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Behind the scenes video for Last Window’s animation. If you’re a fan of the Hotel Dusk series’ distinctive visual style — and how could you not be? — watch this!

Hotel Dusk/Last Window director and character designer Taisuke Kanasaki shares some of the steps from his rotoscoping process in the video: capturing poses, tracing images, testing artwork (check out the IS-NITRO device!), and outsourcing work.

Also, the seven-minute clip provides a glimpse of CING’s office, which might not be around anymore considering that we haven’t heard anything about the studio since it filed for bankruptcy seven months ago.

It was nice of Nintendo of Europe to create a dub for this Japanese video. It was also nice of them to actually release Last Window over there. If only Nintendo of America would afford us the same kindness!

Import: Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (EU)

See also: More Last Window posts

tags / last window / the secret of cape west / cing / imports / ec

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)
Little King's Story for $15 →

Amazon’s Deal of the Day today is Little King’s Story, down to $14.99 from its usual $29.99 price point. I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who bullies readers into buying a game — “you’re just the worst person if you don’t buy this” — but I will gently suggest that it would be a good idea to pick this up. It was my favorite game of last year, after all.

Even if you don’t really like strategy-type stuff (I don’t), the Pikmin-ish game’s mechanics are way fun, both easy to understand and surprisingly deep, and it’s all wrapped up lovingly in an irresistible presentation. Or maybe you just want to collect Cing games.

See also: More Little King’s Story posts

[Image of King Ken Suyama: GAME Watch]

tags / little king's story / cing / marvelous / amazon / jc / deals

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

Hotel Dusk sequel coming to the West

I was worried that we wouldn’t see Last Window, CING’s sequel to Hotel Dusk, released in English after the DS adventure game failed to appear at E3 last month, but Nintendo just announced its release for Europe this September 2010. Unfortunately, the localized edition forgoes the Japanese subtitle Midnight Promise in favor of the tremendously boring The Secret of Cape West. :o/

Oh, and Nintendo also revealed that it’s releasing Face Training, its face exercise software, across the Atlantic next September, minus the camera attachment. Sorry, this is a DSi and DSi XL-only title!

There’s no guarantee we’ll also see either of these in North America — don’t forget that Trace Memory/Another Code’s Wii sequel only shipped in Europe and Japan — but hopefully we’ll hear some announcements soon. In the meantime, let’s celebrate with this fanart of the series’ protagonist Kyle Hyde in his briefs underwear, taking a nap beside a tiny cup of coffee.

Buy: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ($19.99)

[Image via zkmn]

tags / last window / hotel dusk / cing / face training / zkmn / europe / imports

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

Cing filing for bankruptcy

Cing, the decendant of another fine developer taken before its time, filed for bankruptcy last week, with liabilities totaling some ¥256 million yen (around $2.83 million).

The studio is mostly known for its Hotel Dusk/Last Window games, but they also worked on Another Code, Little King’s Story, Glass Rose, Again, and the Monster Rancher DS series — LKS, in particular, receives heavy recommendations from the Tiny Cartridge staff (which basically consists of me, JC, Tiny, and the lizard).

So, where did all that money go? Perhaps sales didn’t meet Cing’s projections? Maybe the studio blew it all on burgers and bananas? Whatever happened, it’s a damn shame, and I hope the company manages to pull itself out of this.

If you need us, we’ll be at the bar.

Buy: Little King’s Story, Hotel Dusk: Room 215

See also: Again Japanese commercial

[Via Data-max, Duckroll]

tags / cing / bankruptcy / hotel dusk / ec

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

Tower of Shadow, Last Window, & Magic Obelisk desktop backgrounds

Three studios put out attractive wallpapers for their games this week, and I’ve collected them here in case you missed them. So, if you’re desperate to find something new to decorate your desktop, here you go!

Hudson released this Tower of Shadow image as a reward for completing a Flash demo of the game’s controls. NeoGAFfer Agnates posted the full wallpaper here, though, so you can grab it without playing the trial.

These other excellent backgrounds come from Cing’s Last Window and Game Arts’s The Magic Obelisk. Download them in your size of choice by clicking the images:

Read More →

tags / last window / cing / tower of shadow / hudson / game arts / the magic obelisk / ec / wallpaper

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Last Window: Midnight Promise boxart. Stay classy, Japan. Of course, you can expect Nintendo of America to replace the cover with something less elegant, as was the case with the U.S. version of Hotel Dusk’s packaging.

