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

Rick Martin 2014.05.07

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.

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.

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

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Japan’s Ninja Striker is a wonderfully retro 8bit game for iPhone

Rick Martin 2013.08.16

Here’s a really fun mobile game for you to kick off your weekend with. Ninja Striker is a great little side-scroller, designed in the 8-bit style that children of the 80s will love. It has very much a Sonic or Mario Bros feeling, with coins to collect and oncoming monster baddies to slash up. But because it’s a mobile game, the controls have been simplified in a very clever way. All you need to do is point where you want your ninja to fly or strike, and he’ll do it. He’s pretty immune to gravity as well, capable of clinging to walls and ceilings too (sort of like Ninja Gaiden). Developed by Q-cumber Factory, Ninja Striker is usually priced at 85 yen (or a dollar), but it’s free right now for a limited time. I’ve been enjoying it a lot today, and I recommend you give it a try as a nice casual time killer with a dash of retro nostalgia. You can pick it up over on the App Store, or if you’d like a preview of the gameplay check out our video demo below.

Here’s a really fun mobile game for you to kick off your weekend with. Ninja Striker is a great little side-scroller, designed in the 8-bit style that children of the 80s will love.

It has very much a Sonic or Mario Bros feeling, with coins to collect and oncoming monster baddies to slash up. But because it’s a mobile game, the controls have been simplified in a very clever way.

All you need to do is point where you want your ninja to fly or strike, and he’ll do it. He’s pretty immune to gravity as well, capable of clinging to walls and ceilings too (sort of like Ninja Gaiden).

Developed by Q-cumber Factory, Ninja Striker is usually priced at 85 yen (or a dollar), but it’s free right now for a limited time.

I’ve been enjoying it a lot today, and I recommend you give it a try as a nice casual time killer with a dash of retro nostalgia. You can pick it up over on the App Store, or if you’d like a preview of the gameplay check out our video demo below.

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Puzzle & Dragons not cute enough for you? Try Emotipon

Rick Martin 2013.07.04

We previously wrote about Japanese startup Quan Inc., which in addition to producing its own Lounge chat app, has produced a cute sticker app for a major Thai telco. But yesterday the company kicked its ‘repertoire of cute’ up a notch by release a new mobile game called Emotipon. In short, the title is sort of like GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons, only it’s far simpler, and far more cute. Like P&D this is an orb-matching game, but here you just need to trace out lines of matching orbs with your finger. It’s almost painfully easy. And by matching more orbs, you can launch a more powerful attack against your enemy. As you progress, you collect ‘helper’ characters that you can take into battle with you, each with special abilities that you can use (just like P&D). I expect Quan must be targeting younger kids with Emotipon, because I think few adults would choose something like this over P&D. But surprisingly it’s launching in English as well as Japanese, so there may be opportunity for it to pick up fans outside Japan, especially in markets around Asia where cute Japanese apps do best. If you’d like to check out Emotipon, you…

We previously wrote about Japanese startup Quan Inc., which in addition to producing its own Lounge chat app, has produced a cute sticker app for a major Thai telco.

But yesterday the company kicked its ‘repertoire of cute’ up a notch by release a new mobile game called Emotipon. In short, the title is sort of like GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons, only it’s far simpler, and far more cute.

Like P&D this is an orb-matching game, but here you just need to trace out lines of matching orbs with your finger. It’s almost painfully easy. And by matching more orbs, you can launch a more powerful attack against your enemy. As you progress, you collect ‘helper’ characters that you can take into battle with you, each with special abilities that you can use (just like P&D).

I expect Quan must be targeting younger kids with Emotipon, because I think few adults would choose something like this over P&D. But surprisingly it’s launching in English as well as Japanese, so there may be opportunity for it to pick up fans outside Japan, especially in markets around Asia where cute Japanese apps do best.

