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Well, this is about as far from how we wanted to start out the week as humanly possible -- a Japanese news site called Data-Max reports that Cing, developer of precious gems such as Hotel Dusk and Little King's Story, has filed for bankruptcy, suffering liabilities of 256 million yen.

It really sucks when a developer has to take such desperate measures to deal with its economic hardships, but it double-sucks when one of said developer's games -- in this case, Hotel Dusk sequel Last Window -- is still due for an American localization. Here's hoping Cing can recover from what's proven to be one of the most painfully slow sales seasons for the company to date.

[Via NeoGAF]

Cing's sequel to Hotel Dusk is destined for a PAL release, a recent trademark shows. This may cause one to believe Last Window could eventually find its way to North America and we'd certainly entertain the notion -- at least it should be importable.

Admittedly, Nintendo actively promoted Cing's first game and a lot of DS enthusiasts in the U.S. seemed to enjoy it, so we can see it happening. But without so much as a mention during the recent Nintendo Media Summit, we're not gonna hold our breath just yet. Let's at least agree to wait until E3, OK?

Source - OHIM online European trademark database [Via Siliconera]

Here's some refreshing news: Tecmo announced the release date for a handheld game whose existence isn't totally humiliating: the supernatural murder mystery Again for DS. The publisher gave a specific day to its former March release date: March 30.

In addition to the date, Tecmo provided some more evidence of Again's gameplay in the form of a trailer. Fans of Rorschach tests, full-motion video and, particularly, totally intense headache pantomime would do well to have a look. Seriously, this trailer contains the most intense fake headache we've seen in the game.

CING's Again (once known as Again: Eye of Providence) is just the latest in a surprising bumper crop of DS mystery adventure games, joining peers like the Phoenix Wright series, Jake Hunter, Miami Law, and the developer's own Hotel Dusk. The Tecmo-published Again brings a couple of unique quirks to the genre, while not straying too far from the sort of "visual novel" gameplay we've come to expect from these titles.

Again stars a pair of FBI investigators, Jonathan "J" Weaver and Kate Hathaway, as they investigate an apparent serial killer. The murders they are looking into happen to share characteristics with an unsolved serial killer case from 19 years ago, with which J was also involved -- as seen in subtle clues like the note written to J telling him that what happened 19 years ago is going to happen again. Most law enforcement officials would probably call an agent's personal involvement in a case a conflict of interest -- CING would call it drama.

It seems like everyone who played Little King's Story fell in love with it. Unfortunately, almost nobody played it. It may have been too weird to attract a mass market, or too cute-looking to get the attention of people usually interested in strategy games.

That cuteness, however, is what producer Yoshiro Kimura used to present some rather dark themes in a way that seems totally innocuous on the surface. Little King's Story almost forces the player to become attached to each individual unit -- every unit in your employ has a name, and is assigned to its job by you, the king. In addition, your soldiers will frequently fall in love, marry, and give birth to children. And when just one of your soldiers -- or chefs, or miners, or farmers, etc. -- dies, the whole town wears black in mourning, and many of the citizens attend the funeral service at the church.

At first, you follow the "advice" of the experienced vet who recommends invading all the neighboring kingdoms. But, as you play the game and come to know your subjects, you realize that the other kings are more childish than malevolent, and the indigenous creatures are basically defending their own territory, and you begin to wonder just why you're sending all your townspeople, who were "Carefree Adults" before you met them, to their death in these missions. You feel guilty even as you're enjoying the gameplay.

That dichotomy is the essence of Little King's Story. It's cute, but it's dark. The story is simple, but it inspires questions. It's one of the best games of the year, but nobody bought it.

There's a bounty of new media from CING's Hotel Dusk sequel, Last Window, to check out. Screens and a pair of new trailers await anxious looky-loos and should provide Hotel Dusk fans with a comfortable familiarity -- Last Window pretty much looks like a Hotel Dusk sequel.

You can peep the two trailers over at Nintendo of Japan's site, while you'll have to hit up Game Watch for the new screens. Just remember to pace yourself. We wouldn't want you overdoing it like the dude above this chunk of text.

Source - Last Window trailers [Via GoNintendo]
Source - Screens at Game Watch

Tecmo just sent over a bunch of new media for CING's upcoming DS CSI-er, Again. Created by the Hotel Dusk dev house, Again follows supernatural FBI agent Jonathan Weaver -- a man looking for answers to his family's death. He does this through his uncanny ability to look at past crimes while examining those same locations in the present. It's kind of like that black light they use on hotel rooms in news exposes, except there's less chance of seeing something that will scar you for the rest of your life because this is a DS game.

