MonkeyPaw Games to bring true JP games to the west

[superpoppybros]

Hello everyone, I'am a gamer and a long time Nintendo fan who has been visting this site for about 3 years now if I remember correctly. I have always liked reading about every game developed and/or published by Nintendo. You people do an amazing job around here.

I wanted to bring this up here since I didn't see it anywhere else in here, I'am also pretty sure it belongs here in 'Third Party Games'.

Here is the announcement of MonkeyPaw Games!

www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=125744

MonkeyPaw Games is a new company brought by John Greiner, the Former Hudson Entertainment president.

The goal of this company is to bring Japanese games to the West or as John says in there "REAL Japanese games. The kind of game that never made it to Western shores, mainly because they were deemed too culturally different."

Here is a interview where John confirms plans to bring JP games over to the Virtual Console,PSN and XBLA and also where he confirms that MPG(MonkeyPaw Games) will be working on 3DS.
www.joystiq.com/2010/06/23/interview-john-greiner-introduces-monkeypaw-games/

The part of this interview that was really interesting to me was this.

Joystiq: "What do you mean by building a community? Are you talking about finding out what people who are into Japanese games want localized, so you can help bring those titles over?

John: Exactly, exactly. So, I know, just by talking to what I call "Japanophiles" or people who love Japanese culture, that they have certain needs and wants and they've never been met. So, okay, if you tell me what games you want, I go after those games, and bring them over. But that's not the only way we'll do this. There are some things like PSOne Classics that are fairly easy to bring over.

There are other things that we think have a great mechanic, but need some kind of remake. And by "remake" I don't mean just putting some new graphics on. I mean there are some core elements in the game that are great, but they need to be taken to a different level -- today's intensity, today's graphics, today's level of excitement. We'll be doing a number of different titles that are in that category, as well."

There are so many JP only games I want MPG to bring over. I start with Namco:
-Baraduke/Alien Sector series
-Burning Force
-Wonder Momo
-and The Legend of Valkyrie series

The first three is already on the JP Virtual Console but I don't know about the Legend of Valkyrie games.

Please discuss.

[8bitretroshit]

That's pretty cool. VC needs more import titles so I hope they succesfully manage to bring some over.

[Wildcat]

I've heard of this, but I was waiting to hear some definite plans for the Virtual Console before I posted anything. Still, I think this is good news, and I hope that we see some games we might never have had a chance to!

[Nester the Lark]

Welcome to the forum, superpoppybros!

Interesting news. How is this different from what companies like Atlus and Xseed do?

[Savage Adam]

I'd assume the difference between this and Atlus and Xseed is the focus on downloadable games, rather than the retail games the former two seem to stick with.

What I'm interested in is whether they're purchasing the rights to individual games, have joint publishing rights with one or two specific companies, or if they're simply acting as a third-party localization team with little or no publishing rights.

Whatever the case is, it's a decent enough idea. More power to them.

[Nester the Lark]

Slightly off-topic, but I was kind of hoping Atlus or Xseed or some other company would pick up SaGa 2 from Square Enix. After all, Natsume picked up the Lufia remake, but then, they published the original SNES version as well.

It may be too late to hope for SaGa 2 at this point, but then again, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love was brought over five years after its Japanese release.

Slightly on-topic, SaGa 2 probably isn't the kind of thing MonkeyPaw is interested in.

[superpoppybros]

MonkeyPaw's first game is a DSiWare game, a gambling game. *yawn* No interest in those.

gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=128490

Ante Up: Texas Hold 'em (from MonkeyPaw)

Platform: Nintendo DSi

Rating: Teen

Content descriptors: Simulated Gambling

Rating summary:
This is a simulated gambling game in which players compete in games of Texas Hold'Em Poker. Players can wager chips on hands of poker in an attempt to eliminate opponents with distinct play styles. Players can also modify games to determine buy-in fees and starting chip counts.

[Nester the Lark]

LOL! I hope that's not their idea of a Japanese game, because I'm hard pressed to find the Japanese part of it.

[Wildcat]

Yeah, that's not what I was expecting. XD

[superpoppybros]

I'am sure (okay I hope) this is just a normal 'original' game of theirs and hopefully not some lame port of whatever gambling game it could be from.

[Shrikeswind]

You can hope, but I'm sure they own that game. I'm sure MonkeyPaw's not all about cultural games.

