Shining Force Gear for Wii, New Bahamut Lagoon Coming?
It is always interesting to keep an eye on the various trademarks that pop up all around the world, and now a few potentially interesting ones have emerged in Japan. Of course, it always helps to have a few in-the-know folk to lend a helping hand in finding them. Below is a list of what has been uncovered recently:
Square Enix
Pollux Engine
Blood of Bahamut
SEGA
Dekoboko Motors
Galileo Factory
Brick Block Clock
Shining Force Gear
Soft Darts - Japan Tournament
TenkuBan
TouchLive
Capcom
Doka! Doka!
Forgotten Worlds
Noise Kaizou Gear
AQ Interactive
Cubemall
Bandai Namco
Solvalou
Ultimate Destruction Machine Gun Game
Odoru!! Shirokuma Panda
Hiru Dora
Redikomi
Hinkaku UP Jutsu
Project iM@S - Intermedia Artists and Specialists
Family Beach
Of particular note is Shining Force Gear, especially considering one of the team working on the Wii game let slip of its existence a few months back on his personal Japanese blog, then tried to stop people from spreading it as news (hence it barely being reported on anywhere). The game is heading to Wii, following the release of the Flight-Plan developed Shining Force Feather on Nintendo DS.
Also on there is Pollux Engine, which is the engine powering the DS-Wii link-up RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, due in January 2009, plus another one under the moniker 'Blood of Bahamut appears on the list. Whilst this could very well be a brand new game, or a subtitle for something like a new Final Fantasy XI chapter, it could also be linked with the previously Japan-only SNES strategy RPG Bahamut Lagoon. Considering the wealth of remakes that have already hit the DS, such as Final Fantasy IV, Chrono Trigger, Front Mission 1st and the Dragon Quest games, a re-imagining of Bahamut Lagoon certainly would not be out of the question. Time will tell, though...
Elsewhere on the list, Solvalou was the third in the Xevious series and could perhaps be being readied for a rebirth similar to Gradius on WiiWare, Family Beach is obviously a continuation of the very popular 'Family' range that has seen Family Baseball, Family Jockey, Family Ski and Family Trainer released in Japan so far, and Forgotten Worlds is Capcom's side-scrolling shooter from 1988, which again may well be revitalised on WiiWare!