E308: Namco Bandai's Panda game dated for U.S.

by Chris Greenhough { Jul 17th 2008 at 7:30PM }

The first English-language screens of Namco Bandai's National Geographic Panda have emerged from E3, as well as a North American release window of this fall. We also received a smattering of gameplay details, listed beneath the almost unforgivable title of "It's PANDA-MONIUM!"

According to these, the aim of the game is simply to rear your own Baby Panda or Giant Panda (you can tickle and play with them via the touchscreen, as you would a Nintendog), keeping them fed, clean, and happy during their time in Panda Park (which, incidentally, changes depending on whether you play at day or night).

To do this, you'll get a daily allowance which can be used for panda food or toys (such as ... gherkin-shaped see-saws?), and as you play more, further Baby Pandas will gradually begin to "move" into Panda Park, which is probably just Namco Bandai's way of avoiding the whole panda sex thing. Probably for the best.

Gallery: National Geographic Panda

[Via press release]

Tags: animals, bandai, cute, e3-2008, e308, namco, namco-bandai, national-geographic, national-geographic-panda, panda

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kimiko @ Jul 17th 2008 7:53PM

Why is it called _National_Geographic_ Panda? Namco Bandai is a Japanese company, right, and NG is USAian. So whose 'national' is it?

Red @ Jul 18th 2008 1:23AM

I was always under the impression that it was connected to the magazine National Geographic, hence the name. (Otherwise, I'd imagine there'd be lawsuits and a name change.)

I did a quick Google search. According to Gamespot it's connected to the magazine, but as (at least as far as I'm concerned) Gamespot isn't the greatest of resources, take the following link with a grain of salt: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6189370.html

Zealot @ Jul 17th 2008 8:01PM

They localize this but not Tales of Innocence? Please excuse me while my head explodes.

Zealot @ Jul 17th 2008 8:06PM

And yes, I know, I know--this is less of a risk because of nearly zero translation costs, but I still think they're deluded if they think they're going to drink one drop of Ubisoft's Petz series' milkshake (or any of the other shovelware clones of it out there), regardless of whether or not this is a better animal care sim.