This Week in Games

Super Fighting Robots

Welcome back, everyone! Taking a week off from writing This Week in Game feels weird; I'm almost always working on it, so it's odd to sit back and see something on Bluesky and think, "Oh, I gotta remember to cover that... next week. At any rate, a fine holiday was had, a fine Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was seen in cinemas (catch it if you haven't yet!), and a fine time was spent with peers as we celebrated the holidays. I'm grateful for those of you who've rejoined us since last year, and I'm happy to meet you if this is your first time joining us. Let's ring in 2025 with some news, yeah?

We talk a lot about Japanese media getting brought to America, but we don't talk as much about American media getting localized for Japan! It's a curious phenomenon because we see so many of the same practices in American localization done for Japanese markets (case in point: look up the Japanese titles for the Fast & the Furious movies in Japan, they're a hoot). So it is that late in December, Japanese fans were treated to a series they had never had the chance to see before—at least, not legally: the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.

Because this was likely before anyone reading this column was born, allow me to explain: back in 1994, when the Mega Man series enjoyed far more mainstream success courtesy of its many beloved titles on the NES, it was decided to capitalize upon that with a cartoon for American audiences. Ruby-Spears, creators of beloved animated series as The Centurions, Thundarr the Barbarian and Police Academy: The Series, were tapped for the project. Ruby-Spears were no strangers to animated adaptations of video games or co-producing them in conjunction with their original studios, as can be seen by their animated adaptations based off of Dragon's Lair. They had also produced Saturday Supercade, which included officially licensed Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. shorts.

They tackled the project as best they could, but some changes had to be made. Ruby-Spears' Mega Man hails from an era where a lot of the lore that we now know and love regarding the Blue Bomber simply didn't exist. In 1994, the most recent Mega Man titles would've been Mega Man 6 and Mega Man X2. This includes the Mega Man titles on GameBoy, but this still predates several currently vital lore points regarding the series. And even then, the series would have likely gone into production before those games came out.

To frame this better: Zero was established in Mega Man X, but for all Ruby-Spears knew, he was just some other robot because he hadn't been resurrected yet in Mega Man X2. And his true origins would still be clouded in mystery—it wouldn't be for another few (albeit short) years until we had confirmation that Dr. Wily had made Zero and that the Zero Virus was what led to the Maverick Virus—and consequently, Sigma's infection. Bass and his dog Treble wouldn't be introduced into the mainline Mega Man series until the following year with Mega Man 7. We had the Mega Man Killers, but the X-Hunters were still being designed while the cartoon was being made. Hence oddities like the episode with the lion-men.

This leads us to the Mega Man cartoon, a two-season, 27-episode co-production between Ruby-Spears and Ashi Productions that aired in syndication between September 11, 1994, and January 19, 1996. The story is simple: Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert Wily are a pair of roboticists in the future who are attempting to create cutting-edge robots. After a basic robot named Protoman goes haywire (no thanks to Wily), Light tries to design a new team of robots that'll work better. These robots get kidnapped by Dr. Wily, who reprograms them for evil—no word on whether this included the puns, though. Two of the robots, however—Rock and Roll—escape from Wily back to Dr. Light, whereupon Rock is summarily reprogrammed and upgraded to the super fighting robot Mega Man, capable of copying any robot's weapon with a single touch, using his powers and his robot dog Rush! to fight the extremely Canadian forces of Dr. Wily. The series featured what's practically a who's-who list of Canadian talent, from Ian James Corlett as Mega Man himself (whom kids would later hear as Cheetor in Beast Wars), Robyn Ross as Roll, Gary Chalk as Guts Man, Terry Klassen as a whole butt-load of Dr. Wily's evil Robot Masters, and the beloved Scott McNeil as not only Dr. Wily, but also the smooth-talking Protoman himself.

