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Genius Sonority's Denpa Men reaches back to the company's 16-bit roots
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. Genius Sonority made its debut under that name in 2003, with Pokemon Colosseum. It was billed as a successor to Pokemon Stadium, and I ended up putting in more than a hundred hours before eventually souring on the recycled sprites and Colosseum's grinding "purification process."Since then, Genius Sonority's name has mostly been a byword for "outsourced" among Pokemon fans, bringing the same shudders that Backbone does for retro gamers. But with the recent release of Denpa Men: They Came by Wave, a kind of augmented reality RPG for the Nintendo 3DS, I've found that their roots go back further than Pokemon.%Gallery-169215%
Portabliss: The Denpa Men (3DS eShop)
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. The Denpa Men (officially The "DENPA" Men: They Came By Wave) seems at first glance like something new, alien, and weird, thanks to its augmented reality gimmick and, well, this video. But upon actually playing it, I discovered that this game was designed for comfort in a way that I wish every classic RPG had been.I don't mean it's easy – in fact, only one of my four-person party survived the boss battle at the end of the demo. But everything about the interface is streamlined to allow you to play without any of the repetitive annoyances that turn people off of classic dungeon RPGs.
NintendoWare Weekly: The Denpa Men, Quarth
The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave is a new dungeon RPG by Genius Sonority, in which you use augmented reality-type exploration to find little guys in the environment, who then form your party. It's cute, quirky, and available on the 3DS eShop today. There's a demo if you'd like to try it out.Also out on 3DS is Konami's Quarth, a fascinating Game Boy puzzle game that never seemed to pick up a large audience in America.
NintendoWare Weekly: La-Mulana
La-Mulana has been a long time coming on WiiWare, but it's finally here. Today, the WiiWare version launches for 1,000 Wii Points, headlining this week's content dump on Nintendo platforms.Also, time is running out to download your free Pokedex 3D – it's being pulled from the 3DS eShop on October 1 to pave way for the more expensive, improved version.
