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VC Tuesday: WiiWare dominates retro gaming

by JC Fletcher { Sep 2nd 2008 at 9:55AM }

This week on Japan's Virtual Console: Workjam's Tantei Jinguuji Saburo: Yokohama Minato Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Detective Saburo Jinguuji: The Case of the Yokohama Harbor Serial Murder), the second game in what we now call the Jake Hunter series. And nothing else. Even the US got two Virtual Console games this week -- two first-party Virtual Console games, at that.

Tantei Jinguuji Saburo: Yokohama Minato Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)

Luckily, WiiWare stepped in to make sure we don't get all smug about our downloadable games. Along with, well, Midnight Bowling and Saikyo Ginsei Reversi, Konami's Gradius Rebirth, which is either a remake of Gradius or a new game, is out. Either way, right now cores are being shot, and not by us. This is terrible.

Saikyo Ginsei Reversi (1-2 players, 500 Wii Points)
Hamaru Bowling (1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points)
Gradius Rebirth (1 player, 1,000 Wii Points)

Aksys hopes to make visual novels big with Jake Hunter

by JC Fletcher { Dec 7th 2007 at 9:45AM }

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.