The show proved moderately popular across its run, and has had a mostly positive legacy among fans of the Blue Bomber in the decades since its release. More than a few popular aspects of characters from the classic Mega Man series, from Cut Man's propensity for puns to Dr. Wily having a German accent, to even the moniker of "super fighting robot" for Mega Man himself, stem from this show and remain as beloved parts of these characters. Famously, many of these traits were preserved by Ian Flynn for the Archie Mega Man comic book series, to the delight of fans everywhere. He even went so far as to create an in-universe anti-robot movement called the "Emerald Lances," in honor of "Ruby-Spears." There was also a line of action figures based on the series with a fun gimmick: Mega Man's spring-powered, arm-mounted Mega Buster could be loaded with all of the different missiles and projectiles from the other Robot Masters in the line, re-creating Mega Man's copy ability in toy form.

While the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon did fairly well with American audiences, it was never broadcast in Japan. Japanese fans would sometimes see clips of the show uploaded to Niconico Douga with comedic subtitles, but for the most part, the show was unknown to Japanese fans in the same way that the Megamix and Gigamix Mega Man manga was for fans in America. Until now! On December 19, the Japanese Rockman Unity Twitter page revealed that the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon, which they titled "Rockman USA" will stream on Amazon Prime in Japan. And almost immediately, they regarded the series with the kind of amusement and curiosity you'd see from American fans reacting to the Japanese X-Men intro.

The same way most Mega Man fans don't know that Vile was named "VAVA" in Japanese or that a meme from the comic solidified the common perception that his favorite drink is bourbon, Japanese fans had no idea what to make of a certain shot of Gutsman's butt that the Americans were fixated on, or why Mega Man is depicted as a muscular teenager instead of the cute robot boy he is in the games. In Japan, it's obvious to many that Mega Man and his dog Rush! are inspired by the Tatsunoko hero Casshern and his robot-dog Friender; "Don't the Americans know about Casshern?", they asked themselves.

The truth of the matter is that, no, most American kids didn't know what Casshern was in 1994, and likely neither did any of the animators at Ruby-Spears. In Japan, the ever-beloved hero Astro Boy made winsome robot kids practically a genre unto themselves; Rockman having a sister named Roll evoked the relationship between Astro and his sister Zoran, which just made cultural sense.

In America, most kids in 1994 would be too young to even care about who Astro Boy was, so it simply made sense to emphasize him being a tough, cool robot hero with a charming robot dog.

Mega Man and his peers were designed less as cutesy super-deformed robots and more as tall, muscular teenagers who snarked at each other and had six-pack abs. Similarly, this being the '90s meant that even if Mega Man has a sister who's designed to handle household chores, she has to be at least somewhat capable—and maybe getting girls to also watch the show. So the broom, the red dress, and the Mary Janes were out, and the then-fashionable beige tracksuit was in; Roll went from being the girl who stayed at home to a cunning and astute fireball of a gal who was more than willing to upgrade the vacuum cleaner in her arm to help Mega Man in his fight against the other Robot Masters.

The Ruby-Spears cartoon nevertheless became a major pillar for Mega Man fandom. As mentioned earlier, tons of creative decisions from the show and how it depicted the cast and characters are still lovingly embraced by the Mega Man fandom today. If you've ever uttered the phrase "Well, excuuuuse me, Princess!" or "done 'The Mario,'" even ironically, you're reinforcing the successes of these early attempts at bringing these characters and stories to America. It just goes to show that things were different in that day and age, and "different" doesn't mean "bad."

And if it's Japanese involvement that you're craving, look no further. If the Mega Man intro is paced and framed like an anime opening, that's because there was Japanese talent behind it! Nobuyoshi Habara, director of such beloved anime as Martian Successor Nadesico and key founder of Studio XEBEC, storyboarded and directed that intro, giving the series some much-needed pizazz to go with that classic song and its lyrics that just looped "Super Fighting Robot Mega Man" over and over. Habara shared his experiences regarding his involvement with the Ruby-Spears Mega Man series on Twitter, claiming he effectively re-shot the intro from an earlier storyboard that had all of the fighting done "from a bird's eye view." He also states that his work on the series ran right up to the forming of Studio XEBEC. And if you need any further cred, Hitoshi Ariga (the creator of the beloved Mega Man Megamix manga) also piped in that he loves that intro.

