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Rumble in Handheld Land Handheld Exposition? The situation in the handheld market in Japan is looking more interesting. The big news currently is that the Game Boy Color, as of May 14th, was reduced in price to 6800 yen (34UKP, 55USD), down from 8900 yen. With over three million Game Boy Color units already shipped, this is nevertheless quite a surprising move. It may have something to do with the relative success of the Bandai Wonderswan, which is getting support from almost every major software manufacturer, according to a Famitsu survey, and it is priced even lower still at under 5000 yen, although it’s black and white and considerably simpler technology.
However, with companies like Capcom putting Ghosts And Goblins out on the Wonderswan ahead of the now-announced Game Boy version, with Rockman (a.k.a. Megaman) also announced for Bandai’s handheld, and with Wonderswan-exclusive titles from companies like Konami and Square already out there, there are some very clever strategies being played out in terms of licensing and encouraging product at Bandai. (Although, having said that, Capcom seems to support every single hardware platform right now, with another version of Rockman just announced for the NeoGeo Pocket Color, the company is really playing the field!) I think that outside Japan, consumers’ obsession with being "up to date" may catch up with Bandai. In the same way that people can’t be seen playing 2D games in the West, they may not go for a black and white handheld when there’s a perfectly good color one available. The Wonderswan may not cut it in the West unless there’s an killer game like the Tamagochi was. In addition, I feel that although Bandai certainly is big in the West in terms of toys, it is bigger still in Japan, and its stature as a company is helping to push through sales as much as anything. Perhaps if Bandai can price the Wonderswan squarely in the "impulse buy" category, as it did in Japan, the company will have a much better chance at success. The Neo-Geo Pocket Color, on the other hand, despite a reasonably flourishing selection of software, seems to be selling a pifflingly small amount of hardware – at least according to a number of surveys I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. I can’t help feeling almost as if this handheld is being sold through alternative channels or something, because it’s just not showing up on sales charts. Perhaps this situation is because the fighting games that SNK has based a lot of its pitch upon just don’t translate well to the small screen and limited button set. Another factor to consider is that if hardcore fans already bought the Neo-Geo Pocket, bringing a color version out so soon afterwards may have antagonized them. These are the main explanations that I can think of for the apparent poor performance of a handheld that, on paper, looks like it should be a serious contender. I think the lack of a good cross-section of developers making titles for the NGPC hurts the most, though. The bottom line is that there have been Wonderswan and Game Boy Color titles in the top ten list, but there’s not a NeoGeo Pocket title to be seen. Oh dear. Other News News seems to have leaked out about Nintendo’s E3 plans. Apparently a version of Ridge Racer is forthcoming from Namco for the N64. This is extremely surprising considering Namco’s former PlayStation exclusivity, but with the way this company is branching out to cover its bases on Dreamcast (Soul Calibur), and given the fact that there is still not a decent driving title for the N64, there’s some room for maneuvering, and I personally can’t wait.
Some more Naomi titles are coming out from Sega, and they are ripe for conversion to the Dreamcast. I’m rubbing my hands in glee and anticipation of an enhanced version of the wicked Crazy Taxi on the Dreamcast, but it seems Sega Rescue will come to the arcade via Naomi first, and it’ll be a semi-sequel to Crazy Taxi, with the player driving an ambulance around crowded streets in order to take people to hospital in time! Still heavily rumored for the Naomi is a dancing game with real dancing characters on screen. Finally, Guilty Gear 2, the 2D beat-em-up sequel to the excellent PlayStation title by Arc, is due out on Naomi later this year. The company was formed by ex-Capcom and SNK designers, and the original title was heavily cultish and arguably the best 2D beat-em-up ever outside of those two companies (despite taking about three years to develop). Perhaps another possible Dreamcast title that’ll only really ‘connect’ with the Japanese public, then? That would be a shame. Sega is trying to expand the Dreamcast’s audience by luring the music industry into content development. Using Sega’s MIL CDs, users will be able to listen to their favorite music artists and also check out their videos using the high-quality Dreamcast video codec. It also looks like there will be support for web links in the Dreamcast’s Internet software, too. This is an interesting move, which I think will be adopted in a much more widespread way on the PlayStation 2.. We’ll keep you posted on developments with this format and how successful it is. The first MIL CDs come out in June. Japanese Top Ten (For the week ending April 11th)
What’s my analysis of this? Well, another of Konami’s Bemani series rockets in to the top spot with a quarter of a million sales in the first week -- this is the dancing game which I talked about in the previous MGT Report. With Beatmania: 4th Mix announced as another PlayStation data disc and no doubt more Bemani games still on the way, Konami’s franchise just keeps getting bigger. Additionally, Square’s 2D but graphically gorgeous RPG, Saga Frontier 2 debuts at the number two position. The odds are against this game making it over to the U.S. or Europe, knowing Square’s habit of only localizing a minority of their releases, even when they are high-quality titles. It’s a shame – I guess Square feels that the best way to overcome Westerners’ problems with cute 2D graphics is to not localizing the title at all. Hmmm.
Otherwise, we see a smattering of sports games rounding out the Top Ten (including three baseball titles!), as well as a couple of N64 games. Actually, Smash Brothers, one of the aforementioned Nintendo titles, has now sold three quarters of a million copies.
This leads me to a title you should watch in the future. The developers of Smash Brothers, HAL, looks to continue its success with Pokemon Pinball on the Game Boy Color, which was just released. It should shoot straight into the charts the next time round. It’s worthy of comment both because of the cute concept (play pinball and capture all 150 Pokemon by hitting the right targets). It also scores big because of the vibration function in the cartridge – the equivalent of a rumble pack for your Game Boy Color. I’ve had a chance to play the title and it certainly stands up to the earlier kick-ass HAL Game Boy pinball titles, Revenge Of The Gator and Kirby’s Pinball. It’s weird that an analog technology on a digital console should work so well, but, it does.
Until next time, keep it Gamasutra. thanks to Magic Box, Riot, Gil, and all other Japanese sources.
Simon Carless is a game designer/project director at a UK games developer. His game credits include design on PC and Playstation titles for (amongst others) Eidos and GT Interactive. He can be contacted at h0l@mono211.com. Simon would like to thank Magic Box, Re:Tokyo, Gamespot, FGNOnline, Core Magazine, and his other Japanese sources for the information that helps to write this column. |
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