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Earlier this week we saw the announcement of the Feel The Magic/Project Rub sequel, Where do Babies Come From?. Naturally, just days after the announcement SEGA have added a page to their Japanese site for the game containing some teaser images, the new logo and more of those wacky Japanese vocals featured in the first game.
We have ninjas currently working on translating the little information available, bear with us until more is available. Stay with SONIC NEWS to find out first.
Feel The Magic XY/XX was arguably one of the best, if not strangest title to be released with the Nintendo DS last November. It’s no surprise that a sequel is in the works after the games success, the latest incarnation to be titled “Where Do Babies Come From?”. IGN Reports:
Sega has a new DS title in the works from the makers of Feel the Magic. According to reports out of Japan, the new game is a sequel of sorts to the DS launch title, although it has a completely new name, “Akachan wa Dokokara Kuruno?”. This name translates to English as “Where do Babies Come From?”.
The name alone ensures us this title will be the next chapter in the ongoing bizarre love story between our blue haired protagonist and the female whom he chased throughout the first game.
Thanks to Invader Tails from The Sonic Stadium’s own SSMB forums for the link. Stay with SONIC NEWS for more information and the first images as they surface.
Sega of Europe has recently opened their Official Project Rub Website with the release of the game. The website is almost as unique as the game itself, featuring mini-games, wallpapers, information on the game, as well as a trailer. The website also has 5 tiny blue rabbits that can be rubbed, which will unveil a special treasure.
Project Rub was released in Europe on the Nintendo DS recently and was known as Feel the Magic XX/XY in America, and originally as Kimishine in Japan.
Sonic Team’s Project Rub hit European shores today as the Nintendo DS was released to the public.
The Nintendo DS has 15 launch titles; Sonic Team develops one of which. Project Rub (known also as Feel the Magic XX/XY in America) is an off-the-wall series of mini-games that revolve around pleasing the “girl of your dreams”. It has a wacky sense of humour and is full of Sonic Team’s trademark innovations.
Got a press release from SEGA today – TakeTwo Interactive has effectively bought out Visual Concepts and Kush Games. For those that don’t really care or know (that’s everyone outside of America, then), they are the SEGA divisions that brought us the Sports 2K Series. The acquisition will see SEGA no longer owning the developer’s rights to these games. TakeTwo and SEGA are also apparently going to work together to bring Visual Concepts games to arcades – be it Sports 2K or something else we dunno. Finally, the agreement will apparently include SEGA publishing and distributing the 2K series in Japan and Asia. I’ll post the whole press kaboodle on the SSMB later. Continue reading li3k, an UpDat!
A love-dating sim? It doesn’t seem to be Sonic Team’s style now, does it? And you’d be right – Feel The Magic is being developed, like Space Channel 5, Rez and Astro Boy before it, by the artist formerly known as United Game Artists. UGA have always had a flair for innovative artistic display, and Feel The Magic looks set to break the boundaries of at least the Sonic Team label.
The graphics are shaping up to be superbly unique, suiting the cult-like following and niche audiences UGA have recieved from their past projects. The graphics use both the 2D and 3D capabilities of the Nintendo DS console: at times the silhouetted characters turn out to be actual polygonal figures as well, and the design of the entire game produces an air of cool not seen since the ‘status quo’ already established with the Apple iPod adverts. And how much more niche could you get for the Western market too – Dating titles are very much a gaming delicacy best served in its native Japanese homeland, but this brave move to retail Feel The Magic to even America is as bold as the colourful graphics themselves.
Not that any of us should be complaining; it saves us all the trouble of importing it, doesn’t it? And far from being one of the generic and confusing love quests littering Japan, Feel The Magic actually keeps things as entertaining and as simple as possible. You play as yourself (albeit not ‘with’ said person, else that kind of denounces the point of the game), a guy who desperately falls in love with the hottest gal in town. But she’s not putting out so easily. She wants you to show how much you will dedicate yourself to her. She wants to be impressed. She wants a guy to truly love her, and treat her like a true gent (you being the gent, not her).
At this juncture, usually you would expect a bunch of annoying, tedious and rampantly agitating adventure quests and modes, chatting up her friends to maybe see what she likes best and all that tosh. Feel The Magic really does have some tricks up it’s proverbial sleeve, choosing to stick to short, amusing and downright wacky mini-games. Think more along the lines of Wario Ware on Game Boy Advance, but with an actual love interest theme. And the games revealed so far sound very innovative and promising:
In one mini-game, a random dude manages to eat all sorts of sealife animals. On the bottom screen of the Nintendo DS, using the touch screen you must push the animals out of the person’s stomach and up his throat so that he can then regurgitate them out of his fat gob (shown on the top screen of your NDS) with cheeky grin and all. Another allows you to clean the apple of your eye, as she falls face first into a pile of crud, while in a similar touchy game you must pick scorpions off of your potential Valentine, whilst being careful to not actually rub her up yourself (she’ll get a little annoyed you’re not bothering to pick the scorpions off her back if your hands start a-wandering…). One really imaginitive aspect that struck me as fantastic was the way even the Nintendo DS microphone was being used: one mini-game has you trying to blow out candles, and you do this by blowing into your DS Mic. The DS can detect how hard you are blowing (easy) and will show on the touch screen accordingly. Thus, if you blow too hard (oi) you could end up winding yourself.
The touch screen and microphone are apparently the only functions of the Nintendo DS being used for this game, to keep things relatively simple throughout, and with 30 mini-games like the ones mentioned above, including tapping bulls to avoid a stampede and digging for your love’s lost possessions on the beach, you can tell United Game Artists will help turn Sonic Team back into the cult original developer it once was during it’s Burning Rangers hey-days. This is going to be an incredibly quirky game that uses the DS’ functions and makes perfect display of the things that make the new handheld unique. It will be released as a launch title in Japan and in America too, and that shouldn’t leave much doubt for a launch title proposal for Europe too, pray the powers above.
So, the stylish influence of United Game Artists strikes further within Sonic Team HQ, as we finally know what ‘Project Rub’ is all about. It’s a dating sim for Nintendo DS, you see. And it involves “touching girls”. Egad. We’ll be covering that in a day or so’s time. Sorry for lack of updates too, but a new job convinces me to stay away from this computer and all, so bleh. Trust me though, I’m putting stuff up and have a ton of great things lined up over the next month – in time for TSS’ FOURTH Birthday. Also, SAGE has started once more – but if you hear hide nor peep from me for a day or so, I’m just fixing up Shadow Team’s booth for the event. Finally, the Sonic Site Awards is in Phase 2. Need I say more? I don’t think so. ‘Ave it.
