XSEED really is on top of things these days. First, they're localizing Fragile for NA (a game many thought would never see the light of day overseas) and now Sky Crawlers! This is simply fabulous especially since I, personally, had my eye on Sky Crawlers and thought it looked really really good. Given its success in Japan, it's not a big surprise that it's coming here but what is surprising is that XSEED will be responsible for it. They really are making us here in NA happy with localizations! They had better get the support they deserve for all of this. Check the press release out!
XSEED Games today announced that they have secured the North American publishing rights to The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, an intense flight simulation game on Wii™. Originally released in Japan by NAMCO BANDAI Games, this latest title from Project Aces, will be available Holiday 2009 exclusively for Wii.
After decades of constant war and fighting, the world has finally come to a lasting peace. But with war being an integral part of their lives for so long, the citizens of the world are desperate for a solution to solve this newfound peaceful life of calm and tranquility.
To ease this tension and to appease its citizens, the government has started pursuing a new round of wars. These new campaigns are not a power struggle between hostile countries, but rather sponsored events between private corporations with military-trained personnel contracted by each side to do their biding for them. It is the battles fought by these war contracted corporations such as Rostock and Lautern and the constant media reports on them that satisfy and replace the basic human instinct to fight using the war as a show.
The latest rookie pilot to join the Sky Crawlers, codenamed “Lynx,” is working his way up the ranks and becomes involved in a secret new military project with the goal of making pilots immortal. Join Lynx on his journey to conquer the skies while unraveling the mystery behind the military’s covert new project.
”I’m extremely pleased to be able to confirm The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces for gamers in North America,” said Jun Iwasaki, President of XSEED Games. “The innovative control scheme and gorgeous visuals just go to show what a top-notch development team can do when creating a new game from scratch specifically for Wii.”
In The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, players hold the Nunchuk in the right hand as the flight control stick which is tilted to roll, pitch, and yaw, while the Wii Remote™ held in the left hand is titled up to accelerate and down to decelerate in its role as the throttle. The somber story of a world that needs war to survive, based on a novel series by Hiroshi Mori and adapted into an animated film released by Sony Pictures in the US, is told with a combination of animated cut-scenes and voiced in-game sequences during battle.
XSEED Games partnered with NAMCO BANDAI Games to secure the North American rights to publish and distribute The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. The title is being developed by Project Aces , the forefront developer of flight simulation games behind the Ace Combat series, and garnered a Famitsu Gold Award upon release.