Preorder: Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku

Buy: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ($16.03)

See also: Brief video for Last Window: Midnight Promise, Two major additions to Hotel Dusk sequel

[Via Aussie Nintendo, GoNintendo]

tags / last window / cing / boxart / imports / hotel dusk / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

“Buff Miner” by Hinomaru. Given Little King’s Story’s cool reception in Japan, I didn’t expect to see any fanart for the delightful action-strategy game on Pixiv. I definitely didn’t expect to see any sexy fanart. For comparison, here’s what miners look like in-game:

HOTTTTTT

Buy: Little King’s Story ($36.99)

See also: More Little King’s Story posts

tags / little king's story / cing / marvelous / fanart / jc

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Brief video for Last Window: Midnight Promise, Cing’s Hotel Dusk sequel. My apologies for the abrupt ending; I ripped this from Nintendo’s “Winter Catalogue 2009” videos for Japan, uploaded by NintenDaan.

It’s only 10 seconds of footage, but that’s 10 seconds more than we had before! What’s going on around the 00:08 second mark? Is, uh, a coin lodged in someone’s eye?

Preorder: Last Window: Mayonaka no Yakusoku

Buy: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ($16.03)

See also: Two major additions to Hotel Dusk sequel

tags / last window / hotel dusk / imports / cing / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Two major additions to Hotel Dusk sequel

Many of you appreciated yesterday’s news that CING is developing a follow-up to its DS adventure game, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, so I figured you’d want to hear these new details on Last Window: Midnight Promise.

Apparently, the sequel was shown at a Japanese retailer conference, and an attendee at the event posted his impressions online. NeoGAF’s Duckroll translated and paraphrased the text, which I’ve pasted below:

“The setting of the sequel is in the Cape West Apartments. The story in the sequel stands alone from the previous [game], even though there might be connections that fans of the original can pick up on. …

There are two major additions to the sequel he mentions. One is the ignore function. In the original game, progression is pretty much always made when you butt into other people’s problems in conversations, etc. In the sequel, more attention will have to be paid when you decide whether you want to butt in or to ignore something, because there is a possibility of getting a game over if you butt into everything. At least, that’s what I think he’s saying.

Read More →

tags / hotel dusk / cing / last window / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Last Window: Hotel Dusk sequel revealed

Working with Tecmo on Again, its FBI murder mystery (due for the U.S. next March), doesn’t mean CING forgot about the adventure title that established its name in gamers’ hearts, Hotel Dusk: Room 215.

The studio is developing a sequel with Nintendo titled Last Window: Midnight Promise (trademarked as The Last Story two months ago), also releasing for the DS.

The follow-up once again stars former NYC police detective Kyle Hyde and takes place during the 1980s in Los Angeles. CING hasn’t announced any other details, but Last Window will release in Japan on January 14th, so expect to hear more soon.

Nintendo also announced another title, Zangeki no REGINLEIV for Wii, developed by Sandlot (Earth Defense Force 2017, Chosoju Mecha MG). It looks like an EDF-style game with a mythological setting and supports four-player online co-op. This is apparently Nintendo’s first title with a “D” CERO rating (equivalent to Mature). Who knows, maybe this features girls not wearing?

Buy: Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ($18.49)

See also: Again Japanese commercial

[Via Neo2046]

tags / hotel dusk / last window / cing / sandlot / zangeki no reginleiv / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Five minutes of Again (English introduction). The clip’s first half is all dialogue, so skip to 2:25 if you just want to see the 3D investigation sections. The FBI mystery story has potential, though — stick through it for a taste of what Cing, the same developer behind Hotel Dusk and Another Code, is working on now.

I know some gamers are disappointed that this lacks Hotel Dusk’s “Take on Me”-esque visuals, but I really like the animation on the digitized actors, even if they’re re-used. I could totally eat potato chips to this.

See also: Again TGS Trailer

Preorder: Again: FBI Chou-Shinri Shousakan

[Via Manmedaz]

tags / again / tecmo / cing / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Again Japanese commercial. The Law & Order-esque humorless tone juxtaposed with the potato chip gobbling cracks me up more than it should. The dubbing gave me a smile, too. I didn’t expect that from an Again promo.

Oh, Cing, will you ever produce a game that isn’t interesting? Other than the developer’s mobile titles and maybe Monster Rancher DS, everything the company’s touched seems worth investigating — Hotel Dusk, Another Code, Little King’s Story, and now this murder mystery. There must be some Love-de-Lic blood in that studio.

See also: Again TGS Trailer

Preorder: Again: FBI Chou-Shinri Shousakan

tags / cing / tecmo / again / commercial / imports / ec

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

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