With Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja’s “next-gen” projects out of the picture, Tecmo clearly favors the Nintendo DS and Wii. How else to interpret an email today that had as its subject: “Tecmo’s Holiday 08 Lineup — our love for Nintendo DS and Wii”?
Is Tecmo now going after the demographic-du-jour “casual gamer”? It appears so, as the company’s Q4 release schedule was preceded by a statement that its “holiday lineup [is] filled with a variety of games in several genres, promising hours of fun and excitement for every gamer in the family” [ed. note: emphasis added].
So what’s on tap for Tecmo this holiday season? Actually, a pretty good number of games, albeit ones that might surprise some of the more-hardcore gamers who fell in love with Ninja Gaiden and the like. Here’s Tecmo’s full holiday 08 game lineup:
- Robocalypse, an RTS for the Nintendo DS. Release: Oct. 28
- Spray, an action-platformer for the Wii. Release: Oct. 28
- Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff, a DS re-imagining of the classic football game. Release: November
- Rygar: The Battle of Argus, an action game for the Wii. Release: December.