Lost in Shadow’s North American and Japanese covers compared. The Stateside boxart definitely conveys that Peter Pan feel this shadow-based platformer has, but hachi machi that is ugly. And the boring title text isn’t doing the packaging art any favors either.
Even with its strange text that sounds like a synopsis for one of Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels (“I rode the creepy tram toward the large tower that stood before me. With no idea of what awaited me.”), the Japanese box far outclasses its U.S. counterpart. I guess Hudson Entertainment thinks images of towers, however beautiful, won’t compel Americans to pick up Lost in Shadow.
New gameplay trailer for A Shadow’s Tale. The shadow bugs and puzzles look fun enough in this video, but I’m more excited about the bit at the beginning, in which Hudson reveals that Gutevolk, a.k.a. Hirono Nishiyama, is lending her talents to the soundtrack.
I’m unsure if she’s contributing more than the game’s theme song “Hinagiku” — which you can hear in the trailer and in her 2002 album The Humming Of Tiny People — but Hudson is planning to release an OST for A Shadow’s Tale in Japan. You can hear more of Gutevolk’s silvery music on her MySpace page.
Odd Japanese boxart for A Shadow’s Tale (a.k.a. Lost In Shadow, Tower of Shadow). What’s so strange about this, you ask? If you click the image for the full packshot, you’ll see that the English text at the bottom reads, “I rode the creepy tram toward the large tower that stood before me. With no idea of what awaited me.”
What’s this “creepy tram” all about? And why would Hudson allow a machine-translated phrase to appear on the cover of its game? It’s a great box otherwise!
[Update: OMG, commenter Nerg points out that the description is eerily similar to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Could that “creepy tram” be Blaine the Mono?]
Story trailer for A Shadow’s Tale/Lost in Shadow/Tower of Shadow/Whatever The Hell Hudson Is Calling It Now. I think A Shadow’s Tale is the title for Europe? Who knows.
Anyway, I dig the plot, even if everyone else thinks the game is just Shadow Physics with an Ico/Shadow of the Colossus atmosphere. Hudson/Konami will release this puzzle/platformer for Wii this fall, which seems fitting considering the game’s autumnal tone.
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!
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:
New Tower of Shadow trailer. Several months have passed since we last posted anything substantial about this Peter Pan-ish puzzle platformer, and Hudson is now far enough into development to show off more of the Wii game, including a villain of some sort!
Artwork from “Factory and Fantasy”, Wowlab’s interactive video installation from the Miyagi Museum of Art’s (Sendai, Japan) Occur2009 event held last March.
This isn’t related to the DS or Wii, but I like the art, and the silhouetted Peter Pan-esque scene reminds me of Lost in Shadow (formerly Tower of Shadow), so I’m posting it here. Deal with it. Here’s a video of visitors at the museum playing with the installation:
Future Boy Conan opening. In case you haven’t read the latest Nintendo Power (or the GSW article I wrote on this), Tower of Shadow’s chief designer Osamu Tsuchihashi’s cited this Hayao Miyazaki anime from the 1970s as the inspiration behind the shadow-based platformer’s look.
I can kind of see it in this intro at least — the blighted buildings, the boy running toward adventure, and, of course, the silhouetted scene in the last five seconds. It would be a dream if the soundtrack was anything like the song in this extended Italian version of the opening:
Apparently, the Hudson team working on Tower of Shadow is the same group behind the Kororinpa series, and they’re using the same level design tool employed with those marble games. I never played any of the Kororinpas, but the discussions I’ve read about them are positive.
Back to Miyazaki, my wife and I finally watched Ponyo over the weekend, and it was really fun! I would like to play a game in which I explored a flooded city in a toy boat with a magical girl/fish, sandwiches in our backpacks.
The Tower of Shadow trailer (shown at Gamescom 2009, hence the German text). Love the music!
We’ve seen most of these ideas in Scott Anderson’s Shadow Physics demo, but this still looks fun. I mentioned it before, but the game seems very much inspired by Peter Pan’s shadow. Check out the hero’s fairy companion:
That’s Tinkerbell, right? It’s odd that no other gaming outlet has pointed out the Peter Pan similarities. Maybe it’s because they aren’t as rad as Tiny Cartridge?
Expect The Tower of Shadow to ship for Wii next Spring.
