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According to an article posted on Game Watch, the Tokyo Game Show organizers have confirmed that Sense of Wonder Night will return for a third run at TGS 2010. This year's edition introduces a new category for mobile games, and a SOWN pavilion will be set up in the main exhibition hall as well. Anyone attending TGS will be able to play the games selected as SOWN finalists at any time during the course of the show.

Thanks to Marcus Richert for passing along (and translating) this excellent piece of news! Continue reading

After announcing his departure from long-time employer Konami last month, Akira Yamaoka, best known for his role as sound director and producer for the Silent Hill series, has joined No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture.

"I really love Yamaoka," says Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda said in an interview with Famitsu translated by 1UP. "Ever since I saw a video of Silent Hill 2 at the Tokyo Game Show nine years ago, I've always dreamed of working alongside him. That's why I thought I'd invite him over when I started hearing rumors that he left [Konami]."

Yamaoka worked at Konami since 1993, where he composed the music for every entry in the Silent Hill franchise, including those developed by external studios. When discussing the series in 2008, he commented, "I don’t think the music could ever be passed on to another composer." It's possible Grasshopper will loan Yamaoka out to Konami for future Silent Hill soundtracks, though he may be too busy working on titles at his new company.

He's already working on composing the music for a Grasshopper project: Suda's multiplatform collaboration with Capcom veteran and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami for the EA Partners program. Yamaoka also contributed several themes for Grasshopper's recently released No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.

"It was a case of really good timing," says Yamaoka. "I knew about Suda long before I met him; I saw Grasshopper as one of those few Japanese outfits whose games can appeal to an overseas audience. I had a chance to meet him in Los Angeles and we talked about this and that, and once we started discussing how we wanted to do something creative for a world audience, I was hooked on the company."

Famitsu also reports that Artdink alum Kazutoshi Iida -- who worked on quirky titles Aquanaut's Holiday, Doshin the Giant, and most recently Japan-only WiiWare game Discipline -- is now at Grasshopper and has begun production on a new title that should be ready to show off at this year's E3.

Some of the video games special edition bundles we see in the U.S. might seem expensive and odd -- Halo 3's Master Chief helmet and Modern Warfare 2's night-vision goggles for example -- but they're nothing compared to what Kenji Eno and his old company WARP bundled together for Enemy Zero's release on Sega Saturn.

Along with a copy of the 1997 survival-horror game, the package included a branded towel, a full leather outfit worn by one of WARP's "companion girls" at the developer's 1996 Tokyo Game Show booth, a replica of the gun used by the game's star, a mystery Sega Saturn-stamped CD-R, and more (see the full list after the break).

The set was so huge, it came in crate and was priced at ¥200,000 ($2,264). WARP only produced 20 of the bundles, and Eno personally delivered each one to the buyers on a flatbed truck. They made a pretty big deal for a game that was that received mostly awful reviews!

According to GameSetWatch contributor Kevin Gifford, one of the 20 creates, #8, appeared on Yahoo! Auctions in Japan recently, eventually selling for ¥300,000 ($3,396). The winner didn't even receive a visit from Eno! You can see the full set below:

Special edition set's contents (as cataloged by Gifford):

• A copy of the “regular” Enemy Zero special edition
• A full set (leather outfit w/gloves, hat, tights, EO-logo badge and earrings) of the outfit worn by the companion girls at WARP’s 1996 Tokyo Game Show booth, designed by Yasushi Nirasawa
• A towel embroidered with the EO logo
• A model of an “enemy” corpse, complete with bodily liquid
• A metallic bookmark
• A flyer and ticket to an Enemy Zero art exhibit held in 1996
• A set of press releases for Enemy Zero (back when these were faxed around instead of emailed)
• A VHS video of Enemy Zero music clips
• A large 3D lenticular sheet
• A set of stickers
• An Enemy Zero T-shirt
• A replica of the gun Laura uses in the game, again designed by Nirasawa
• Actual design documents used in developing the game
• Floppy disks, envelopes, and paper bags with the WARP logo
• A Sega Saturn-stamped CD-R (contents unknown)

[Notable Japanese indie developer Nigoro (Rose & Camellia) is now called Asterizm, and Brandon Sheffield talks to its principals about philosophies, design concepts, and taking retro 2D platformer La Mulana onto WiiWare.]

