It’s news days like this that renew my faith in the video game industry. The series known in the West as Retro Game Challenge, or Game Center CX in Japan, will get a new game for the 3DS this winter.
The first Retro Game Challenge, developed by indieszero for the DS and published by XSEED Games in North America and by Namco Bandai Games in Japan, was a pure delight, albeit a hard-to-find one. It revered and parodied its retro gaming roots, pushing players to try various games that mimic NES classics like Ninja Gaiden, Galaga and Dragon Quest and forcing them to beat the high score of an Andross-esque hobo named Arino.
The reason I’m so excited about this new game is that I loved the original Retro Game Challenge to death and lamented that I never got to play the Japan-only sequel, which apparently wasn’t localized because of poor sales. While we don’t know whether this new 3DS title will be localized, we do know that it’s being developed by G.rev, the developer that brought us the PS3 shmup Mamorukun Curse! My fingers are firmly crossed that this third Retro Game Challenge will visit us here in the West sometime soon!
UPDATE: On June 14, G.rev president Hiroyuki Maruyama wrote the following on the company’s blog:
This is Maruyama.
This has already been announced on news sites and in a TV program, but we are developing a game based on Game Center CX, currently being broadcast on Fuji TV ONE.
The publisher is the longtime publisher of our previous work, Bandai Namco Games-san!
About this, for the purpose of not giving out rumors at our own convenience, when BanNam-san [Bandai Namco] has given us consent, we’re thinking about giving you guys lots of gossip~.
We’re not viewing this as an opportunity to openly make retro games, but we are having fun developing this. While we are a while away from completing this game, please pay attention with warm eyes! [That’s a Japanese idiom meaning “go easy on us.”—Will]
Thanks to oprainfall translator Will Whitehurst for translating the Japanese-language information used in this article.
