releases, we'll just have to settle for some screenshots from the game's website. Check them out in the gallery below.
Sleuth site and a detective demo
It's doubtful that any publishers will ever pick up Detective Saburo Jinguji for North American localization, but with adventure titles making a comeback on the DS, maybe it's not that farfetched of a dream?Developer Arc System Works has posted a teaser site to drum up interest for the seasoned private eye's DS debut, detailing some of the its features and providing a Flash demo for visitors to try out. Though the trial consists mostly of Japanese dialogue and menus, it's a nice preview of the game's jazzy soundtrack and photographic presentation. Plus, if you investigate the crime scene enough, you might come across some familiar consoles!
Gyakuten Saiban 3 to include English translation
Recently, Capcom announced the third game in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, Trials and Tribulations, was being localized for North America. Just like previous Gyakuten Saiban releases in Japan, native English brains won't be the only ones to benefit from the translation. Gyakuten Saiban 3 will be re-released in Japan as a budget title (approximately $25) with both the original Japanese and the English built-in. Fancy-pants importers can use this to score a copy of the game a month before its September North American release.
The DS gets buggy
Gamecock Media, the new publisher formed by former Gathering of Developers executives, have announced a new DS game from Crackpot Entertainment: a "third-person shooter/detective game" called Insecticide. The game, also coming out for PC, stars Detectives Chrys Liszt and Roachy Caruthers as they attempt to solve a murder at the Nectarola soft drink company. In addition to shooting bad guys, players will have to investigate environments and clues using the stylus.We are loving the concept art. It's got a great detective-thriller atmosphere combined with Psychonauts styling, which is very appropriate for what looks and sounds a whole lot like an adventure game. Obviously this art is a little too hi-res for DS, but we hope they can pull off a similar look.%Gallery-3405%[Via press release]
Hardboiled detective title coming to the DS, but not the US
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tantei Jinguuji Saburou's (Detective Saburo Jinguji) debut on the Famicom Disk System, WorkJam plans to bring the adventure game series to the DS. Despite appearing on a multitude of consoles ranging from mobile phones to the PS2, the chain-smoking sleuth's bebop-jazz-filled murder mysteries haven't yet been localized for the US audience.Given the success of Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk in the states, both of them also being adventure titles, perhaps we'll finally see an English translation for this one? Come on Atlus, we can cross Touch Detective 2 off the possible-projects list and bring this gumshoe game over instead, right?Players investigate their cases through menu-based interrogations and actions, piecing together clues found at crime scenes while taking Saburo through Shinjuku's tough streets. Bring your magnifying glass and deerstalker hat past the post break for screenshots of the stylish DS title and a gameplay trailer from the series' GBA release, Detective Saburo Jinguji: The Woman With the White Shadow.
Japanese mystery novelist behind forthcoming Tecmo game
Those Tecmo folks, who really love the DS these days, are hard at work on yet another title -- an adventure game with puzzle elements in which the player must solve a mystery (see also: half the DS catalogue). There are a couple of interesting facts about this particular game, though. Besides the standard story mode, Tecmo's latest also offers a mini-mystery mode, with microcases that the player can solve in minutes. The second interesting thing about this mystery game is that the story was written by a mystery novelist! Japanese writer Kyotaro Nishimura is behind the plot and working as a supervisor on the game. And in true writerly fashion, the game has an extremely long title: DS Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense New Detective Series: Kyoto, Atami, Zekkai no Kotou Satsui no Wana.We've long wished for games written by actual authors -- it just makes sense -- so this is a pretty exciting announcement. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for only good news on the New Detective Series, and we'll keep you updated as we find out more.
A few Touch Detective Season 2 1/2 screens, and one creepy wallpaper
More news from Success today! Famitsu posted a few screens of Touch Detective Season 2 1/2 (Osawari Tantei Ozawa Rina Season 2/12). It turns out that the "Season" appelation is not just being clever; the game looks identical to its predecessor, meaning that the new content is limited to story, rather than graphics or gameplay. This is fine! We can appreciate restraint.Also, over at the Japanese home page, a "download" section has popped up with a weird, weird March calendar wallpaper. Feel free to browse around the home page and read the developer blog if you can. Just in case you don't feel like messing around with kanji or Flash, we've provided the wallpaper, and the Famitsu screens, after the break.
A quartet of new Touch Detective videos touch our heart
When we aren't busy touching our DS (and Joystiq isn't busy touching on disgusting topics during interviews), we like to casually daydream about Touch Detective. Atlus always does such a bang-up job on their localizations, we feel compelled to seek out their projects and make them our own. Touch Detective is no exception.It brings us great amounts of joy to report that IGN has put up 4 new videos of the game. You may find them all conveniently located right here.
