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DS Fanboy Review: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

Posted Jun 19th 2008 9:30AM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Reviews

In a platform game, it's important that you be able to actually move from one platform to the next. Action game? It's similarly important that you be able to fight and move, in order to progress through the game. Few people would argue those points -- so why is the text in a text adventure often less than great?

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles could have been a great game. The potential is there, and there are a lot of great little touches. Unfortunately, the localized script is sloppy, and that, combined with the missing cases, makes this much more a miss than a hit.

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

Continue reading DS Fanboy Review: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

Aksys Q&A: Dodgeballs and Detectives

Posted Jun 17th 2008 11:00AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Interviews

It seems like only a few days ago when publisher Aksys Games announced that it would be localizing Super Dodgeball Brawlers and Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (Tantei Jinguji Saburo), much to our delight. Though both titles have been met with mixed reviews, we can't help but be thankful that someone took the risk to bring over these titles that likely would have stayed in Japan otherwise.

With both Super Dodgeball Brawlers and Jake Hunter now on store shelves, we chatted with the studio's localization crew -- associate producer Mike Manzanares, assistant associate producer Frank deWindt, and marketing director Gail Salamanca -- about the two titles and Aksys's future. Jump past the break for details on Super Dodgeball Brawlers' unlockables and Jake Hunter's abridged case load!

Continue reading Aksys Q&A: Dodgeballs and Detectives

WRUP: She shouldn't have eaten the pizza rolls edition

Posted Jun 13th 2008 1:15PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: What are you playing?

Seriously, she only brought it on herself. Sharing is caring.

In all seriousness, we were looking forward to the release of Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles this weekend for some crime-solving fun, but after checking out the reviews and discovering our localized version would only get half the game the Japanese currently enjoy, we're doubting if the man is as tall as he's said to be.

With that said, we don't know how this weekend will unfold for us, from a game-playing perspective. So, what will we play? Wait, who cares! We're just some jerks who blog. Let's find out from more important people what they'll be enjoying this weekend.

What will you be playing?

Metareview: Jake Hunter

Posted Jun 12th 2008 7:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Metareview

Well folks, it would seem that all of our excitement over Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles might have been wasted. What little in the way of reviews for the game online say it's kind of, well ... below mediocre. They aren't too kind to the game, but we can't say we blame them. The North American release only has three cases, where the Japanese release has six!

• Game Informer (65/100) says "This is a brief and functional title, but it lacks the flair and intrigue to pull off the film noir aesthetic. It's also hard to get over the fact that Jake Hunter looks like he should be ordering Jägerbombs and hitting on your sister instead of solving cases."

• Nintendo Power (50/100) thinks "The game would have benefited from some compelling touch-screen use (for puzzles or combat, perhaps), but as is, it barely puts the 'interactive' in 'interactive novel.'" [June 2008, p.89]

• 1UP (D-) is of the mind that this game isn't even qualified to be in the bargain bin: "Each case is stupidly linear (to the point where you cannot leave an area until you perform the game-moving action), the script is riddled with typos (at one point, a character refers to a mobile phone as a "sell phone"), and the static character art exemplifies the cheapness of the entire package."

DS releases for the week of June 9th

Posted Jun 9th 2008 3:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News

Oh, Jake Hunter, that giant detective. It's so good to see you. Or to prepare to see you. Well, either way, you'll be around this week. Just watch out for that fashion game. You don't want to get too close -- it's catching.

• Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles
• Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor
• My Fashion Studio

Check out what's out in the rest of the world after the break.

Continue reading DS releases for the week of June 9th

DS Daily: Tough choices

Posted Apr 9th 2008 9:00AM by Candace Savino
Filed under: DS Daily

The next few months will be filled with a lot a great releases -- perhaps too many. Super Dodgeball Brawlers, Bangai-O Spirits, Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Etrian Odyssey II, Space Invaders Extreme, Arkanoid DS, Rondo of Swords, Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and The World Ends With You are just a few that we can name on the spot, and all of these will be out before July starts.

Unless you have abundant amounts of currency, though, you probably can't afford to buy that many games in such a short period of time. Also, money isn't the only problem. Supposing that you could afford everything you wanted, you wouldn't even have the time to play them all.

Narrowing down the field is tough, but necessary. What games that are coming out in the next three months do you consider must gets? And they don't have to be chosen from the games listed above, so go nuts.

Jake Hunter gets busy boxart

Posted Apr 1st 2008 3:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Screens

Thanks to a sweet thread over at GAF, we've got a look at the boxart for upcoming Aksys title Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. Regular readers of the site will know that we're pretty darn anxious to get our hands on this game and give it a try.

If there's one thing we'll say about the boxart, it sure is busy. There are tons of characters crammed onto the boxart, but none is so prominently displayed as the lead man, Jake Hunter himself. And, because of this, we consider the boxart a great success. What about you all?