If you’d like to check out Emotipon, you can get it for free over on the App Store (via Gamebiz)

This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space.

news

Classic game from Sega gets a refresh for iPhone

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.16

Video game giant Sega had a hit game called Puyo Puyo way back in 1991 (it was called Puyo Pop in countries outside of Japan). So I think many people were pleased to see that the company released a new Puyo Puyo game on iOS on April 24th. It’s called Puyo Puyo Quest. The game has a strong fan base across a variety of age segments, and it quickly nabbed million downloads just ten days after its release. One of the biggest gaming portals, 4gamer.net has even called the puzzle game a national obsession. The game was the top free app in Japan for a brief period, and it retained a position in the top five until May 8. It has dropped off a little since, but still ranks fourth overall in the puzzle category currently. The game works sort of like Tetris, but it has now been optimized for smartphone. You basically erase one puyo (the slimy looking creatures) to bundle up four of the same color. By eliminating more and more puyo, you can build up power to damage your opponent. This bundle reaction is called Rensa in Japanese, which can roughly be translated as ‘chain reaction’. The…

Video game giant Sega had a hit game called Puyo Puyo way back in 1991 (it was called Puyo Pop in countries outside of Japan). So I think many people were pleased to see that the company released a new Puyo Puyo game on iOS on April 24th. It’s called Puyo Puyo Quest.

The game has a strong fan base across a variety of age segments, and it quickly nabbed million downloads just ten days after its release. One of the biggest gaming portals, 4gamer.net has even called the puzzle game a national obsession. The game was the top free app in Japan for a brief period, and it retained a position in the top five until May 8. It has dropped off a little since, but still ranks fourth overall in the puzzle category currently.

The game works sort of like Tetris, but it has now been optimized for smartphone. You basically erase one puyo (the slimy looking creatures) to bundle up four of the same color. By eliminating more and more puyo, you can build up power to damage your opponent. This bundle reaction is called Rensa in Japanese, which can roughly be translated as ‘chain reaction’. The initial navigation takes a while to get past, but once you get started, it’s a fun game to play.

For those people who are not familiar with the original Puyo Puyo game, the iOS version might remind you a little of that other puzzle RPG, Gung Ho’s hit title Puzzle & Dragons.

This is not the first time that Sega brought Puyopuyo to iOS, as Puyopuyo Fever Touch was released in Japan back in 2009.

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GotchaWarriors: Is this Japan’s answer to Plants vs Zombies? [Video]

Rick Martin 2013.05.02

GotchaWarriors is a fun new Japanese tower defense game, first published on iOS a little less than a month ago. It’s very similar to Plants vs Zombies in many ways, but with some fun elements of card battle games making it a little different. The game pits you against Dr. Strangelove (or Dr Calamity in the Japanese version) and his team of zombies, and you have to build and recruit your team of fighters in order to beat him. Like with Plants and Zombies, you can put more defensive characters in the front and longer-range shooters in the back. It’s also useful to put short range attackers upfront just behind your defenses where they can be a little bit more active and slash on diagonals. So far the game has more than 400,000 downloads, which is pretty good for a game only a month old. And last week the Android version was released, and so far it is the 13th ranked arcade game on Google Play for Japan. From my point of view, I think the game has a lot of potential, however like many other made-in-Japan games targeting global audiences, the introductory tutorial for the English version could be…

GotchaWarriors is a fun new Japanese tower defense game, first published on iOS a little less than a month ago. It’s very similar to Plants vs Zombies in many ways, but with some fun elements of card battle games making it a little different.

The game pits you against Dr. Strangelove (or Dr Calamity in the Japanese version) and his team of zombies, and you have to build and recruit your team of fighters in order to beat him. Like with Plants and Zombies, you can put more defensive characters in the front and longer-range shooters in the back. It’s also useful to put short range attackers upfront just behind your defenses where they can be a little bit more active and slash on diagonals.

So far the game has more than 400,000 downloads, which is pretty good for a game only a month old. And last week the Android version was released, and so far it is the 13th ranked arcade game on Google Play for Japan. From my point of view, I think the game has a lot of potential, however like many other made-in-Japan games targeting global audiences, the introductory tutorial for the English version could be better. I don’t think it has the broad appeal of a game like PvZ, but I confess, I think I enjoy this a little more than PvZ.

The game’s publisher, One of Them Inc, notes that this is a game for ‘high spec’ smartphones, so if you have older handset this game might not perform so well. I found that even on my a iPod touch it generated quite a bit of heat.

