THE BRIDGE

Gaming

In Japan, Sega Networks hits the pub to promote its mobile soccer game

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Sega Networks will hold a collaboration event in the month of June around its mobile soccer game ‘Saka tsuku shoot’ [1] here in Japan with the British pub franchise The Hub, across its 66 locations in the country. When a customer buys a drink, they’ll receive a card with a serial code, which could mean a rare player addition for gamers if they’re lucky. Also in June, there will be a ‘Hub Cup’ held within the game itself, where players can also get rare ‘gacha’ cards for a chance to get new players for use in the game. With the World Cup starting next month, I assume that the Hub will see lots of customers (the time difference with Brazil is a bit rough), and perhaps these are just the audience that Sega is trying to reach. It’s a smart maneuver on the part of Sega Networks to get their game in front of enthusiastic football fans. The sports title was released by Sega Networks late last year, peaking as the number one iOS sports app in Japan back on May 15th, and as the fourth ranked Android sports game in Japan this past Monday (May 26th). If you’d like…

hub-sega-networks

Sega Networks will hold a collaboration event in the month of June around its mobile soccer game ‘Saka tsuku shoot[1] here in Japan with the British pub franchise The Hub, across its 66 locations in the country.

When a customer buys a drink, they’ll receive a card with a serial code, which could mean a rare player addition for gamers if they’re lucky. Also in June, there will be a ‘Hub Cup’ held within the game itself, where players can also get rare ‘gacha’ cards for a chance to get new players for use in the game.

prizes

With the World Cup starting next month, I assume that the Hub will see lots of customers (the time difference with Brazil is a bit rough), and perhaps these are just the audience that Sega is trying to reach. It’s a smart maneuver on the part of Sega Networks to get their game in front of enthusiastic football fans.

The sports title was released by Sega Networks late last year, peaking as the number one iOS sports app in Japan back on May 15th, and as the fourth ranked Android sports game in Japan this past Monday (May 26th).

If you’d like to try out the game for yourself, it’s a free download for both iOS and Android. Check out the game’s promo trailer below.

Via Gamebiz


  1. This title does not translate well.  ↩

Puzzle & Dragons’ small but enthusiastic North American fan base

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Via Gamebiz.jp, there’s news that the North American version of Gungho Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed 4 million downloads. This isn’t an especially impressive figure, but as someone who has played the English version since it’s release [1], I’m continually surprised by the amount of fan engagement that I see on the game’s English Facebook page, in chat forums, and over on Reddit. Check it out and see for yourself. Puzzle & Dragons may only have a few million English-speaking fans. But they’re pretty hard core. In its home market of Japan, P&D has over 26 million users. I confess, I’m such a fan of the game that I have English and Japanese versions of the game running on my mobile.  ↩

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Puzzle & Dragon booth at Tokyo Game Show 2013

Via Gamebiz.jp, there’s news that the North American version of Gungho Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed 4 million downloads.

This isn’t an especially impressive figure, but as someone who has played the English version since it’s release [1], I’m continually surprised by the amount of fan engagement that I see on the game’s English Facebook page, in chat forums, and over on Reddit. Check it out and see for yourself. Puzzle & Dragons may only have a few million English-speaking fans. But they’re pretty hard core.

In its home market of Japan, P&D has over 26 million users.


  1. I confess, I’m such a fan of the game that I have English and Japanese versions of the game running on my mobile.  ↩

Boasting 6M downloads, Mixi brings Monster Strike to Taiwan

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Yesterday we told you about Mixi’s investment in Taiwanese recruitment site Job178. It turns out that this was not the company’s only recent activity in Taiwan, as it has also just launched a localized version of its hit mobile game Monster Strike. The Chinese name for the game is Guàiwu Dànzhū (or ‘Monster Marbles’) and currently it’s only available on Android, but an iOS version will be coming soon. Mixi is partnering with So-net Entertainment Taiwan to launch and market the game in the region. A Monster Strike homepage has been launched at monster-strike.com.tw along with a ‘how to’ page for new users. Interestingly the company is calling this its first overseas deployment of Monster Strike, so I’m going to interpret that as an indication that Mixi’s efforts to bring Monster Strike to mainland China via a partnership with Tencent have not yet come to fruition yet. I expect that perhaps Taiwan is a dry run of sorts before launching the game on the mainland. Mixi has also announced that Monster Strike now has accumulated over six million downloads. We figure that this is still largely due to heavy TV advertising here in Japan, as we mentioned back in April.

monster-strike-taiwan

Yesterday we told you about Mixi’s investment in Taiwanese recruitment site Job178. It turns out that this was not the company’s only recent activity in Taiwan, as it has also just launched a localized version of its hit mobile game Monster Strike. The Chinese name for the game is Guàiwu Dànzhū (or ‘Monster Marbles’) and currently it’s only available on Android, but an iOS version will be coming soon.