Besides the lion-men, the six-pack abs, and the weird two-parter at the end where X shows up to fight Vile and Spark Mandrill, Japanese fans have actually taken quite warmly to "Rockman USA" and have designed all kinds of loving fan art and memes as tribute to the series. While it's likely that many of them aren't as familiar as other Mega Man adaptations from America, such as Mega Man: Fully Charged, the American fan-made Mega Man film or the Mega Man from Captain N: The Game Master, the series has been taken in stride as another part of Mega Man's illustrious history, if not a curious one. If anything, it'll just reinforce their stereotype that Americans love big, muscly characters. Honestly, they have us dead to rights on that one.

While the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon saw sporadic reruns across America in the years since its release, it has been preserved on DVD by Discotek Media, and you can actually purchase the entire series on Amazon. Who knows, maybe that'll open the doors to Japan also getting a chance to see the Street Fighter cartoon and Darkstalkers cartoon as "Street Fighter USA" and "Vampire USA," even if the abundance of Scott McNeil probably means the "USA" should be replaced with "Canada." Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a minute to stare at myself in a mirror because the whole time I've been writing this, I've done so with a mental narration by Dan Larson of Secret Galaxy, and my autistic brain is starting to adopt his mannerisms and speech patterns.

The early '00s really gave us a lot of momentous events that paved the way for PC gaming in the United States. Not to imply that there wasn't a thriving PC scene before then, as anyone who enjoyed DOS games could tell you. However, with Valve entering the scene and the establishment of platforms like Battle.net or Steam, PC gaming became more and more respected. Heck, it was a mark of pride when your game got hosted on Steam. But as you can expect, a lot of Japanese games get overlooked when it comes to that era. It's the usual standbys: a mix of xenophobia combined with these being games that weren't the genre du jour of the era. Folks were going wild for the horse armor in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, they didn't have time for shop simulators.

Let's start with Cave Story. Originally released on PC in 2004 by Daisuke Amaya (alias "Pixel"), Cave Story was an independently produced Metroidvania starring the robotic Quote. As Quote, players explored the cave system of a floating island, where the rabbit-like Mimiga were being enslaved and mutated against their will by the evil Doctor with his red flowers. The game is loaded with charm, from the adorable sprites and boppy music to the characters themselves. Even the Doctor's henchmen, the witch Misery and the giant sentient soap bar Balrog, are far more adorable than they are threatening. (It helps that Balrog has a penchant for busting in through the wall shouting, "OH YEAH!", like the Kool-Aid Man.)

Cave Story's writing went loads of places, from Quote having to rescue an old woman's dogs (he carries them around on his head, of course) to double-team shooting demonic angels in Hell with the help of the ever-popular robo-gal Curly Brace, there were plenty of opportunities for players to fall in love with the cast. It helped that the game was also seriously fun. Sure, the controls were a bit floaty, but Quote's various guns were fun to use.

I originally discovered Cave Story through Newtype USA in 2006; it was very much a secret handshake among people who liked Japanese games. It was easy enough to find and play, especially since it was small enough to fit on a USB stick. Pixel also distributed the game for free on his website. It was even easier to play once fans in the U.S. made an unofficial English translation. But Cave Story didn't really gain mainstream appeal until Nicalis licensed the game from Pixel and distributed it on consoles. From there, a variety of alternate versions of the game ensued; Cave Story + on consoles added extra bonuses like a new storyline for Curly, while Cave Story 3D on the Nintendo 3DS remade the game from the ground up in 3D graphics while adding in an exclusive area (the Inner Wall). You could also get a Prinny Cap in that game, for some reason.