Overall the game is a good one, and I recommend you try out GotchaWarriors and let us know what you think. To learn more about the gameplay, check out our demo video above.

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Puzzle & Dragons still killing it, tops 13 million downloads

Rick Martin 2013.04.29

Japan’s hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed the 13 million downloads milestone as of yesterday, just 19 days after it passed the 12 million mark. This continues its previous pace of about a million downloads every three weeks or so, a trajectory the game has had since last November. The timing is fortuitous as Gung Ho Entertainment (3765:JASDAQ) held a fan event today at the Tokyo Dome. During the event, it was announced that there would be a Puzzle & Dragons x Evangelion collaboration coming at the end of May [1]. From my own point of view, the best metric of how well P&D is doing is whether or not I’m still playing it. And I’m still coming back to play it on close to a daily basis. The game has managed to hit a sweet spot between very, very casual, but yet still very engaging with a lot of depth. It’s hard to put down, but yet, at the same time, it isn’t — just close the app at any time during gameplay, and pick it up again whenever you’re ready. If you have yet to try the game, check out our video introduction to Puzzle &…

Japan’s hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has surpassed the 13 million downloads milestone as of yesterday, just 19 days after it passed the 12 million mark. This continues its previous pace of about a million downloads every three weeks or so, a trajectory the game has had since last November.

The timing is fortuitous as Gung Ho Entertainment (3765:JASDAQ) held a fan event today at the Tokyo Dome. During the event, it was announced that there would be a Puzzle & Dragons x Evangelion collaboration coming at the end of May [1].

From my own point of view, the best metric of how well P&D is doing is whether or not I’m still playing it. And I’m still coming back to play it on close to a daily basis. The game has managed to hit a sweet spot between very, very casual, but yet still very engaging with a lot of depth. It’s hard to put down, but yet, at the same time, it isn’t — just close the app at any time during gameplay, and pick it up again whenever you’re ready.

If you have yet to try the game, check out our video introduction to Puzzle & Dragons here.[Via Gamebiz.jp]

[Download chart as image]

I considered going, but I’m sort of glad I didn’t given the crowds that were reported. ↩

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Japan’s Mobcast partners with 13 content providers, wants to dominate sports gaming on mobile

Takeshi Hirano 2013.04.24

See also the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based games company Mobcast announced on Monday that it has launched a sport-focused social gaming platform. The company also launched a distribution platform for Open Social-compatible apps called Mbc Connect, a payment solution for content providers called Mbc Wallet, and a knowledge base site for partnering developers. In addition to that, the company announced that it has partnered with 13 content developers including Konami Digital Entertainment, Koei Temco Games, as well as a Japanese pro baseball team. According to its financial statements for the fiscal period ending December 2012, Mobcast saw 5 billion yen (approximately $50 million) in revenue, which is 2.5 times what it was the previous year. User growth was not explosive but it did recently surpass 3 million users. We heard from Takashi Sato, the CSO (chief strategic officer) of Mobcast Inc. regarding the growth of the sports category in social gaming and their future international expansion. What differentiates the Mobcast platform from others like GREE or Mobage? We’ll be focusing on the sports category in gaming, and we want to partner with participating content providers to acquiring a userbase that loves sport. We’re hoping to work with as many companies as possible….

Tokyo-based games company Mobcast announced on Monday that it has launched a sport-focused social gaming platform. The company also launched a distribution platform for Open Social-compatible apps called Mbc Connect, a payment solution for content providers called Mbc Wallet, and a knowledge base site for partnering developers.

In addition to that, the company announced that it has partnered with 13 content developers including Konami Digital Entertainment, Koei Temco Games, as well as a Japanese pro baseball team.

According to its financial statements for the fiscal period ending December 2012, Mobcast saw 5 billion yen (approximately $50 million) in revenue, which is 2.5 times what it was the previous year. User growth was not explosive but it did recently surpass 3 million users.

We heard from Takashi Sato, the CSO (chief strategic officer) of Mobcast Inc.
regarding the growth of the sports category in social gaming and their future international expansion.

What differentiates the Mobcast platform from others like GREE or Mobage?

We’ll be focusing on the sports category in gaming, and we want to partner with participating content providers to acquiring a userbase that loves sport. We’re hoping to work with as many companies as possible.