Mixi is partnering with So-net Entertainment Taiwan to launch and market the game in the region. A Monster Strike homepage has been launched at monster-strike.com.tw along with a ‘how to’ page for new users.

Interestingly the company is calling this its first overseas deployment of Monster Strike, so I’m going to interpret that as an indication that Mixi’s efforts to bring Monster Strike to mainland China via a partnership with Tencent have not yet come to fruition yet. I expect that perhaps Taiwan is a dry run of sorts before launching the game on the mainland.

Mixi has also announced that Monster Strike now has accumulated over six million downloads. We figure that this is still largely due to heavy TV advertising here in Japan, as we mentioned back in April.

monst_tw_04 monst_tw_04

monst_tw_02 Screen Shot 2014-05-15 at 9.57.43 AM

Japan’s weirdest tower defense game now has 9M downloads, and a few weird commercials

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Kyoto-based mobile game publisher Ponos has announced that its popular tower defense title Battle Cats has surpassed 9 million downloads as of May 3rd. At the same time, the company is announcing that its repertoire of smartphone apps have now seen over 33 million downloads in total. That total surprises me, because while the company has a lot of games, Battle Cats is the only one that has ever really gotten my attention. While it has been a while since we’ve looked in on this title (the English version was retired last year, much to our despair), the most recent million downloads have come in 110 days, quicker than the previous million, which required 137 days. Ponos has recently started airing a series of commercials here in Japan for Battle Cats starring singer Sachiko Kobayashi. They’re pretty strange little promos, which is perhaps fitting, given how strange the game actually is. They ran from April 28th until May 4th, and likely were a big help in giving the game a push in the past few weeks. I’m still a big fan of this game, and if you don’t mind venturing into a Japanese-language title, I encourage you to check it…

battle-cats-9m

Kyoto-based mobile game publisher Ponos has announced that its popular tower defense title Battle Cats has surpassed 9 million downloads as of May 3rd.

At the same time, the company is announcing that its repertoire of smartphone apps have now seen over 33 million downloads in total. That total surprises me, because while the company has a lot of games, Battle Cats is the only one that has ever really gotten my attention.

While it has been a while since we’ve looked in on this title (the English version was retired last year, much to our despair), the most recent million downloads have come in 110 days, quicker than the previous million, which required 137 days.

Ponos has recently started airing a series of commercials here in Japan for Battle Cats starring singer Sachiko Kobayashi. They’re pretty strange little promos, which is perhaps fitting, given how strange the game actually is. They ran from April 28th until May 4th, and likely were a big help in giving the game a push in the past few weeks.

I’m still a big fan of this game, and if you don’t mind venturing into a Japanese-language title, I encourage you to check it out.

Via Gamebiz.jp

Line tries to reach beyond casual gamers with ‘Shake Spears’

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Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android. Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches. In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you…

Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android.

Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches.

In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you approach the opposing knight, and you can even feint a low hit and then hit high above your opponent’s shield. Check out our video demo above for a quick walkthough of how jousting looks.

Dehorsing an unidentified knight
Dehorsing an unidentified knight

Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer Jun Masuda said in his company’s announcement that he hopes the game will “appeal to and attract both casual and core gamers alike.”

Personally I think it’s optimistic to think that a game like this will attract anything other than casual gamers. But Alawar will definitely benefit from the reach of the Line platform, which now extends to 420 million users globally.

Overall I think this is a fun game that would appeal to Western/European users of Line, and maybe it might be an asset for the company if and when it can win some popularity in those markets [2]. As for Line’s core markets here in the Asia region, I’d be surprised if any of them are receptive to Shake Spears.


  1. It’s a little tricky to tell whether you’re playing against someone in real time or not. I took on a friend in duel mode, but I’m not certain whether or not we were logged in at once.  ↩

  2. Line has seen some popularity in Spain, but not that much elsewhere in Europe.  ↩

Line Rangers tops 10M downloads, gets TV promo boost in Japan

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Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days. Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below. As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos. If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

line-rangers

Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days.

Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below.

As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos.

If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

Hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons invades Japanese arcades

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Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time. One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later. There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look. Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

pd

Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time.

One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later.

There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look.

Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

DeNA’s latest mobile puzzle game is a real peach!

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Japan’s DeNA launched a very unusual mobile game today. The title is really hard to translate [1], but suffice to say that it includes ‘Peach butts’, reflecting the fun, rotund characters featured in this title. DeNA seems pretty focused on its domestic activity these days (as our friend Serkan Toto recently pointed out), but I hope that a game as quirky as this one can someday make it into English too. Check out their video trailer for the title below. If you’d like to try it out (and if you’re in Japan), you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Give it a try, if for nothing else than to see the fun characters for yourself! So much awesome… The name is ももじりぞくの ぷるるんバルーン. Peach butts jelly shake balloon? I give up…  ↩

peach-butts

Japan’s DeNA launched a very unusual mobile game today. The title is really hard to translate [1], but suffice to say that it includes ‘Peach butts’, reflecting the fun, rotund characters featured in this title.

DeNA seems pretty focused on its domestic activity these days (as our friend Serkan Toto recently pointed out), but I hope that a game as quirky as this one can someday make it into English too.

Check out their video trailer for the title below. If you’d like to try it out (and if you’re in Japan), you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Give it a try, if for nothing else than to see the fun characters for yourself! So much awesome…


  1. The name is ももじりぞくの ぷるるんバルーン. Peach butts jelly shake balloon? I give up…  ↩

Line’s Sonic Dash S still has many obstacles to overcome

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Line released its mobile game Sonic Dash S, developed by Sega, back in late January. The title was made available in a number of Asian countries, but it hadn’t performed very well until a recent 1.1 update gave it a boost in most of its app markets. Still, this is perhaps the most famous IP that Line has featured in a game to date, and I’d expected it to perform far better. I hadn’t given the game a serious look until recently, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts here. Sonic Dash is, as has been pointed out before, more or less a Temple Run clone, requiring you to swipe up/down/left/right to avoid enemies and treacherous obstacles. You can gather and use items you collect, as well as use supporting characters (or Chaos [1]). With the exception of a number of surprising app crashes, I found the gameplay pretty straightforward, with much of the Line integration that we have from the company’s other mobile games. You can get rewards by sharing information to your friends on Line, and even borrow Chao characters from them if you wish. The problem for me is that only one of my 162 Line…

sonic

Line released its mobile game Sonic Dash S, developed by Sega, back in late January. The title was made available in a number of Asian countries, but it hadn’t performed very well until a recent 1.1 update gave it a boost in most of its app markets. Still, this is perhaps the most famous IP that Line has featured in a game to date, and I’d expected it to perform far better.

I hadn’t given the game a serious look until recently, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts here. Sonic Dash is, as has been pointed out before, more or less a Temple Run clone, requiring you to swipe up/down/left/right to avoid enemies and treacherous obstacles. You can gather and use items you collect, as well as use supporting characters (or Chaos [1]).

With the exception of a number of surprising app crashes, I found the gameplay pretty straightforward, with much of the Line integration that we have from the company’s other mobile games. You can get rewards by sharing information to your friends on Line, and even borrow Chao characters from them if you wish. The problem for me is that only one of my 162 Line friends is actually playing Sonic Dash – not a good number in comparison to other Line games I’ve played.

With the new 1.1 update a number of changes have been made to the game, with stages shortened and a new character, Blaze (pictured below), added to the list of playable characters [2]. A new beach course has been added to the game as well.

If you’d like to give Line Sonic Dash S a try, you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Let us know in the comments if you find it a tad crashy as well!

sonic


  1. By ‘Chaos’ I don’t mean the word ‘chaos’ but rather plural of the word ‘Chao’.  ↩

  2. You need to spend rings to upgrade to Blaze of course, so it will take a little while before you can unlock her.  ↩

GungHo’s Princess Punt Sweets passes 8M downloads in Japan, still no English version

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Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan. The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two. It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think. If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android. GungHo, CNet Japan Note, I’m not counting the game’s prequel, which GungHo has published in English.  ↩

princess-punt-sweets

Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan.

The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two.

It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think.

If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android.

GungHo, CNet Japan


  1. Note, I’m not counting the game’s prequel, which GungHo has published in English.  ↩