Nigoro was an Japanese independent game developer that has released a number of humorous -- and well-regarded -- Flash games over the last few years.

Titles like the slap-fest Rose & Camellia, and the skirt-flipping game Mekuri Bancho put the company on the indie map, but La-Mulana -- described as "a freeware free-roaming platformer game designed to look, sound, and play like a classic MSX game" -- is what really got them into the public eye.

The company has since become Asterizm, a proper (but still indie) corporation based in Japan, and is releasing La-Mulana on the Wii's downloadable WiiWare service, with a graphical upgrade that remains true to the genre.

In this interview, conducted during the Tokyo Game Show, we spoke with Vice president Takumi Naramura, and president Shoji Nakamura about what makes the company tick, the origin of Nigoro, and game influences:

MSX Love

How did the group first come together?

Takumi Naramura: For the most part, it got its start with the people that had come together to help with this game website I created. Three of these people liked to make games, and those three became the core staff in our outfit.

What was the site called?

TN: MSX3. [This site is not around anymore, but it had MSX game strategies, MIDIs, hardware info, and was generally the sort of 8-bit computer retro-tribute site you saw a lot of in the late 90s/early 00s. The site design was also modeled after Hydlide 3's screen layout.]

How has it been moving from an indie outfit to a professional company?

TN: I think it would've been nice if we could continue to make games as a hobby for the rest of our lives, but the fact is that all of us are in our thirties, and I think the staff has some serious talent they've built up. Looking at it that way, it sort of seems like a missed opportunity if we didn't use our skills to go to the next level.

We made the shift because we had built up a reasonable amount of confidence that we could succeed at this. It was sort of a natural process. There's also the fact that the Internet and the idea of downloadable games has spread well enough that even an outfit like ours can sell games, which is important because we don't have the sort of capital you'd need to sell packaged software.

What do you think about Flash as a game construction medium? What are the good and bad points of it?

TN: The greatest advantage it has is that anyone can play a Flash game, and -- more important on our end -- nearly anybody can develop a Flash game, too.

The bad part from our perspective is that, no matter what we're trying to make, we run into obstacles with the environment that we constantly need to find workarounds for -- controls, graphics, sound, you name it. It's a limited environment.

What's the engine or codebase did you use for the development of LA-MULANA?

Shoji Nakamura: We're making a new engine for the Wii in C++.

Will that be your engine for future games as well?

TN: Not wholesale, no, but some core aspects of it -- sound effects, game map displays -- will certainly be made general enough for re-use.

Bancho Mayhem

I was playing Mekuri Bancho [a flash game in which a delinquent, or “bancho” runs through a school flipping up girls’ skirts] last night and…

SN: Oh, thank you very much!

Can you explain the recent popularity of bancho games? Like Kenka Bancho and so on.

TN: In Japan, you really don't see anybody like that anymore. You could sort of call them "lost heroes" in the popular mind. (laughs)

SN: We had lots of banchos in our childhood. Well, okay, not lots -- two or so, anyway! (laughs) So it's a childhood thing.

Many of your games have some humor, but I feel that not so many games in Japan use humor very often, or effectively. Why do you think that is?

TN: I think they're afraid they'll go too far with it and people will get angry at them; it'd become a media thing. They don't want to risk that sort of thing, even if they want to include aspects like that.

I think that one of reasons Nigoro has gotten overseas popularity is because of the humor.

TN: (laughs) That's just what we aimed for.

The first time I heard about Nigoro was for Rose & Camellia.

SN: The slapping game!

Have you considered porting some of these Flash games to the iPhone or something? Many of them are gesture-oriented, so...

TN: I'd like to. We don't have the time nor the people right now, but I'd like to.

SN: Probably we will, but not now, anyway.

These kind of small Flash projects -- I think they're quite interesting, because you can focus on one interesting idea and make a small, self-contained game around it that is quite enjoyable. Is that your intention, to make these sorts of games?

TN: We're actually pretty bad at that. Like a lot of developers, we have a tendency to create these huge levels and all kinds of enemies to populate them. But as we've been making Flash games for two years, we've trained ourselves to keep that focus you mentioned, through games like Mekuri Bancho and so forth. So, in that way, it is our intention, yes. If we can keep finding ideas for them, we'll keep on making them.

LA-MULANA

With LA-MULANA, I'm curious to know why you decided to change the art style from 8-bit to 16-bit.

