Tecmo, Is there anything left?

It's now November. The fight for holiday supremacy has begun. Among all the hoopla of high profile game releases, I began to wonder. What is Tecmo up to? It's been a pretty hard year for the smaller Japanese developer. After the release of Ninja Gaiden II, long time face for Tecmo and "leader" of Team Ninja resigned and then sued the company. Over the last few months, other companies like Square-Enix and Koei have been in talks to either buy or merge with Tecmo. At TGS the only thing that brought any attention was their Booth Girl's uniforms, which resembled lingere. (Shown Below)

So what does Tecmo have in store for the holiday season? Who knows when or if Fatal Frame 4 will come stateside.

I guess we should start with their "highest profile" game. Rygar: The Battle of Argus. The game currently looks to be shipping 12/11. If you can remember Rygar from the NES games you be able to recognize the diskarmor weapon. I was really excited about getting into something different for the Wii. Being an action platformer with motion controls, makes me not exactly excited, but everyone complains about the lack of the support for the console, so it's good to get something. This was an action title made before Ninja Gaiden, so it's got some roots and potential. The title maybe be reaching a bit but I remember the PS2 Rygar getting pretty good reviews. This is when I ran into problems. I read that this game is a Wii Remake of the Playstation 2 game, which is a huge disappointment. I saw the new art style and character design and assumed that something new was going on. I guess we'll have to see in December. The game has been pushed back so many times that I'm not even confident that the game is coming out this year. It's been price cut to $39.99 which is something that had to happen. Honestly, how many people out there even know this game is coming out? Or who Rygar even is? Oh yeah, I forgot, the storyline for the game, Save Princess Harmonia. Excited?

I guess next we'll move to another Wii game that Tecmo is working on, SPRay. What the heck is up with this game's name. The name is pretty vital for just a random shopper to pick up a title and give it a chance. When it comes to this game, I think it's a pretty big fail. Spirited Prince Ray looks to be shipping 11/18. Yes, that's how they got the name for the game. Also the main game mechanic is to defeat enemies and solve puzzles by "SPRay-ing" various liquids.  Examples of these "water, oil, goo, and other liquids." Yes, goo makes an appearance in the game. I can only wonder what "other" liguids might possibly mean. Another feature in this game that should make Brad hate the Wii even more "several amusing mini-games in multiplayer mode, where up to four players can challenge themselves in games using the various liquids"

Now to the DS. Tecmo is releasing two games for Nintendo's portable system this holiday season. The first in the form of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. Everyone knows Tecmo Bowl from the NES days, but can it even be relevant now? Back then Tecmo Bowl did something no one could do. The play calling and presentation with limited resources really made for a football experience. The game play was fun but easily expolited. I think the DS is a great choice to try to release this title. Tecmo tried to release this game in a compliation for the Xbox and I think the initial price tag made people over look it. The game should be a 20 dollar game for the DS so the 30 price tag

 makes me feel the same thing will happen this year. So who will pick up this title? DS owners are already a certain type of game player. There will be those Tecmo Bowl nostalgia types. They'll pick up the game probably. But do I see any of the brain training crowd getting into this one?Probably not. Any of the hardcore football fans will want something a little more robust and more realistic to football. That only really leaves the Pokemon group and young sports kids. It's very hard to get the pokemon group to try something new and the younger sports group will want to play something more grown up. They'll want to be like the big kids and play MADDEN. I hate to say it but, I think this title is destined to fail. 

So what's the last title, Robocalypse. This is a real-time strategy game featuring 4 player battles. We all know how excited people can get about RTS games, especially ones on the Nintendo DS. The game does look interesting though and I'd love to see this one be a sleeper hit. The campaign's story was apparently penned by Jay Lender of SpongeBob SquarePants. I'm not sure what to feel about that seeing as how I don't watch SpongeBob and the people who do watch the show probably wouldn't understand what that meant. I don't see someone going out to buy this game because the story was written by someone involved with a show they liked. Of course the 30 price tag for this game makes it impossible for it to be a impulse buy, so the chances of this title selling like crazy this holiday season, zero. So make sure you watch it not sell 11/18.

I'm not trying to say anything bad about Tecmo. They were a company they I really supported at one time. I don't think they need DOA to succeed, but I definitely think they're going about marketing and developing their games completely wrong. In the case of Tecmo, I think they're able to stay at least partially relevant because of the Wii and DS. You notice all their product are for those two systems. You don't see anything on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Why? I don't think they can afford to develop for those systems. If they go and make a Rygar game for a "nex-gen" system, it will fail. The development costs are too high and the probability for returns too risky. They'll make these C minus games and possibly make some off them. I think all they can think about it staying afloat by making these Wii and DS low risk games, until they can hit their next Team Ninja game. I guess that's a good thing. But some would argue that it stinks up Nintendo's lineup.