Considering your recent financials, how much potential do you think there is in the sport games market?

This category accounts for 15% of the entire gaming industry, so we need be in position to dominate the niche. I can’t disclose too much about business performance, but we’re thinking about what to do next to ensure our sustained growth.

Your company recently announced it had branched into the media business. It doesn’t account for much of your overall revenue, so why do this?

We thought it would be important to explore non-gaming services such as media, so we could acquire new users as well as the retain our existing ones. In the future, this will enhance our business channels, like e-commerce for example.

When you took over gaming company Entercrews, you spoke a bit about future international expansion, especially in the Asian region. What’s your plan?

We started overseas operations on March 28th. […] We’re seeing what difficulties are ahead for international services. We just landed in the Korean market and will start expansion to the rest of Asia very shortly. Considering that the World Cup is next year, we’re devoting ourselves to making our platform reach as many consumers as possible.

We expect to acquire 1 million users in Korea alone. To date, we’ve already acquired around 17,000 users in Korea, (just in the early phase).

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Japanese tower defense hit ‘Battle Cats’ marches on, now with 4 million downloads

Rick Martin 2013.03.27

The Japanese tower defense game Battle Cats from Kyoto-based developer Ponos has just surpassed 4 million downloads, this according to Gamebiz.jp. This comes shortly after the title passed the 2 million downloads milestone just last month. The game was initially released for iOS back in November, with the Android version following at the end of December. The title has been a top 50 iOS app in Japan for the majority of 2013, and a top 5 stallworth in the strategy category. The Android version has done even better, starting out a little slow, but staying in the top 25 of all Android apps for Japan since early January, with the exception of a few days. Personally I’m a huge fan of this game, and I’m really glad to see it doing well. I confess, that Puzzle & Dragon’s has displaced Battle Cats somewhat in my gaming time, but if I can ever get past chapter 3, round 48, then I expect my addiction will re-kindle pretty quickly. While I haven’t yet cracked the problem of beating chapter 3, some readers have inquired about beating chapter 2. So here’s a short video (above) which gives an overview of that round. I…

The Japanese tower defense game Battle Cats from Kyoto-based developer Ponos has just surpassed 4 million downloads, this according to Gamebiz.jp. This comes shortly after the title passed the 2 million downloads milestone just last month. The game was initially released for iOS back in November, with the Android version following at the end of December.

The title has been a top 50 iOS app in Japan for the majority of 2013, and a top 5 stallworth in the strategy category. The Android version has done even better, starting out a little slow, but staying in the top 25 of all Android apps for Japan since early January, with the exception of a few days.

Personally I’m a huge fan of this game, and I’m really glad to see it doing well. I confess, that Puzzle & Dragon’s has displaced Battle Cats somewhat in my gaming time, but if I can ever get past chapter 3, round 48, then I expect my addiction will re-kindle pretty quickly.

While I haven’t yet cracked the problem of beating chapter 3, some readers have inquired about beating chapter 2. So here’s a short video (above) which gives an overview of that round. I hope it helps!

If you’re a fan of Battle Cats, feel free to share your tips or invite codes in the comment section below.

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Line apps rules Google Play rankings, owns the top 5 in Japan

Rick Martin 2013.03.13

While NHN Japan’s popular Line chat app has amazingly surpassed 100 million users, it might be a more impressive feat that the company has managed to turn the app into a platform from which to distribute its other applications. The success of this model is especially evident today, as the current top five free Google Play apps in Japan are all Line apps, as you can see below. Out of the top ten, Line amazingly accounts for seven. While the Line chat app rules the roost, it’s immediately followed by three of NHN Japan’s new games, including Wind Runner which we recently profiled over on our YouTube channel (see below). Line is doing well on the top grossing charts too, with four of the top ten highest grossing apps. If you need any more convincing of the effectiveness of this app distribution model, just look to neighboring South Korea where NHN Japan’s chat app cousin Kakao is even more dominant, occupying almost every position in both the top free and top grossing Google Play charts for that country. (Via Gamebiz.jp, front page photo from MDN)

While NHN Japan’s popular Line chat app has amazingly surpassed 100 million users, it might be a more impressive feat that the company has managed to turn the app into a platform from which to distribute its other applications. The success of this model is especially evident today, as the current top five free Google Play apps in Japan are all Line apps, as you can see below. Out of the top ten, Line amazingly accounts for seven.

line-google-play-march-13-2013 — via AppAnnie.com

While the Line chat app rules the roost, it’s immediately followed by three of NHN Japan’s new games, including Wind Runner which we recently profiled over on our YouTube channel (see below).