TN: Well, for one, while we all like the graphics and sound you get with old games, but we felt that if we continued to pursue that, we'd just be looking to the past and not challenging ourselves to try anything new.

Another reason is that a pretty large contingent of gamers, especially younger ones, are simply not interested in games that look "old." To them, "old" graphics mean bad graphics. So we felt it important that this be presented as a wholly new title.

The indie-game audience was probably interested in it in the first place because of its graphics. Still, the new graphics don't look “new” in the sense you’re saying.

SN: Yeah.

TN: Perhaps we aren't getting our cues from classic games any longer for the visuals, but I think the taste of the original has remained unchanged. It's 2D graphics Nigoro-style.

SN: We call it "32-bit" graphics. (laughs)

It probably is, yeah. Sorry I said 16-bit. (laughs) It's sort of like Symphony of the Night-level.

TN: The graphics and sound are different, but the gameplay is definitely still rooted around the old style of platformers. That's Nigoro's name ["256" or 8 bits], after all. That's our roots.

That's true, yeah. I was thinking it looks almost 24-bit.
SN: (laughs) Like the Neo-Geo and so on. I love the Neo-Geo.

Me too. Some of the new screenshots remind me of -- you know Top Hunter? (Neo Geo arcade game)

SN: I love that game!

Me too. So, the Flash games that you've done -- the visual influence for those seems different from game to game. It seems to target a different kind of old-style feeling for each. Like, Nazca-type of anime, or Rose & Camellia has the old Japan interpretation of European art. What is your visual inspiration for each type?

TN: Well, starting at the beginning -- Death Village was our first Flash game, and that visual style was inspired by American comics. Since Flash games can be played by anyone worldwide, we wanted to try and attract a foreign audience with that.

With Rose & Camellia, we came up with the idea for the game first, and we argued over what story-based reason there would be for the ladies being polite enough to take turns slapping each other instead of going all-out and having a wrestling match. The shojo-manga (girl’s comics) backstory you see in the game was the very first thing that popped into my mind.

With Mekuri Bancho -- in old Japanese anime, you saw scenes all the time where students would flip up their teacher's skirt and stuff. That would show up in all kinds of shonen manga (boy’s comics), but never these days because of political correctness, so it's sort of a nostalgic thing for people our age.

That's how we came to build a game off it. As you can tell, I get a lot of inspiration from all the games, movies, manga and so forth that I looked through when I was a kid. You can trace pretty much all of my illustration work off one thing or another.

Indie Community

Some time ago I got several indies together in Japan to talk, and they’d never met each other, which was depressing. There should be some kind of forum for you to discuss things, because in my opinion, a big problem with the Japanese game industry is that nobody talks to each other. That's why so many of the big Japanese games are falling behind really fast. I think this is because they are not talking to each other, not sharing their ideas and not having new development practices. So I think the indie community would be a really great place to start doing it.

TN: Well, you have some breakout successes in this field, like Cave Story and our own LA-MULANA, but the fact is that nobody goes into the indie game scene with the idea that their stuff will ever sell. They give up on that from the get-go. I think it'd be great if we could overcome this with LA-MULANA and break through, and if we're able to do that, then maybe at that point we can try to help create a forum like that.

It'd be nice to have, since that'd be a more comfortable place for people to discuss ideas.

TN: Kind of a depressing story, I know, but...

It makes me sad because when I was a kid, games from Japan were the best, period, on console at least. Now that's not true at all.

SN: We'd like to do something about that. But first we have to get bigger. (laughs)

[In his latest in the 'Sound Current' series written specially for GameSetWatch, Jeriaska catches up with the Rockman chiptune soundtrack producer and some of the remixers, revealing the official Capcom project to remix classic Mega Man tunes.]

Last year at the Tokyo Game Show, three musicians joined us for a Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack interview. This time the trio return to introduce their latest musical offering from the Mega Man series, new to store shelves in Japan.

Chiptuned Rockman is a compilation of twenty tracks remixing music from the game franchise in the style of 8-bit chip music. Inti Creates sound director Ippo Yamada explains arriving at the idea of Chiptuned Rockman with producer Hally.

He is joined by Ryo Kawakami, whose music for Mega Man 9 includes the Magma Man and Plug Man stage themes. Mega Man & Bass co-composer Akari Kaida also returns, having arranged music from the Super Famicom game for the chip music compilation.

