Popular manga Berserk becomes the smartphone game in GREE in this summer

Popular dark fantasy manga "Berserk" of Kentaro Miura becomes the social game for smartphones in GREE in this summer. It is released as iOS/Android apps. GREE starts pre-registration now, but unfortunately, it is only Japan.

Berserk is the popular manga more than 24 million of circulations in Japan and performed various crossmedia development such as TV anime, games, figures and movies. However, this is the first time that it becomes the social game.

It seem to based on a movie when we watch screenshots of under development. The genre is RPG. Users form a one's hired soldier corps and fight against hired soldier corpses of other users. Characters of Berserk appear as a helper by the battle. Most details have not been yet announced. However, this is one of the big titles surely for GREE.

Girls band Momoiro Clover Z dances on icecream cup by AR

Japan is rainy season now, and intense heat comes afterwards. Therefore Japanese ice cream maker Lotte Icecream performs an interesting AR tie-up with girls band Momoiro Clover Z.

At first, smartphone apps "Soukai! Mom-oclo no Futa no Ue Tour(爽快！ももクロフタの上ツアー)"(iOS/Android) is necessary.

This is representative cup ice cream "Sou" of Lotte Icecream. By this AR tie-up, the cover of this becomes the stage of the show.

We start apps and tap a "start(スタート)"(central icon).

And image recognition begins when we watch the cover of the cup with a camera.

Then 3DCG such as footlights, speakers, the logo appear...

Furthermore, members of Momoiro Clover Z appear, singing and dancing! It is very smooth, and the sound is clear, too. It is right a "show".

We shoot screenshot and can share it in Twitter and Facebook.

We can watch their video when we watch all the shows.

We can download this AR apps from the countries except Japan, and download image pdf of the cover of the cup ice cream from here.

iOS game apps that make boiled eggs of middle-aged Japanese men "Boiling OSSAN Eggs!"

Do you know the Japanese words called "OSSAN"? It means "middle-aged Japanese men" in Japanese. Japanese game startup comcept(It is the company which Keiji Inafune established!) released iOS game apps that make boiled eggs of Ossan "Boiling OSSAN Eggs!". And it broke through 300,000 downloading from release in one month.

"Boiling OSSAN Eggs!" is simple casual game that boild eggs in a boiling pot and make various boiled eggs. However, all boiled eggs are middle-aged Japanese men. When we peel off the egg shell, a face of OSSAN appears. And we collect various OSSAN eggs and complete pictorial record.

When we collect many different kinds of boiled OSSAN eggs, we can get a new boiling pot. We can make even more different kinds of boiled OSSAN eggs.

This is a general casual upbringing game in Japan. It is simple, but is still extremely popular. Those representatives is Nameko Saibai Kit(Mushroom Garden　a.k.a. Funghi Gardening Kit) series. Boiling OSSAN Eggs! is not cute unlike Nameko, but it is very surreal. So it gets popularity by only word of mouth.

By the way, according to them, this app demonstrates the irony of the modern day world. New egg (a baby) being thrown into the hot boiling water (the society), results in each unique boiled OSSAN egg. Unfortunately this has only Japanese support, but we can download this from App Store except Japan.

Characters of LINE become the T-shirts

Now, there are characters of LINE in every place in Japan. Figure, sticker, toy, stationery...next is a T-shirts.

Japanese casual wear brand Right-on accepts the reservation of the T-shirts of LINE characters. Design patterns are MENS-3 kinds, WOMENS-7 kinds and KIDS-3 kinds. Illustrations of LINE stickers are printed on the front of T-shirts. These are released from June 6. Prices are MENS and WOMENS are 3,400 yen, and KIDS is 2,600 yen(now, 1USD = about 100yen).

mixi imitates the success of the messaging apps

mixi released brand of the casual game for smartphones "mixi collabo-sma-ge(mixi collaboration-smartphone-game)". It is games of the native apps for smartphones in conjunction with mixi.

They released a puzzle game "Monpani" and a shooting game "Magical Glider" in the beginning.

Both games are very simple. We can log in to them in mixi account and play 1 game in only 1 minute. Furthermore, we can compete with a friend for score.

...Well, This resembles LINE and Kakao Talk closely very much.

mixi was the Social Networking Service that took in a social game earliest in Japan. However, unfortunately they are overtaken by GREE and Mobage, and overtaken now by LINE. Furthermore, they are becoming outdated as social networking. Therefore they renew a social game platform and bet it on revival.