April2024
Poll Box Art Brawl - Super Bomberman (SNES)
Da bomb
Hi folks, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl! Before we get cracking, let's see how things panned out last time. We checked out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters on the SNES, pitting North America and Europe against Japan in a dual for the ages. It's funny, there are definitely certain instances where we can...
November2022
News Never-Before-Seen Bomberman Hero Design Docs Appear Online
Shared by former developer
A former developer on the N64 platformer Bomberman Hero has shared design documents for the game on Twitter. These never-before-seen sketches and notes show us a snippet of the behind-the-scenes on Hudson Soft's radical departure from the Bomberman formula. @nori_bomber — whose career started on the Sega Mark III and...
October2022
Poll What's The Best Mario Party Game?
Which entry deserves the most stars?
Ahh, Mario Party. The destroyer of friendships. The ice-breaker. The game you get out every holiday season, lose at, only to hide it away for another 365 days but hold a grudge for a lifetime. The Mario Party series has been going since 1998 on the Nintendo 64, causing family squabbles and fabled rivalries ever...
December2021
Feature Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Or That Time Mario Got Movin’ To Mozart
The funky rhythm comin’ at ya!
On the surface Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix appears to be the ordinary and obvious by-product of Konami and Nintendo continuing to operate in the same creative space. After all, by the time of the game’s 2005 release, Mario had already been doing non-Mario things for a very long time — he could paint, ride...
January2021
All aboard with the chart-topping hit
This digital board game's only been out a few months, and yet in that short period of time, Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! has utterly dominated the Japanese charts and sold over 2 million copies (digital and physical sales combined). It topped the Japanese multi-format charts when it...
June2019
Feature The Making Of The PC Engine, The 8-Bit Wonder That Took On Nintendo
With new 'Mini' hardware on the way, we look back at this 8-bit wonder
This piece was originally published in 2012. With the news that Konami is producing a PC Engine Mini, we thought you might like a fresh look. Enjoy! Western gamers tend to consider Nintendo and Sega as the two major players in the 16-bit war. On European and American soil this...
News Konami Just Revealed The PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini
UPDATE: Japanese titles also confirmed
Konami – which holds the rights to the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 brand via its ownership of the now-defunct Hudson Soft – has lifted the lid on yet another retro-themed micro-console. This time, it's NEC / Hudson's legendary PC Engine, the system which took Japan by a storm in the late '80s and came to the...
October2017
News Super Famicom Exclusive, Far East of Eden Zero, Translated Into English
Major JRPG's "impossible" language barrier conquered at last
"Impossible!" is the word used to describe something that can't be done... until someone does it for the first time. Tengai Makyō Zero (full title Far East of Eden: Tengai Makyō Zero) was one the major Super Famicom games with seemingly impossible translation; this late generation 1995...
December2016
News Konami Files Fresh Trademark For TurboGrafx In The United States
Could we be getting a TG-16 Classic Mini?
Gamers of a certain age will no doubt have a fondness for the TurboGrafx-16, the console which tried to fight Sega and Nintendo during the '90s and failed. Based on the NEC PC Engine - which launched in Japan in 1987 and challenged the Famicom for dominance in that part of the world - the TG-16 was home to...
February2016
News Hudson's SNES Action Platformer Kishin Douji Zenki: Battle Raiden! Gets Translated Into English
Get ready to battle
In a period when dubious anime-licensed video games flooded the Eastern markets (or "The Great '90s Import Gamers Nightmare" as we cool kids used to call it) it was often hard to distinguish between good and bad Japanese titles - especially when the cover art featured your favorite manga or anime character in a cool pose,...
October2015
News Bonk's Adventure Has Been Rated By The ESRB For Wii U
The prehistoric platformer returns
The classic platform title Bonk’s Adventure is set to make a return with the game recently rated by the ESRB for the Wii U Virtual Console. Starring a strong and bald cave boy who goes on an adventure to rescue a princess, the charming title developed by Red Company and Atlus was originally released on the...
August2015
Mario History Mario Party - 1998
Let's get it started
In this series of articles we'll write about one Mario game every day for 30 days, each representing a different year as part of our Super Mario 30th Anniversary celebrations. We'll admit it, we're cheating a little with this entry. All entries in this series of articles have - until now - taken their release dates from the...