[superpoppybros]

Another new interview, this time with Siliconera, where MPG is looking into remaking/developing titles and also says the first titles is due out this year.
www.siliconera.com/2010/07/02/monkeypaw-is-on-a-mission-to-bring-lost-japanese-games-to-the-west/

S: How did MonkeyPaw Games start?



MPG: John Greiner, CEO: We started MonkeyPaw with a strong dose of inspiration. In my past experience as CEO of Hudson Entertainment, we were able to take classics and create more visceral versions that Western markets could enjoy. And we had a lot of success in publishing on the digital download front. Bomberman Blast won Game of the Year on XBLA and we followed up with a litany of like-quality games. So we have a knack for giving gamers what they want: fun.



S: This is something a lot of other developers probably want to know, funding a company from scratch is tough. How did you pull it off?



MPG: That’s a great question. We started our funding drive right as the US financial market tanked. Needless to say, there wasn’t much VC money floating around. But we had a good business plan and a lot of experience so investors were intrigued. Eventually persistence paid off and we ended up with wise and helpful angel investors with experience in the game business.



S: The idea of digital imports is intriguing, but are the games going to have Japanese text?



MPG: Some of our titles will be presented in all their original glory. We think this will appeal to the true aficionados who are our target market anyway. Sometimes, placing Western text and voice over the original deprives the titles of their intended flavor. Culture rarely translates. But obviously, RPGs and adventure games deserve a full localization.



S: How do you go about localizing classic games? I’ve heard of horror stories where original code is lost and so forth.



MPG: This is true in most cases. If an IP has lost its original publisher, code rarely follows. So at times it is impossible to localize.



S: MonkeyPaw has plans for PlayStation Network, but are you thinking about localizing classics for Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade too?



MPG: All three platforms are in play for us. In bringing back classics, the opportunities will depend on the original platform. It would be hard to bring old Nintendo games to XBLA, for example, unless you just offer an emulated version. That’s not our model. However, if we remake an IP, we will target all three platforms.

S: I know you can’t announce any games today, but if you can pick three classics to bring over what would you choose?



MPG: Some of the bigger publishers have titles that only they can bring back. Kojima-san could easily recast Policenauts or Snatcher. There are many obvious examples. I have a hankering for old PC Engine titles like Splatterhouse or even Kato Ken (previously ruined by the TG-16 release of JJ and Jeff, if you remember that one).



S: Beyond classics, is MonkeyPaw looking at current gen games? There are a lot of PSP games that don’t make it over, which could, perhaps, be released on PSN.



MPG: Indeed, many Japanese games are just waiting for a publisher to bring them to a home in America. We are constantly looking for these opportunities and we welcome your suggestions on what our users would like to see.



S: Is Monkeypaw going to develop or, perhaps, remake games?



MPG: Absolutely. Our model includes plans to do complete overhauls on retro games that have that special flair. We’ll take a classic mechanic and build out a whole new game that stretches the canvas that the creators intended. So there will be elements of the original but the game will resonate with today’s users and take advantage of 21st century platform power. If done successfully, you satisfy the retro fans and bring in younger ones, all equally compelled by the original addictive lure. Our first titles using this concept will be released later this year.

S: Going way, way back to the launch of the TurboGrafx-16… can you talk about Bonk at all? Like how he was created and if there were any other mascots in mind?



MPG: Bonk was a magical mix of ingenuity, timing and creativity that gave the TG-16 a mascot it so badly needed. There was a rumor that the artist modeled Bonk’s iconic head after my bald crown but I think that I probably had some hair at the time. The game has always been more popular in America than in Japan.



In fact, there were occasions when I literally had to beg our head office to bring out new versions. They just didn’t see the appeal. And the game never officially made it Europe. One reason being, in America, the word bonk resembles the sound of hitting your head, while in England, the word bonk means to copulate. Imagine the press on that one…a marketing masterpiece!



S: You know, Hudson started putting PC Engine games on PSN in Japan and there are a bunch of PC Engine games we missed out on like Far East of Eden II and Ys IV. Are you looking at those?



MPG: Well Hudson is a treasure box full of classics that surely should be remade for today’s platforms. Luckily, Hudson is an aggressive digital download player and they’re starting to see the demand for their back catalogue. The good part of this business model is that there is no shortage of quality Japanese titles to bring to US shores.