Awesome Collaboration! GungHo announced "PUZZLE & DRAGONS SUPER MARIO BROS. EDITION"

Unfortunately the presence of Nintendo gradually fades in Japan. One of the causes is the prosperity of the mobile game business, but surprising press release was announced. GungHo releases a game for the Nintendo 3DS series "PUZZLE & DRAGONS SUPER MARIO BROS. EDITION" that combined the Mario series of Nintendo with Puzzle &Dragons on April 29. The price is 4,000 yen(about 33.3USD).

Needless to say, Puzzle & Dragons is a popular mobile game of GungHo, passes 33 million downloading in Japan, and passed 6 million downloading in the North America in this month, too. This collaboration is "bitter enemies in the same boat" for Nintendo.

Stages of the games is the mushroom kingdom which is the world of the Mario series. Mysterious "drop" with mysterious power appeared in the mushroom kingdom suddenly, bowser(Great Demon King Koopa) and other Mario's enemies get it and do evil, and Mario Bros. and their friends do the adventure of the puzzle battle to fight against them. According to the screenshot, its rule of game seems to be same as Puzzle & Dragons. However, an outlook on the world is Mario series itself. It is unknown whether this is sold in countries except Japan.

Supercell carried out Japan's original promotion for New Year holidays

Shōgatsu(正月: Japanese New Year festival) is one of the most important event in Japan. Therefore Supercell carried out Japan's original promotion "Hay Day O-mikuji" from January 1.

O-mikuji(おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines(via Wikipedia). Supercell opened a time-limited special site until January 18 emulating this and let players draw Hay Day O-mikuji.

These are kinds of O-mikuji.

Great blessing (大吉: dai-kichi) 
Middle blessing (中吉: chū-kichi) 
Small blessing (小吉: shō-kichi) 
Blessing (吉: kichi) 
Ending blessing (末吉: sue-kichi) 

 Fortunes of this year, characters and items of Hay Day are drawn on each O-mikuji, and players can tweet them to Twitter. Furthermore, players can apply for a present campaign from this site. If we lucky, we can get various Hay Day goods :)

Why did Supercell do such a promotion? Probably because, in The twelve branches(十二支), this year is "the year of the sheep" (What is the twelve branches? via Wikipedia). Players can keep sheep in Hay Day. By the way, next year is "the year of the monkey". Are the monkeys added to Hay Day until the next year?

Next is GREE:Angry Birds cooperates with GREE's mobile game Monpla

Before, I wrote about Angry Birds and LINE's mobile game.

See Also:
Next is LINE: Angry Birds gets into the Japanese mobile game more

Rovio Japan makes efforts in the tie-up with Japanese mobile game companies more. Now, they carry out an event about Angry Birds in GREE's mobile game "Monpla".

Monpla is a fantasy RPG that collects various cute monsters and has adventures(well... the view of the world resembles Pokemon...). Originally this is a social game for futurephones and one of the senior titles of GREE. It was provided in GREE for global before, but unfortunately was unpopular among overseas users and has been already shut down. However, it still has many users in Japan.

GREE designed suits for monsters of Angry Birds for this tie-up. Besides, they are 3D models. When players win the fight with the enemy monsters, they can get points. When points save a constant number, they get virtual goods of Angry Birds.

Furthermore, monsters of the enemy wear a suit of Angry Birds!

This is a very elaborate tie-up event. In addition, GREE enforces tie-up events with Angry Birds in another 2 titles "Tsuri-Sta（釣り★スタ)" and "Shometsu-Toshi(消滅都市)".

Popular manga/anime ONE PIECE became the mobile rhythm game

Yesterday, Bandai Namco games released rhythm game of Japanese popular manga/anime ONE PIECE "ONE PIECE DANCE BATTLE". Its downloading is free(iOS/Android), but unfortunately the release area is only Japan.

The rule of ONE PIECE DANCE BATTLE is simple. Players collect various characters of ONE PIECE, form dance teams and battles by dances on map. A story of ONE PIECE and the relationship between characters are not important in this game. Characters fighting against each other may join the same team.

Players can get new characters by achieving quests, win dance battles, and gacha system(*gacha...the vending machine which characters appear at random. General virtual goods sale form in Japanese online games, social games, and mobile games).

Because ONE PIECE was very popular contents, various social games/mobile games were released from the Futurephone era.

See Also:
Bandai Namco games released a new mobile social game of popular Manga/Anime "ONE PIECE" in GREE
Popular manga ONE PIECE forms original game community in Android

However, I think that ONE PIECE DANCE BATTLE is luxury most. At first, this is full 3D title, all 3DCG are high quality and dance motions are smooth. Above all, characters dancing are very cute and funny! There are a lot of kinds of characters, and even bit parts are reproduced in 3DCG. This is a game that enjoy to see ONE PIECE characters dancing.

Japanese singer Sachiko Kobayashi broadcasts a show for Oculus Rift

Now, Oculus Rift is becoming the hottest gadget in Japan. In particular, the entertainment industry makes efforts in its utilization.

See Also:
Japanese singer Kumi Koda releases a music video for Oculus Rift

Japanese enka(演歌) singer Sachiko Kobayashi(小林幸子) broadcasts a show live as VR movie for Oculus Rift on November 17. This is the first example of the streaming service by the new technology that Dwango and NTT developed jointly.

Enka is a genre of the songs based on Japanese traditional vocalism, and often compared to American country music or the blues.(via Wikipedia)



Sachiko Kobayashi is the great singer whom she continues singing enka for from 10 years old for 50 years. However, she is more famous by the characteristic that there is. It is gorgeous dress.

Her stage dress are already stage set! She wears such dresses at important TV show and the show in the big hall, and it is one of the highlight. Dwango broadcasts her show of November 17 in video sharing site Nico Nico Douga(ニコニコ動画). We can watch it with the PC, but watch it by released VR application on that day in Oculus Rift, too. If we can watched her gorgeous dress and show in Oculus Rift? It will be a pleasant experience.

Details(Japanese)
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv199935215