See also: 2008 Blips - Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

You don't need a detective to find these Jake Hunter sequel screens

Posted Mar 17th 2008 5:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Screens

If there's one thing we know, it's that we're incredibly interested in Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. The game looks like it will be a wonderful fit on the DS. We can't be the only ones excited?

The latest update on the sequel to the first game comes courtesy of Game Watch. On top of several new screens to drool over, it looks like they talk a bit about the progression of the game's story, as well as some of the main characters. Machine translation, however, has meant that attempting to analyze their story any more than that guarantees failure.

Why are we talking about a sequel to a game we've never played? Well, we're just that darn excited.

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

See also: 2008's Biggest Blips - Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

[Via Go Nintendo]

Get a taste for Jake Hunter's kind of justice

Posted Mar 14th 2008 11:15AM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Video

When not figuring out who ate all of the damn pizza rolls, Jake Hunter is often busy solving other, less-important mysteries. You can get a taste for his caseload by hitting up the video above, which indicates (to us, at least) that this is going to be one sweet game. Not only do you solve crimes, but you get to beat up street punks through turn-based combat. So hit up the trailer above and see the latest on Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. Zwapp!

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

See also: 2008's Biggest Blips - Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

[Via Go Nintendo]

2008's Biggest Blips: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

Posted Feb 4th 2008 12:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Features

Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Aksys Games
Release: May

If your law-and-order interest leans more towards the law side, you'll want to take a break from the Ace Attorney series and try out Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles. As with Phoenix Wright, most of this adventure title relies on menu interaction to move the plot along, but you'll spend more time on the streets interrogating suspects, following leads, and digging up clues from crime scenes. Aksys plans to publish the game in the US with a budget price of $19.99, promising 4-to-5 hours worth of playtime for each of the game's three cases.

Those of you who've followed our coverage of Jake Hunter (Tantei Jinguuji Saburou) already know that it's an established series in Japan, boasting two decades-worth of releases for nearly every video game platform since the Famicom Disk System. But were you aware that before he ever hit the screen, our chain-smoking gumshoe had dozens of hardboiled crime novels to his credit? It's true! We've collected quite a few of the paperbacks, scanning and posting them below for your viewing pleasure:

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

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placeholder text	Back	He'll never settle

Detecting. It's what we do.

Posted Jan 16th 2008 7:45PM by Chris Greenhough
Filed under: News

Or rather, it's what we could be doing more of in the future. That's because Success Corp., maker of Touch Detective and Touch Detective 2 1/2, has updated its site with two new detective games for the DS. With both projects currently listed under the name of "Keiji," we're at a loss as to what these could be.

Siliconera's Spencer Yip speculates that additional entries in the Touch Detective series are doubtful, but that's fine with us. We'd just appreciate more games in the hardboiled vein of Hotel Dusk: Room 215, or Aksys' forthcoming localization of Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles.

Aksys hopes to make visual novels big with Jake Hunter

Posted Dec 7th 2007 9:45AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News

Aksys, who has already earned a place at the top of our Christmas list for localizing Super Dodgeball Brawlers, is also taking on the heroic task of localizing, for the first time, a Detective Saburo Jinguuji game. Aksys's Gail Salamanca spoke to Siliconera about the decision.

Unsurprisingly, when Jinguuji steps into his American persona, the world around him will be more Westernized, as well. Similarly to how Capcom has approached the Phoenix Wright series despite the whole Fey family being clearly Japanese and part of the game clearly taking place in Japan, Salamanca said that Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles will take place in America: "Yes, we took the Anywhere, USA approach when it came time to localize the game."

If Jake Hunter does well, which it may in a post-Wright America, Aksys is hoping to bring over more visual novel games. "We're hoping Jake Hunter is the first in a long list of digital novel style games." Although, to be honest, we think their decision to localize this is based less on genuine interest in the game and more on taking whatever they could get from Arc System Works.

Hardboiled detective title coming to the US after all

Posted Nov 2nd 2007 7:40PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News

Aksys Games is quickly becoming our favorite publisher of niche DS titles. Just last month, the small studio announced that it would localize Super Dodgeball Brawlers, blowing kisses in our direction. Then earlier today, Aksys revealed its plans to rebrand Tantei Jinguji Saburo (Detective Saburo Jinguji) as Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles and bring the adventure title to North America next spring. Despite having appeared on a variety of consoles since his debut on the Famicom Disk System 20 years ago, this will be the gumshoe's first visit to the states.

Like with the Phoenix Wright series, you'll progress through the noir-ish plots with menu-based interrogations and clues you've found during your investigations. With Jake Hunter, however, you'll solve your cases with a Guile-styled haircut and a bebop jazz soundtrack. How wicked is that? We're not sure yet whether or not Aksys Games will leave in the Shinjuku setting and chain-smoking scenes, but we do know that Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles will be budget-priced at $19.99. Hit the gallery for five screenshots from the Japanese release.

Gallery: Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles

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