According to the post, developer Kuju was the one pitching a new entry in the Jet Set Radio series. Kuju Entertainment actually comprises a number of studios, including Zoe Mode, Kuju America, and doublesix, among others.

Kuju London, which specializes in Wii development, recently changed its name to Headstrong Games, announcing that it had an unannounced Sega title in the works. The studio's previous work includes the Battalion Wars series for Nintendo.

Lewis wrote in March that "Unfortunately, the JGR pitch didn't take" but we haven't heard back from him on requests to clarify whether that meant this particular direction didn't take or that the project was scrapped or handed off to another developer.

Ian Baverstock, CEO for Kuju Entertainment, said, “Headstrong is the final ‘piece in the puzzle’ for Kuju’s offering in the UK. As action specialists they complement the other studios that have already rebranded and together offer publishers a full service solution to their development needs. ”

The development studio is expected to stay busy-busy through the rebranding, working on several projects, including an unannounced game for Sega. Teases.

Kuju London renamed Headstrong.

Headstrong launched today as the rebranded London studio of the Kuju Entertainment network. The central London developer has already enjoyed huge success with Nintendo's Battalion Wars™ and Battalion Wars™ 2 and continues to focus on what it does best; great Character Action titles. Headstrong offers publishers a specialist service on the Wii™ and occupies an exclusive position in the market due to a wealth of experience gained by working on Nintendo titles.

Studio Head, Bradley Crooks, commented, “We have the ideal opportunity to build on a solid foundation at Headstrong and we have some great projects in development. The studio has a real advantage on the Wii due to our experience with both single-player and multi-player development and we can get projects up and running quickly with our mature technology and tools”.

The studio is expecting a busy schedule over the coming months with discussions on a number of projects. Headstrong has a flexible approach to new opportunities and is happy to work with publishers on licensed products, existing IP or to develop new ideas.

Ian Baverstock, CEO for Kuju Entertainment, said, “Headstrong is the final ‘piece in the puzzle’ for Kuju’s offering in the UK. As action specialists they complement the other studios that have already rebranded and together offer publishers a full service solution to their development needs. ”

Headstrong is located in the Bankside area of London, near the Tate Modern, and is working on a soon to be announced title with SEGA® and a number of other projects.

Jonathan Newth, Corporate Development Officer of Kuju Entertainment, commented "The US, and San Francisco in particular, is a natural choice for our first non-UK studio. It's a hotbed of development talent, home to many leading publishers and some of the leading US games press.

Kuju America [Official Website]

So how was it? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview and find out: 5 muffin tops ready for ingestion.

IGN
You'll notice some slowdown issues when things get hectic, and the techno audio and sound effects often fight, having audio levels not always equalized as we'd like them...[but] the colors are still bright, however, and these remain to be some of the best particle effects we've seen on Nintendo's handheld, so while DS is the smallest piece of technology Geometry Wars has ever existed on, it still hold on to the spirit of the game very well.

GameDaily
You move your ship with the D-pad while touching parts of the screen to direct your line of fire. You can also use the face buttons for directional fire, if you prefer a more "old-school" method of play, ala Robotron 2084. The shoulder buttons activate whatever bombs you may need — and you'll definitely need them. Messing around with both the D-pad and the touch-screen takes getting used to, but it's a surprisingly functional control scheme.

Gamespy
Called "geoms," Galaxies' widgets are the game's most interesting gameplay shift...Anytime you kill an enemy with your gun, or your drone kills an enemy, the enemy drops a small yellow geom. Geom gathering forces rethinks of classical circle-strafe Geometry Wars tactics. Various stages filled with walls, mazes and other strangeness will also force you to rethink your routes, but the geoms demand that you actually go, and go quickly, right where you've cleared some enemies

GamesRadar
Fans will notice a significant drop in the amount of cursing and angry restarts that follow deaths. After you die, extra Geoms to unlock new levels or Drones are waiting for you in the menu, and leveling up your collection of Drones or testing your skills in some of the more challenging levels breaks through the monotony of its predecessors one-level grind.

Gamer 2.0
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is the definition of portable fun. Are the graphics great? No. Is the sound revolutionary? Probably not. Does the game make use of online play? No to that as well. But the bottom line here is that it gets the job done and it does what handheld games are essentially supposed to do.

Anyone pick it up yet? What do you think?

"We want to become the best, the go-to place, the studio that is known for carving out our own part of the industry. Double Six is going to be the place to go for the absolutely best games on digital platforms"

Kuju targets digital downloads with new Double Six studio {GamesIndustry.biz]

We've created Zo Mode; she is the personality that reflects our in-house philosophy of accessible, fun gaming for everyone."

Zo Mode

From today Kuju's Brighton studio is reborn as Zo Mode.

Zo Mode's Studio Head Ed Daly elaborates, "This studio has had great success over the last three years focusing on fresh gaming experiences for new audiences. We've shipped several very successful, high quality titles and grown to 100 staff and now the time is right to rename the studio. We've created Zo Mode; she is the personality that reflects our in-house philosophy of accessible, fun gaming for everyone."

Since setting up in 2003 the teams from Zo Mode have worked on EyeToy : Play 3, EyeToy : Play Sports, SingStar : Rocks, SingStar :Anthems & SingStar : Legends, all in collaboration with Sony London Studio.

Ed Daly continues, "Zo allows us to have some fun with the image of the studio but of course what matters most is the games we make. We have built up a great team, a really diverse crowd for a game developer, and an internal culture that reflects the fun and creative values that come through in our games. By taking control of the public face of the studio we will be able to reinforce this unique identity and specialist expertise further."

Zo Mode remains a part of Kuju Studios which continues to provide corporate support, and opportunities to share technology and collaborate with the other Kuju studios.

Although very different to the party games developed with Sony, the first title to be released under the new name will be CRUSH , recently announced by SEGA Europe Ltd, another fresh and original title from the studio now known as Zo Mode. www.zoemode.com

The upcoming train game Rail Simulator will be the first game to exploit Philips' amBX technology, which is a system of LED lights, rumble peripherals, heat and fans. In short, it turns your room into a giant rumble pack. The press release says:

By amBX-enabling the game, all the familiar sights, sounds and feelings of the railway experience will be recreated around the player, including wind, track rumble and lighting - both in and out of the tunnels. Signals, tracks, points, buffers and the experience of driving in the cab will come to life through the energy of amBX locomoting the world of the simulated railway out into the real world.

If this sim can also recreate the odor of salarymen hair tonic, the irritating jabber of schoolgirls on cell phones and the warm feeling of being rubbing up against people whose only human contact comes from rush hour train rides, I will buy this. If not, no thanks. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Guardian Games Blog]

GamesIndustry announced today that British developer Kuju Entertainment are the ones working on LucasArts' new music-based puzzler "Traxion":

Called Traxion, the new game consists of a wide variety of music-based mini-games, and will come pre-loaded with music from several leading artists - but one of the key features of the title is that it will also work with music loaded onto Memory Sticks by individual gamers.

Making this the first PSP game that I'm aware of to use memory stick-loaded mp3s in any appreciable sense. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories made a misguided effort to do so with their snidely proprietary Rockstar mp3 importer. More of a pain in the ass than a feature, that thing. Eliza Gauger

More [GamesIndustry]