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TGS 2009: Hands-on: Tsumuji
Is it a Zelda clone? Yes. Is that a bad thing? We don't think so. EA Japan's Tsumuji will seem instantly familiar to anyone who have played any of the "Celda" games on DS/Gamecube. The art is not just reminiscent of Nintendo's classic: the main character looks nearly the same! (Granted, he wears a red tunic, not a green one.)The story begins with generic JRPG convention #1: our hero wakes up in a small remote village. Inexplicably, the game wants you to throw a rock at your mom's precious china. It's easy, too. Just simply tap on a faraway item to throw a rock at it. None to pleased about losing a valuable treasure, your mom punishes you by giving you money to buy a delicious meat dinner (seriously). Your character takes the money and lifts it in the air in a motion that should be familiar to most Nintendo fans.Beyond the presentation, most of the gameplay will also be more-than-reminiscent of the DS Zelda games. Your character is controlled entirely through the stylus: simply drag the stylus to where you want your character to go and click on people/items you want to interact with.%Gallery-73770%
EA's Rex Ishibashi talks about missing Suda 51, Shinji Mikami project
Remember when EA announced a new project with No More Heroes' Suda 51 and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami over a year ago? We were surprised to find that it was completely absent from EA's extravagent pre-TGS Tokyo press conference. We talked with EA Japan's Rex Ishibashi about the game's mysterious absence from the show."We'll make the updates when they're appropriate and when we're ready. In fact, EA Japan is now involved in some of the communication, helping EA Global to manage that very important relationship for us," EA Japan's Ishibashi told Joystiq. "We'll make the announcements on those games, but they look very promising."Stay tuned for our full interview later this week. Video produced by Ross Miller
EA Japan announces Tsumuji for DS
Unlike other publishers, EA isn't waiting for Tokyo Game Show to start to reveal their big news. High atop the Mori Tower in Tokyo's luxurious Roppongi Hills, EA Japan has announced a brand new original game. Tsumuji, aka Whirlwind, is a DS-exclusive being produced in Japan.We're reminded a lot of Celda. The trailer has a big-eyed character running around a top-down field that's reminiscent of A Link to the Past. There will be towns to visit, dungeons to crawl. Like the DS Zelda games, all the action is controlled by the stylus.We'll be getting hands-on with this game, and a whole slew of other EA titles: Dead Space Extraction, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Dante's Inferno, Left4Dead 2 and more. Stay tuned for the rest of our pre-TGS coverage.%Gallery-73770%
EA Japan reveals DS ninja game
EA in Japan isn't much like EA in the West, at least in terms of DS games. Well, maybe it is in that it delivers exactly the kind of stuff its target audience wants to see -- to the point of being stereotypical. In the US, that means licensed games, racing, and The Sims. In Japan, it means DS nongames, pervy stuff, and dungeon crawlers.The latest game to be revealed by EA Japan falls into the latter category: Shonen Kininden Tsumuji is about a young ninja whose mountain home is attacked by enemy ninja types. To save his family and friends, Tsumuji takes off into a series of dungeons, battling ninja with a large magical shuriken called "Senpuuki" ("Wind Demon"). Along the way he can find more ninja tools hidden in walls and under the floor.EA has only revealed one piece of artwork from the game, but it's enough to capture our interest. We eagerly await the details that should come from a Coro Coro Comics event tomorrow.[Via IGN]
EA pulls plug on unproductive Japanese studio
EA Japan's muddling existence has come to an end, according to information received by 1UP. The studio has produced just one title, a port of Theme Park for DS (not yet released), in three years of operation, having failed at attempts to develop projects for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.The closure will apparently affect only about 20 employees -- many of whom will be relocated to other positions throughout the company -- as EA has been scaling back the studio's size for months. Despite EA Japan's collapse, studios in other parts of Asia, namely China and Singapore, continue to grow. "I think this closure is also as a result of the Japanese market not being as exciting compared to the possibilities for growth in China and other parts of Asia," a source told 1UP.EA has yet to comment on the shutdown.