Two additional members of the team of twenty artists also offer their throughts on contributing to the album. Hiroki Isogai is an in-house composer at Inti Creates, responsible for Mega Man 9's Jewel Man theme. Cave shooter composer Manabu Namiki has remixed music from Mega Man: The Wily Wars for "Chiptuned."

The CD features both a cross-section of 16-bit plus game tracks given retro revisions, as well as classic NES themes treated to brand new improvisatory riffs. In this group chat, several of the arrangers offer a sense of how the compilation came about and how it intends to bridge the gap between the oftentimes divided worlds of contemporary console gaming and chip music.

Yamada-san, thank you for joining us here today. You have a brand-new CD out. Could you tell us about what went into the creation of Chiptuned Rockman?

Ippo Yamada, sound director of Inti Creates: We’ve taken classic Mega Man game themes and fully remixed them in a chip music style, collected together in a compilation album. Twenty artists are participating this time, resulting in a really colorful overall presentation.

The sound creators include Manabu Namiki, Nobuyuki Shioda, Mega Man 1’s Manami Matsumae, and also Inti Creates musicians. There are also a host of chiptune artists whose arrangements are on the album. They include Virt, Chibi-Tech, Goto80, also Japanese artists Dong, USK, naruto and K->.

In a previous chip music interview, Kuske of Kplecraft, who is featured on this compilation, stated that videogame and chiptune enthusiasts often don't mix. Was there anyone who helped envision the concept for this album, which seems to cater to both these communities?

IY: Yes, in fact there’s someone who specializes in this category of music, who’s called Hally. He’s serving as producer on this album, and he’s a pretty famous chiptune artist. He was like, “Chiptunes and Mega Man, seems like a natural combination, don’t you think?” It appeared to be the basis for a collaboration. With the Tokyo Game Show coming up, it looked like there was the chance to surprise everyone with this Mega Man chiptune album.

Ippo Yamada introduces Chiptuned Rockman

How do you find the process of creating old school game music personally, such as in the making of Mega Man 9?

IY: Well, I’ve been working on game soundtracks for some time, since late in the days of the NES. You could say I don’t suffer any kind of allergic reactions to chip music. In fact, it was great fun working on Mega Man 9. I felt I wanted to create more music just like this, but unfortunately I only ended up writing one track. That’s just a consequence of being pressed for time.

It’s definitely a fun genre. The common conception in terms of chip music is that it’s limited in its expressive capacities, but I think that if you listen to this album you might be surprised by what’s in store for you. Thought it’s NES music, it’s tremendously expressive.

Here you’re working with a number of musicians from outside Japan. How did these collaborations come about?

IY: Hally was able to introduce me to people from the United States and Sweden, and they turned out to write really great music. Even though they were all really busy, they managed to find time to participate. Virt in particular had a lot going on. We were worried that we wouldn’t make the deadline, so he ended up having to pull a few all-nighters.

Namiki-san, could you tell us a little about your approach to your track on the compilation, "Megawater_S Stage, WILY TOWER 4 (Area-2A03 Navy mix)?"

Manabu Namiki: I observed that several of the other tracks were going for an aggressive, loud sound, so I decided on something a little different. I tried to make mine simple and straightforward. It has a modest sound, but very true to the atmosphere of NES games. Also, I retained the melody from the background music of the Sega Genesis game. The melody is just about entirely unchanged.

Manabu Namiki at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show

IY: I've spoken a little bit about Chiptuned Rockman, so now I would like to introduce a few of the arrangers. Could you tell us which song you chose to arrange?

Hiroki Isogai, Inti Creates composer: I chose “Ground Man” from Mega Man & Bass. I decided to stretch the rules of the NES sound card, adding sound channels to the track beyond the actual capabilities of the hardware. At its most complex, there are about 15 sound channels present.

Ryo Kawakami, Inti Creates composer: It would take 3.8 NES consoles to reproduce that sound!

HI: I guess that’s true. From the start I was working in MML, and I think that took up half my time. That was the most difficult part overall. I would be interested in making this kind of music in the future, but I'd need to search out a more efficient method.

IY: You weren’t aware that it was Kaida-san responsible for the original composition, were you?

HI: Yes, but you know my instincts told me to choose the track. Kaida-san remixed my “Jewel Man” theme last time, on the previous arrange album.

