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Twitter was quietly rumbling a while back with regards to a ‘big player’ getting involved in Japanese indie localization. Turns out that it was an understatement; you can’t get much bigger than Capcom. The new site to keep an eye on is Nyu Media Limited, who have partnered with Capcom. They’ve got six games lined up for English-language releases in the next few months starting December 20th and set to release on almost every digital distribution site simultaneously. Four shmups, one comedy life-sim and one fighting game comprise the strong first salvo. Hit the break for more info.
It looks like the muscle of Capcom has managed to do the impossible, bringing several formerly Japanese-only studios such as Edelweiss and Team FLAT on board, as well, as another game by Astro Port, developers of our previously-reviewed Gigantic Army. Price tags are set to start as low as $6, and they really do seem to be shooting for all major digital stores, including Steam, Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse, GameTap, EA Origin and Wild Tangent.
The starting lineup for the first few months is impressive. First up is Satazius, a Gradius-esque shooter by Astro Port. Very similar in art-style to Gigantic Army. Here’s some footage of it in action:
There’s also a demo available here. Japanese only, but as you can see in the above video, most of the essentials are already in English. The English version is due out on the 20th. Stay tuned!
On the shmup front, there’s three more titles – all of which I’ve played, and can gladly vouch for the quality of – first being Ether Vapor Remaster. An updated version of an excellent perspective-shifting shooter from a few years back. There’s a demo of the original version floating around, too. It’s not all spaceships and lasers, either – magical girls get a look in too via the eXceed series, of which the updated versions of the 2nd and 3rd games of the series will be representing. Very polished vertically scrolling shooters with excellent music. Here’s some Ether Vapor gameplay footage:
It’s not all shooting, thankfully – Edelweiss are in with a second title, currently under the working title of Fighting Fairy, a rather fancy-looking 2.5d fighting game with a whimsical magical forest setting, and the casual scene is looking to be well represented as well by Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, a cartoonish management/life-sim/RPG hybrid that should raise a few smiles. It’s a broad range of games to begin with, and a strong showing for sure.
The doujin localization scene just got a lot busier. It’ll be interesting to see what tricks Carpe Fulgur and Rockin’ Android have up their sleeves after this big announcement!
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