Unfortunately, Cave Story's story gets a little muddled from here. Nicalis' rights ownership coincided with allegations of abuse from then-CEO Tyrone Rodriguez. Quickly, rumors began to spread that Nicalis had somehow stolen the rights to Cave Story from Pixel. People also began to point to Pixel's new game, Kero Blaster, as proof of this, claiming that it was an allegory for his time working with Nicalis. The truth of the matter is... likely a bit more complicated than that. There was indeed a shady CEO at Nicalis for a time, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of proof that anything particularly untoward was done to Pixel specifically.

Pixel hasn't done much in the years since, although he's helped with a few other games and released an updated version of Kero Blaster in 2015 (along with Pink Heaven, a short game made to promote Kero Blaster), he's mostly laid low since. If he's been working on a game, he's kept quiet about it. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing in the world; he's known for making games all on his own, and Cave Story took him a few years to finish, but that kind of effort is hard for a guy to pull off in his 40s. Regardless, if you haven't picked up Cave Story+, you'd do well to do so. It's on almost everything, so you can't go wrong.

The other bit of news also involves a beloved Japanese RPG released on PC in the '00s, Recettear! This one was another secret handshake for folks on the deep internet: an RPG where you ran an item shop where you could sell such sundries as a fried egg on toast. There's more to it, of course; protagonist Recette has to pay off her father's debt to the fairy Tear, and doing so with the family item shop is the best way to go. Succeeding at the item shop business also allows you to hire heroes to escort you into the nearby dungeon, whereupon you can find all sorts of loot to sell at your store. Think Atelier Marie, only without the alchemy. This one came from EasyGame Station, a doujin developer (remember, that means "independent," not that they solely make porn). You should also know EasyGame Station as the creators of Gunner's Heart, an unofficial spin-off of one of my favorite PS2 games ever, SkyGunner (which you should pick up on PS5. Friend of the column Kimimi has a phenomenal write-up on Gunner's Heart on their website, which I recommend.

Back to Recettear. While Recettear was released in 2007 (and had an English translation not long after), it wasn't released on Steam until 2010. Its release was a tremendously momentous occasion, not only underlining Recettear's quality in that it was allowed on Steam, but also paving the way for other Japanese RPGs to get released on PC in the U.S. market. As illustrated by gaming historian Str1ka, before Recettear's release, there had only been about 12 notable Japanese RPG releases on PC in the previous 30 years. After Recettear, more and more developers realized the platform's potential. It also helped that the work of Carpe Fulgur, the two-person localization studio that worked on Recettear, was so widely appreciated by the industry—so much so that Xseed regarded them as instrumental in getting Nihon Falcom's Trails in the Sky games ported to PC in the U.S., in addition to Carpe Fulgur helping with getting the Ys games ported to PC. This was all a very short time before Dark Souls really burst doors down in helping the American market reconsider Japanese RPGs, but it's still worth remembering that Dark Souls' success still took a bit—that original PC release was pretty janky. All this to say that Recettear's success was such that Recettear's creators have announced an HD remaster for the game to be released later in 2025!

Details are currently sparse but will likely be released in the following months. A PC release in Japan is all but guaranteed; we'll see how long it takes to get an American release.

Hey, let's talk about Goddess of Victory: NIKKE! I play the game a lot, so I actually try to avoid talking about it too much. I don't want this column to be "Here's what Jean-Karlo likes" and nothing else, yeah? But I have an excuse to talk about Nikke some, since they've announced some upcoming events for the game—and they're both collaborations!

First off, a collab we've waited to see for a very long time! Eagle-eyed fans will notice that both NIKKE and Stellar Blade were made by South Korean studio SHIFT-UP. And, of course, both games are about cyborg women fighting monsters in a post-apocalyptic world. But SHIFT-UP took its sweet time bridging the gap between the two games; the most we got in NIKKE were a few gems for the gacha in honor of Stellar Blade's release. Thankfully, SHIFT-UP is correcting that; among their many plans for 2025, NIKKE will finally get a collaboration featuring Stellar Blade's Eve!

It took you guys long enough!!