IY: You decided to return the favor.

Akari Kaida: I’m flattered.

IY: Kaida-san, your track is also from Mega Man & Bass?

AK: I arranged [Naoshi] Mizuta’s opening stage music theme. Among those who have played Mega Man & Bass, everyone’s experienced the opening stage. It seemed to me like the most accessible choice. The compositions from the game and the chord progressions have such a colorful style and appropriate use of tension, I wanted to preserve that essence.

Akari Kaida at TGS

IY: Is the track made up of three waveforms and one noise?

AK: I had to deviate from the standard form a bit.

IY: When you follow the NES sound card specifications it can be difficult to get a feel for the chords. That’s where you’re forced to get creative. Of course, the Super Nintendo has more sound channels to work with, so how do you convey the same melody on the NES?

AK: What gave me trouble working in the NES specs and what led me to customize my arrangement a bit is that you have to make do with a bass sound with a velocity of 127. The PSG sound which is usually used for bass is either on or off, so without delay effects you’re kind of stuck. Some people are very sensitive about authenticity when it comes to chip music, and I was thinking about this while working on the song. I’m certainly mindful of these concerns.

IY: I think above all the point is to preserve the atmosphere of the NES. We’ve each arrived at our own distinctive interpretations. For instance, Kawakami-kun has arranged a song from Mega Man 4.

RK: That’s right. Wily Stage 2.

IY: I get the sense that this is a song with a lot of fans.

RK: Yes, I’m a fan of the song myself. I’ve spoken with [character designer Hitoshi] Ariga, who also shares an appreciation for it. Based on this project’s theme of arranging 8-bit songs once again in the style of chip music, I spent awhile mulling over the possibilities. I observed that others were being very creative with their treatment of retro sound effects, so to be different I wanted to focus on the element of composition.

While the original melody can very distinctly be made out on the arranged track, it has the image of being a variation on the original. I imagined how this song could transform in shape and return to its previous form in a style modeled after formal musical structure. You might be able to tell I like irregularity. (It’s in the 7/8 time signature.) Purists, please find it in your hearts to forgive me.

IY: I get the sense that this remix is firmly in the Kawakami style. It starts just the way you seem to like, with a strong melody line and irregular time signature. It ends with something I felt wasn’t necessary, but you insisted on a final recap of the strong melody line. Did you have this song in mind from the start?

RK: Yes, right off the bat. The song has a lot of strong points. Phrases with distinctive characteristics are very useful when making arrangements.

Inti Creates composers Ryo Kawakami and Hiroki Isogai

IY: The phrases have personality, don’t they? That’s a lifesaver when you’re remixing a song. You can go off and explore, knowing there’s a strong foundation to return to. Did you come across any obstacles in writing this arrangement?

RK: I’d say it was a bit tough making progress at the very start. In terms of the constituent components of the music track, it’s got two square waves, a triangle wave and noise, using DPCM. Though these actually conform to the 8-bit specifications, my goal was for it to sound a little as if I were breaking the rules. That was the concept behind the track.

IY: This time Kawakami worked on the post-production, single-handedly doing all the mastering on the album. Was it tough being handed all those responsibilities?

RK: Yes, in addition to arranging a track, it was a lot to take on. I received some great advice from Hally, which was very helpful, because there are so many kinds of techniques employed by the various artists on the disc. The mastering is a tad chiptune-centered, but after all that's in line with the concept for the album.

Would you have any concluding remarks about to close this year’s discussion on the music of Mega Man?

AK: On this chiptune compilation album are several Mega Man games I’ve never played. Perhaps you have no experience with Mega Man & Bass. Here is a chance to experience the music from this game and others, reinterpreted in an 8-bit style. Those who haven’t had much exposure to chiptunes, please give it a try and see how it makes you feel.

RK: I think this is a new kind of album, and an original approach to remixing videogame music.

HI: It’s really good, so please give it a listen.

Yamada-san, any message for listeners overseas?

IY: There’s a huge Mega Man fanbase outside Japan. For those who have kept up with the music of the series, I hope you will seek out this album.

Ippo Yamada interviews Chiptuned Rockman participants

[(c)CAPCOM CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This article is available in Japanese in video form (Yamada, Group). Samples of the album are online on the official website. Chiptuned Rockman can be imported from Continue reading