Aside from a healthy amount of new screens to examine, we've also got two new videos showing off puzzles surrounding a clock and a shower curtain, the latter of which shows you how Jonathan uses his special ability. You can check out the first video above, but you'll need to see your way past the break for the other.

Tecmo has just announced a spring release date for Monster Rancher DS and Again ... again. But in Europe this time! Last week, Tecmo announced March release dates for the Cing-developed adventure game and monster training game. Tecmo Koei Europe has followed suit, though with a less specific spring release window.

Monster Rancher DS, of course, is a game about creating and training monsters -- in this game, monsters are generated either by speaking into the microphone or drawing. Again is an adventure game about an FBI agent who investigates crime scenes in both the past and the present.

The blog Sinobi seems to have found some retail listings for two new Nintendo games due in the first quarter of 2010 in Japan. Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku (Last Window: Midnight Promise) is a sequel to CING's DS adventure game, Hotel Dusk, set in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It will apparently be out in Japan on January 14!

Zangeki no Reginleiv is the Wii action game revealed in October 2008 as "Dynamic Zan" and not heard from again until just now. It's being developed by Earth Defense Force creator Sandlot, and will include online combat for up to four players when it's released on February 11.

All of these details are unverified, but the fact that Sinobi had the images above for both games (which may come from a retailer catalog) add some credence to the rumor.

[Via NeoGAF]

Another Code R, the Wii sequel to Trace Memory, isn't out in North America yet (and nobody's mentioned anything about it ever coming out), but the gears are turning at Cing regarding storyline elements for a sequel. Cing's Rika Suzuki told Cubed3 that the character "Matt" still has a story that has yet to be finished, and that the character has "a grand future ahead of him from which to use as source material."

Suzuki also said that all of this story would be "expressed through the world of Another Code, including how his friendship develops with Ashley and more on the story of his father, Michael." While that could mean spinoff novels or something, the likeliest explanation is more video games!

[Via GoNintendo]

Marvelous is taking an extra step in Japan to market the upcoming release of Little King's Story, and it's one that makes a lot of sense: the company is partnering with Burger King to promote the strategy game. Burger King restaurants in Japan are displaying the poster depicted to the right, and will also have LKS placemats. According to Andriasang, Burger King's mail magazine will also include Little King's Story information. In addition, a small army of Burger King employees, led by a real little king, will lead an assault on a nearby McDonalds in an attempt to take down Ronald. We may have made that up.

It's pretty amazing that Little King's Story is a big enough game to get this kind of promotion, which is reserved in the US for huge franchises. Either that, or Burger King is a small enough operation.

Little King's Story creator Yoshiro Kimura had previously said that he's interested in making a sequel to his strategy title. Now, speaking to Siliconera, Kimura explained that he is in the early stages of working on just such a thing. "We are planning to make a sequel to Little King's Story, like Super Little King's Story," Kimura said, "but we're still in the process idea phase."

At the moment, Marvelous is looking for funding for the sequel, as well as "partners" to help make it. The first game was developed by Cing and Town Factory, along with some high-profile freelancers. While we don't want anyone involved with the first game excluded from this potential sequel, we can understand the appeal of having a single team make a game, if that's Kimura's intent.

When I started Cing/Town Factory's Little King's Story, I expected to find a cute, very charming little strategy game whose flaws prevented it from greatness, like most games this heavy on the quirkiness factor. I was blindsided by how much fun I continued to have through hours of play. It's rare for a game to be this cute and odd, but also this good. I found this game utterly magical, and I hate strategy games.

Yoshio Kimura, producer on Little King's Story, originally planned to include multiplayer in the strategy title, according to an interview with 411mania. "This game used to have a 2-player mode," he explained, "but we couldn't make the QA and debug in time, so we had to take it out. And this is one of the things that I really wanted to have."

If setting competing armies of townspeople against one another, or collaborating to expand your shared kingdom, sounds great to you (like it does to us), you know how you can make your voice heard. "But if Little King's Story does well and a lot of people get to play it and if I have a chance to make a sequel, that's definitely something I want to implement."

Aside from gameplay-focused matters, Kimura had a lot to say in this interview. Check it out for discussion of the character designs and how, uh, a talking squirrel inspired him to create the game.

Gallery: Little King's Story

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[Via GoNintendo]

Marvelous is still assuring everybody that Little King's Story is coming out, announcing yet another release date. Unless another delay is in the forecast, the latest news should make European Wii owners happy: European publisher Rising Star Games is planning to release the game on April 24, before it comes out anywhere else.

The last announced North American release date for the town-building RPG was February 17, but XSEED said even before then that the game was likely to be delayed -- which it obviously has. GameStop currently has a May 15 release date -- not to mention an adorable pre-order bonus!