Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers.
Tip us: tips@kotaku.com
Managing Editor:
Brian Crecente
Email | AIM
Senior Editor:
Michael McWhertor
Email | AIM
Night Editor, Japan:
Brian Ashcraft
Email | AIM
Associate Editor, East Coast:
Michael Fahey
Email | AIM
Associate Editor, Oceania:
Luke Plunkett
Email | AIM
Associate Editor, News:
Leigh Alexander
Email | AIM
Associate Editor, Weekends:
Maggie Greene
Email | AIM
Owen Good
Email | AIM
Correspondent, San Francisco:
Flynn De Marco
Email | AIM
Intern:
Adam Barenblat
Email
Comments Moderator:
Kenji Ito
Email
famitsu
This week's Famitsu has a look at the Nintendo published surivival horror Zero ~Tsukihami no Kamen~ AKA Fatal Frame IV. The Wii game is being directed by Tecmo's Makoto Shibata and Grasshopper's Goichi Suda. While Shibata worked on the previous Fatal Frame games, Suda was roped in to work on Fatal Frame IV. Hit the jump for another look at the game.
More »
no more heroes
rumor
Word has it that No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami have joined forces for a yet unannounced project. (Previously, the duo worked together on Killer7.) We've been hearing rumblings about this for a while, as has game magazine GamesTM. The latest issue dishes:
UNTITLED PLATINUM GAMES PROJECT
One of our spies informs us that Grasshopper is currently discussing a new game with the ex-Clover studio.
[Thanks, 87th!]
More »
no more heroes
xbox 360
This originality will always remain, but I also want us to challenge ourselves by working at making realistic visuals as well. The next title will have a very different style, but keep the Grasshopper feeling at the same time... The Xbox 360. Definitely, I want to develop on this platform. It is really easy to work with. It is also quite popular outside Japan on markets that I would like to aim at. Specifically, I think of the American market as the Major League — I would like to go there and be successful.
Want to see what Wii owners in Europe and Japan are missing out on, in terms of flowing rivers of blood, decapitations and amputations? Then watch xserothx's No More Heroes Death Scene Comparison clips for a study in regional censorship. This is grisly stuff, folks, and not for the faint of heart of virtual murder. Anyone wary of spoilers should skip 'em, as they're essentially every boss fight in the game.
No More Heroes Death Scene Comparisons [YouTube - thanks, Sidepocket!]
goichi suda
I am concerned to learn my comments in one interview regarding the success of Nintendo 3rd party titles have been misinterpreted. My point was that "NO MORE HEROES", unlike a lot of Nintendo Wii titles currently available is the kind of product which will attract a different kind of consumer to the hardware. ie. gamers who are looking for a different genre to the products which have been successful on this platform thus far.
No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda says third party Wii games aren't selling. He should know! Even though it faired well critically, nobody in Japan bought his game. (Well, not nobody.) What does Suda think of developing for the Wii? This:
Whilst the sales weren't as high as I hoped, other titles for Wii aren't selling so well either. Only Nintendo titles are doing well. This isn't just because of the current situation in Japan, as this is happening outside Japan... Actually I was very surprised about the reality about Wii, because before I was making this game, I wasn't expecting that Wii would be a console targeted only for non-gamers. I expected more games for hardcore gamers. The reality is different to what I expected.
blood
No More Heroes was supposed to be a gorefest in Europe and the US. But to every Australian Kotaku writer's surprise, the game will have the blood censored for its Europe release. In the theme of pretending we care about markets outside the US, we thought that we should let you know that Grasshopper CEO 'Suda 51' and Marvelous's Yashiro Wada made a joint statement today on the matter that should clear things up a bit:
First, let me say how honoured I am that everyone in Europe is expecting No More Heroes....The sales point of this game is action. Both I and Wada san have concentrated on making the best possible action game for the Nintendo Wii. We have chosen to release in Europe the same version as has shipped in Japan considering the broadly growing Wii market.In other words, everyone thinks this will be a more lucrative plan. I prefer the subtlety of ash fountains to spurting blood anyway.
no more heroes
Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes may not have Halo 3 or Grand Theft Auto IV hype behind it, but we're certainly looking forward to Goichi Suda's next. Fortunately, for us English speakers, IGN reveals that the game finally has a Western publisher who's brave enough to take on the Wii follow up to Killer 7. Ubisoft have stepped up to the plate to bring No More Heroes stateside. The even better news? Travis Touchdown and his cel-shaded mates will be coming to the West in February of 2008.
Killer.
Bathroom saves, nothing new! Dead Rising has 'em. Silent Hill has 'em. And now it looks like No More Heroes has water closet saves as well — with hot sitting on the throne action. Once again, leave it to game creator Goichi Suda to push the envelope further. Toilet saves are so the new black.
More »
overheard at metal gear party
fifty-one
Some Japanese game developers and publishers really don't care about the international market. As long as the domestic customers are happy, then that's all that matters! And hey, if foreign players buy the games, that's just an added bonus. So old fashioned! But some devs are open minded, forward thinking even. Take No More Heroes creator and Grasshopper Manufacturer bossman Goichi Suda. He wears cowboy boots! Here's his two cents on reaching an international market:
...more than anything we felt that Grasshopper's style is more suited to the foreign than the local Japanese market...
The Japanese fans are very important to me too, but we want to make a big breakthrough with the Grasshopper name someday, and to that end it's not enough for us to just focus on the Japanese market. I can't give you an exact percentage, but the Western market is extremely important.
When I make games, I always put in a lot of effort toward making them with an image of the Western audience in mind. The Western market is that important to me. I don't make games with only the Japanese in mind, I treat it as though people from all around the world are going to play my games.
suda
Kotaku