Line is doing well on the top grossing charts too, with four of the top ten highest grossing apps.

If you need any more convincing of the effectiveness of this app distribution model, just look to neighboring South Korea where NHN Japan’s chat app cousin Kakao is even more dominant, occupying almost every position in both the top free and top grossing Google Play charts for that country. (Via Gamebiz.jp, front page photo from MDN)

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Most successful mobile game ever? Puzzle & Dragons passes 10 million downloads [Video]

Rick Martin 2013.03.12

Japanese game developer and publisher GungHo Entertainment announced today that its insanely popular Puzzle & Dragons game has finally surpassed the 10 million downloads mark (as of March 9th). It took just over a year to reach the mark, after its initial release in February of 2012. And while the games download count is not by itself a standout accomplishment, its longevity at or near the top of the Apple and Google Play top grossing app charts is incredible. Most of the game’s downloads are from its home market of Japan, where the game has been helped by television commercials. Described as a combination of a Bejeweled-ish puzzle game and an RPG, Puzzle & Dragons has yet to really catch on outside of Japan, after launching English versions late last year. I’m not certain why this is, but speaking from my own experience with the game [1], my initial encounter didn’t get me hooked. At first I didn’t quite realize how the jewels (called ‘Orbs’ in the game) could be maneuvered. But eventually I figured out you could move an orb wherever you wished – you can even move them diagonally. There are still a lot of things that I…

Japanese game developer and publisher GungHo Entertainment announced today that its insanely popular Puzzle & Dragons game has finally surpassed the 10 million downloads mark (as of March 9th). It took just over a year to reach the mark, after its initial release in February of 2012. And while the games download count is not by itself a standout accomplishment, its longevity at or near the top of the Apple and Google Play top grossing app charts is incredible.

Most of the game’s downloads are from its home market of Japan, where the game has been helped by television commercials. Described as a combination of a Bejeweled-ish puzzle game and an RPG, Puzzle & Dragons has yet to really catch on outside of Japan, after launching English versions late last year. I’m not certain why this is, but speaking from my own experience with the game [1], my initial encounter didn’t get me hooked.

At first I didn’t quite realize how the jewels (called ‘Orbs’ in the game) could be maneuvered. But eventually I figured out you could move an orb wherever you wished – you can even move them diagonally. There are still a lot of things that I have yet to learn about the game, like which monsters in your collection are best used to evolve other monsters, or strategies relating to the various types of monsters when attacking.

But nevertheless I enjoy the game immensely, and part of the reason is because of the game’s depth. There’s still a lot that I have yet to figure out. If you’re new to the game, I recommend you check out some of the many video demos on YouTube (including my own demo, which you can see above). There’s also a subreddit dedicated to the game, which you might want to watch as well.

If you have any tips for how to excel in the game, I’d love to hear, so don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments below. [Via Gamebiz.jp]

(Download image version of chart)

If you’d like to add me as a friend in-game, my ID is 333,547,212. Feel free to drop your ID here in the comments too if you like. ↩

mobile gaming

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

Japan’s Ninja Striker is a wonderfully retro 8bit game for iPhone

Puzzle & Dragons not cute enough for you? Try Emotipon

Classic game from Sega gets a refresh for iPhone

GotchaWarriors: Is this Japan’s answer to Plants vs Zombies? [Video]

Puzzle & Dragons still killing it, tops 13 million downloads

Japan’s Mobcast partners with 13 content providers, wants to dominate sports gaming on mobile

Japanese tower defense hit ‘Battle Cats’ marches on, now with 4 million downloads

Line apps rules Google Play rankings, owns the top 5 in Japan

Most successful mobile game ever? Puzzle & Dragons passes 10 million downloads [Video]

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