With around two weeks to go until the global release of one of the big original DS titles of the year, Disney's Spectrobes, Pocket Gamer caught up with its producer Kentaro Hisai and get his take on the game looking to out-evolve Pokémon.
There's a first time for everything -- even for major companies like Disney Interactive Studios. Next month, it launches Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals, the second game in the publisher's monster-collecting RPG series -- its first franchise not based on any existing Disney works.
The Spectrobes IP was created explicitly for the international video game market as a collaboration between Disney's American and Japanese offices. Development has been handled by independent Japanese studio Jupiter (The World Ends With You).
Though the first game sold over a million units -- an uncommon feat for a third-party Nintendo DS title -- it underperformed on its home turf of Japan, as quality assurance lead Tim FitzRandolph told Gamasutra in a recent interview, and the franchise is being essentially "relaunched" in Japan with the followup.
I'm glad Disney is making their own games now besides letting crap developers make bad Disney games
Today Disney Interactive announced it has released a Collector's Edition of its surprise hit Spectrobes. Released earlier this year, Spectrobes is an action RPG with similarities to Pokemon that was the best-selling third-party DS game in March 2007.
Issue 2 of HGZine, the free magazine for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, includes an exclusive column by Steve Lycet from Sumo Digital (makers of TOCA, OutRun 2006, and Virtua Tennis) on how a game is converted to the PSP. Also in the issue are reviews of Lunar Knights, Phoenix Wright, Prince of Persia Rival Swords, Spectrobes and many more. There are also previews of Call of Duty Roads to Victory, Harvest Moon, My Sims, and a roundup of every Final Fantasy game in development for handheld devices (no small feat!).
Wheres Shoe and Alabama Man?!
but if it's not made from Nintendo there will be no Pokemon killer. Although this will be a nice addition to the genre