News Nintendo Is Licensing Hudson Soft IP From Konami
New Momotaro Dentetsu title in development
Earlier this morning, we posted some rather worrying news regarding the current situation at Konami, including claims that staff are being used as cleaners and security guards. If there's one positive to come out of the whole situation it's that Konami is so disinterested in harnessing its catalogue of IP...
May2015
News Hudson's SNES JRPG Super Shell Monsters Story Finally Gets Translated Into English
And it only took 20 years!
Back in 1994, Hudson released Daikaijuu Monogatari on the Super Famicom - a JRPG which looked a lot like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The game never saw a Western localisation, and has remained out of reach for anyone who doesn't have a firm grasp of Japanese - until now. Translation group Dynamic Designs has just...
Feature What NEC And Hudson Did Next: The Disasterous Story Of The PC-FX
The history of one of the 32-bit era's biggest flops
Complacency can be deadly. You only have to look at the changeover between the 16-bit and 32/64-bit generations for confirmation of this fact; amazingly, during this period of transition all of the established hardware manufacturers - Nintendo included - were caught with their trousers down while...
May2014
Video Check Out This Footage Of Lost WiiWare Title Bonk: Brink Of Extinction
Bonkers
Those of you with good enough memories to recall Bonk: Brink of Extinction will be aware that the game never saw the light of day; developed by Pi Studios in the US, the download-only release was scheduled to hit PSN, XBLA and WiiWare, but publisher Hudson Soft pulled the plug in 2011 — just after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in...
April2014
Matters of Import Ucchannanchan no Honō no Challenger: Denryū Iraira Bō
Down to the wire
The Nintendo 64 is fondly remembered for delivering groundbreaking titles such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. However, in amongst the system's relatively small library of games are a few wacky, obscure and out-of-the-ordinary experiences to be had. Sadly, many of us in the West never got to play a...
March2013
Hardware Classics NEC PC Engine
Emotion Engine
It's a common misconception that the Nintendo Super Famicom and Sega Mega Drive were close rivals in their native Japan. In reality, Sega was in fact third in the pecking order, and it was NEC's PC Engine which fought so bitterly with Nintendo for domination of the sales charts. A collaboration between hardware manufacturer NEC an
June2011
News Discover What Play Modes Await in Tetris for 3DS
Enough content to host a block party
It's a little bit of a shame that the upcoming Tetris game for the 3DS didn't make it in time for the handheld's launch as the original Tetris did for the chunkier-than-chunky Game Boy all those years ago. If it's any consolation, we can take solace in the fact that at least it will make it to retail by the end...
March2011
News Deca Sports Extreme Survives and Gets Rated by the ESRB
Any more Hudson titles on the way?
Following the news of the North American arm of Hudson disbanding last month leaving the future of its titles uncertain, Konami ― the publisher into which Hudson will be absorbed ― later clarified what the official situation was regarding Hudson's projects. Speaking to
News Master Higgins Has Not One But Two Upcoming Virtual Console Games
Another Adventure Island game added to the queue
Only last month, we reported that the OFLC had rated the second NES outing of everybody's favourite overweight islander based on a real person, Master Higgins, thus very likely meaning it was on its way to Virtual Console. Well, the OFLC has struck again, and has rated yet another Adventure Island...
January2011
News All Ten Disciplines in Deca Sports 3D Now Revealed
A couple of surprises
Last December left us scratching our heads over what the complete list of sports were in Hudson's upcoming 3DS title, Deca Sports 3D, known as Sports Island in Europe. Aside from the initial four that were revealed, the remaining six were largely recognisable but a couple left us guessing. In the lead-up to the 3DS's Japanese...
December2010
News Opening Round of Info on Deca Sports for the 3DS
4 out of 10 sports officially revealed
Hudson is keeping itself busy with its line-up of 3DS titles and the company's Japanese website has been updated with some screenshots of the upcoming instalment in the Deca Sports franchise (otherwise known as Sports Island in Europe). Deca Sports 3D (not final title) will feature ten different sports, and...
October2010
News Hudson Has Six 3DS Titles In Development
Bonk, Omega Five, and Tetris due in 2011
Hudson's been keeping pretty quiet on the 3DS front since it pledged its support for the machine back in June at the E3 expo. Initial announcements of the Bomberman, Deca Sports, and Kororinpa franchises are now beefed up thanks to an additional three titles that have been added to the company's Japanese...