So far, SHIFT-UP hasn't announced a date for the collab. But given how the previous collaborations have gone (like with NieR:Automata), it's safe to assume that Eve will be introduced as a limited-time Abnormal unit, likely with an alternate costume you can earn through a costume gacha. I dislike the costume gacha in NIKKE; you can't actually roll for the costume proper until you've already rolled about three or five times. And every roll costs an increasing number of tickets until you're spending three-ish tickets per roll (so those free tickets they give you at first will never nab you that costume). All in all, you can end up spending anywhere from $20 to $60 for a costume through the costume gacha. And, of course, these costumes are always some of the best ones in the game that even grant characters alternate voice lines and unique animations for their skill bursts. In the past, this included costumes like a unique kimono-and-fox-mask outfit for 2B (back when her collab was going on)... or an extremely loose kimono for the boozy swordswoman Scarlet (presumably, one held up only by double-sided tape and GooglePlay standards and practices). And Eve being Eve (with the massive wardrobe she's rocking in Stellar Blade), it's pretty guaranteed she'll have at least one alternate costume. Maybe even two.

With NIKKE and Stellar Blade both featuring cyborg women fighting giant monstrous robot abominations, it likely won't be too hard for SHIFT-UP to whip up some excuse or other for the characters to cross paths. At any rate, we're all looking forward to the collab!

What fans aren't as excited about is the Evangelion collab. Weird, I know—Evangelion is an evergreen property, and everyone loves plugsuits. You'd think it would be a match made in heaven, yeah? But SHIFT-UP reported that the event didn't quite do the numbers they had hoped.

On an unofficial level, I can confirm that the event was a bit of a dud for my friends who played NIKKE. The event came hot on the heels of a very well-received summer event, for one, so it wasn't easy for folks to save their gems for it. For another, being "Abnormal" units (the category reserved for collab characters), fans were also less incentivized to go out of their way for the NERV crew. Outside of 2B, Abnormal units (which include some Chainsaw Man characters and the cast of Re:Zero) tend to be pretty worthless in terms of use or power—and the Evangelion characters didn't quite buck that trend. Add in the extra costumes made for characters they weren't in a hurry to collect (Asuka, Rei, Mari, and Misato), plus the expense associated with licensing a AAA property like Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I can see SHIFT-UP having lost a bit of cash on the event. Plus, from my view, the audience that plays NIKKE doesn't quite have the kind of attachment to the cast of Evangelion that older weebs do. Hell, most of my buddies who play NIKKE were born long after the series released, to say nothing of having actually seen Evangelion.

All that to say, I'm rather surprised SHIFT-UP is taking a second bite at the Evangelion apple. SHIFT-UP is going the whole hog, going so far as to even rerun the previous Evangelion collab (titled "You Can (Not) Evade") in advance of the new collab. The second Evangelion event will also feature versions of the cast based on the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, hence the promo art featuring Rei in the black plugsuit. This also means that the promo character selection includes Sakura, Asuka, and Mari in their "WILLE" outfits—plus extra bonus outfits for the girls. Hopefully, this one works out better for SHIFT-UP. Look forward to these events in February.

Finally, I have a thing I've finally got an excuse to bring up. It's a complicated one, so bear with me. Part of the culture surrounding NIKKE involves the memetic creature known as Doro. Effectively, the result of NIKKE fans taking the Autism Creature and saddling it up with Dorothy's hairstyle (Dorothy being a specific SSR character). Doro has become an unofficial mascot/pet for the NIKKE fandom, if not an unofficial pet of Dorothy herself. Fans have paid money to set up animated Doro billboards in Times Square and made all manner of unofficial merch of the critter. SHIFT-UP has even made a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the meme in-game by making Doro-esque versions of the Matis squad during last year's April Fool's Day event (but notably, not Doro herself).

