Kotaku: g.rev

Elementary School Boy Arcade Shooting Game Coming To Xbox 360

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:30:00 MDT

Another bullet hell shooting game, another Xbox 360 port. Vertical arcade shoot-'em-up Mamoru-kun wa Norowareteshimatta! is the latest to Japanese shooter to be announced for Microsoft's home console.

Translated to "Mamoru-kun Has Been Cursed!" in English, Mamoru-kun wa Norowareteshimatta! was developed by G.rev and Gulti. (Gulti is a studio made up with former staffers of Raiden dev Seibu Kaihatsu.) The game features character designs by Mizuki Takayama, who also did character work for fighting-meets-shooting-game Senko no Ronde.

The game's Mamoru-kun is an elementary school student who finds himself in a nightmarish underworld.

Mamoru-kun Has Been Cursed! is getting a limited edition version for the Xbox 360, complete with soundtrack CD and a superplay DVD. It's priced at ¥8,500, while the regular edition is priced at ¥5,980. The game is slated for release this June.

These screenshots are of the arcade version.

Mamoru-Kun Has Been Cursed! [G.Rev via 2ch]

Senko No Ronde 2 Cast Revealed

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:20:00 MST

Shooter specialist G.rev let slip the other day that Senko no Ronde 2 was in the works, revealing two new gender ambiguous additions to the cast of fighters. Now, courtesy of Yahoo! Japan blog Gemaga, we know a half-dozen characters who will comprise a portion of the roster. As fans of the first can see, gender confusion runs amok yet again, as Cuilan returns and a character known as ??? blurs the line between the sexes. Someone at G.rev should be made to pay for this.

Senko no Ronde 2 [Yahoo! Japan]

G.rev Goes Ahead With Senko No Ronde 2, More Gender Confusion

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:40:40 MST

The Naomi based fighter-shmup Senko no Ronde eventually wound up on the Xbox 360, arriving in the West as WarTech: Senko no Ronde. It didn't do particularly well with critics or buyers, which seems odd considering its can't-miss formula of gender neutral anime teens piloting robots that shoot pastels lasers at each other. Still, developer G.rev is giving it another go, it seems, as an arcade sequel tentatively known as Senko No Ronde 2 is due to arrive in Japan next year. A teaser image featuring Lev Lefanu (left) and Henri Xia Xiaotien (right) is all that we've seen so far—another very blurry character is shown in a second pic—but we have little in the way of details beyond that. Anyone willing to wager the sexes of these two new additions? I'm withholding judgment for now.

Senko no Ronde 2 Announcement

G.rev Shmup Factory Keeps Dreamcast Arcade Hardware, Gender Confusion Alive

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:40:44 MDT

Japanese shooter developer G.rev is firing up the Naomi development kits one more time for its latest vertical shmup Mamonoro. The creators of Senko no Ronde, Border Down and Under Defeat, all for the Dreamcast's arcade-only big sister hardware, are co-developing the game with a group called Gulti. According to Arcade Renaissance, some of the boys from Gulti hail from Seibu Kaihatsu, the developer responsible for the vertical shmup staple Raiden series.

While we know a little bit about how the game will play—the screen will scroll up and you'll shoot stuff—what we don't know are the specific genders of each of its main characters. In what's becoming a disturbing trend, we're unaware of the penis count in the above piece of artwork or whether its illegal for us to even think about the sex of any of these glossy eyed 'toons.

I just hope the game plays better than Senko no Ronde. Oh, and don't hold your breath for another "final" Dreamcast release.

Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! [G.rev]

Senko no Ronde Gets Hump Pillows

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 15:40:04 MST

I'll admit I have a bit of a Senko no Ronde obsessive streak. But my interest in the game starts and stops with playing it. And maybe securing a Sanjo Sakurako P2 costume gashapon, but that's really as far as it goes. Fortunately for the otaku crowd with crippling shyness/unrealistic female expectations, G.rev is releasing a pair of "holding" pillows featuring two of the game's loveliest ladies. Fully reclined, lightly dressed, and ready to be "held", Changpo and Ernula adorn the 107 x 45 cm (42 x 17.5 inches) pillow cases. They'll set you back a hefty 8400 yen (about $70) when they ship in March. They should be washed in warm water with non-chlorine bleach and dried on low heat, following... use.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for an importer who'll bring them stateside (in discrete packaging, of course). Michael McWhertor

Senko No Ronde: 10 Minutes Of Hot Shmupping

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:35:55 MDT

One of the disadvantages to being Weekend Editor, is that when something pops up during the weekday that I'm really psyched for, I have to wait until Saturday morning to gush about it. The other downer is that none of the other editors seem to give two squirts about Senko no Ronde Rev. X for the Xbox 360. Jerks!

On the plus side, I can do a write up on a wildly unpopular subject like Senko no Ronde and won't get any grief from the management. They're all off on their respective yachts, screwing models on piles of cash. Where was I? Right, Senko no Ronde! I've previously written about the game, but now you, lucky reader, can see it in motion not just carefully chosen words.

Thanks to the lovely Blimblim of Xboxyde, we've now got 10 minutes worth of white hot shmup-fighting action in video form. And its in 720p for those of you with beefy computers and overflowing bandwidth. Put down that porn and start downloading! Michael McWhertor

The first 10 minutes: Senko no Ronde Rev. X [Xboxyde]

Senko no Ronde Gets Date, Looks Pretty

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 07:54:23 MST

G.rev, creator of fine shoot 'em ups like Under Defeat and Border Down (who and huh?), were a bit of a surprise developer in Microsoft's stable. They were, after all, focused on Sega's aging Dreamcast and Naomi hardware. But that doesn't mean they can't make Xbox 360 games, and make them look mighty pretty!

The G.rev Web site finally gives us our first look at what they can do with a powerful next-gen lighting model and a couple more polygons, plus a July '06 release date! If you like hybrid shooter fighting games, put this on your buy list.

Senko no Ronde Rev. X Screens