With the Doro explanation... now we gotta talk elotes. Mexico loves elotes! It's roast corn-on-the-cob covered in seasonings; it's really nice. And some enterprising NIKKE fan all the way in Reynosa in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas has gone and made a Doro-themed Elote shop named—what else—Elotes Doro. Having opened in September, Elotes Doro offers all kinds of corn-based meals while Doro's pink-haired visage stares at you from all over the store. This includes selling—wait for it—"Dorotos" (now with excessive sodium and calories!). Elotes Doro also makes appearances at local anime conventions, which is undoubtedly welcomed by the local anime community looking for a reprieve from their favorite local taco joint with a mural of Goku on the wall. They also make sure to get into the holiday spirit, as seen by their incredibly Doro Christmas tree.

Note the little figure in a sleeping bag at the foot of the tree. That's not a random stand-in for Baby Jesus at a Nativity scene—that's Frima, the infamously sleepy Nikke who is regularly seen lurking in random corners of maps in that same sleeping bag as she looks for cozy places to nap. That's how you know this is a guy who likes his NIKKE (and his elotes). The whole ordeal is honestly quite endearing and possibly one of the most enjoyable things to have come from NIKKE's fandom. Imagine someone making Chen's Honk-Honk Pizza or Dragalia Lost Sweet Sassy Salted Molassy. My heart goes out to Elotes Doro, and I hope they continue to supply the world with corn treats and Doro for years to come. The rest of the NIKKE community also warmly supports Elotes Doro, with many of the restaurant's reviews coming from NIKKE fans abroad who long to try Doro-themed street food. While I cannot advocate making a restaurant based on a licensed character (this goes for all of the Italian Lupin III pizzerias—yes, they're a "thing"!), I do advocate for folks sharing their love of their video game community and working to share it with the world. Even if you somehow involve corn in that process. Especially if you somehow involve corn in that process.

Hey, let's talk about Success! And not for the reason you might think—it's something different. Because we try to give visual novels a good deal of representation here, it behooves us to point to a new VN that Success is releasing—especially because they're planning on releasing it in the U.S.!

The game is titled GHOST TRAVELER: Adventures in Edo. The story is that you play a young man named Kotaro who one day wakes up in the Yoshiwara red light district in 19th century Japan. Following the murder of a courtesan, Kotaro passes himself off as a detective to save the lives of people around him while also possibly revealing the truth behind his soul being sent to the past. Kinda sounds like Kara no Shōjo mixed with a bit of its predecessor Cartagra, in terms of aesthetics and setting. It's a fascinating idea, given the added detail that Kotaro is dead (hence the "GHOST TRAVELER" title). I don't know how death sends you to the past, but that's what the game will establish!

While the trailer is in Japanese, GHOST TRAVELER's official website promises the game will launch digitally on PC and Switch with Japanese, English and Chinese language tracks. There isn't much word on an American release... but I wouldn't bet against it. As it turns out, Success has actually self-published a number of their own titles to the American Nintendo eShop. Maybe a visual novel would need a few extra hands, but if they're already doing an internal English translation then it's just a hop, skip, and jump to an English release from there? We'll keep you posted.

We missed it a few weeks back, but December 25 was the birthday of beloved blond Canadian girl/True Ancestor Arcueid Brunestud. Leave some duct tape out for her!

Good Smile and Neko Para Works have announced a new game in the Nekopara series, Nekopara Sekai Connect. This coincides with the cancellation of Nekoparaiten!, but don't fret—the new cats designed for Nekoparaiten! will appear in Nekopara Sekai Connect. Look forward to it on Steam, iOS, and Android. English and Chinese translations are promised in the future.

Good news for Fate/stay night fans: the HD remaster has sold 100,000 copies!

Fans of Hi-Fi Rush!, you've got your lifeline! Courtesy of Krafton, Tango Gameworks studio has been revived as Tango Gameworks Inc.!

That'll do it for this week, I think! It's probably going to take folks a few weeks to get the gears running, but we can take that break in stride. I look forward to continuing to work with you guys in 2025; there are loads to look forward to, and even if it hasn't been announced yet, there are sure to be tons of fun stuff announced later this year. There will be good news and bad news, but we'll all be here, and we'll laugh it off as best we can. Be good to each other; I'll see you in seven.

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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