Screw Breaker: Gōshin Dorirurero

[Quagbert]

I know there was another thread on this back in May, and I would've linked to it, but it seems to have been deleted.

Recently, Nintendo and GAME FREAK have released a new GBA action game called Screw Breaker, in which you play as a little pink-haired girl in a multi-purpose drilling machine, on a mission to recover a stolen red diamond. So far, the game has received mostly positive impressions from those who've had a chance to play it. I've also found from a recent Google search that Famitsu gave it a score of 8/9/8/8 (33/40), higher than any other game in the same issue.

The release of this game is is fairly significant because it's the first time since January of 1999 -- nearly 7 years ago -- that GAME FREAK has made something other than Pokémon. It also means that if this game is successful, it could increase the chance of us seeing more non-Pokémon games from them in the future. So far, NOA has shown slight interest in releasing this game stateside, as evidenced by the following:

• Showing the game at this year's E3, with a corresponding page on Nintendo.com
• Featuring the game in the "News from Japan" section of two issues of Nintendo Power
• Listing the game under the title Drill Dozer on their press-only site
• Having an all-English teaser site at http://www.screwbreaker.com

However, as I mentioned in another thread, Nintendo has been paying hardly any attention to Screw Breaker aside from what I listed above, and the aforementioned teaser site seems to have been abandoned. Plus, there have been many other games in the past that were originally planned for US releases, but silently fell off NOA's release list to become Japan-only. Therefore, the pessimist in me has a bad feeling that NOA is going to forget about this game, drastically limiting its potential fanbase.

So...is there anybody else here looking forward to this game? :-D

 

[Trainer-c]

I have been looking foward to this game ever since I first heard about it, the gameplay looks to be fun.
I also have fears that NOA may leave this title in Japan, which would be a shame, and a mistake on thier part.

I am all for seeing more non-Pokémon games from GAME FREAK they are good
developers, they are quite creative, and have made some enjoyable titles in the past. (Mario and Wario, being the only one of those titles I have actually played, but I have read about the others.)

 

[Quagbert]

I guess it's time for a little update: The game's been out for 4 weeks now, and unfortunately, the game hasn't inherited Pokémon's massive retail power; according to the Japanese website Media Create, the absolute maximum number of copies sold so far is only 41,909.

On the plus side, NOA doesn't seem to have forgotten about the game, as they've recently updated its page with the new name Drill Dozer, a few pieces of artwork, and an ESRB rating. Now, if only they'd give us a release date...

 

[Nekusagi]

They had better put it out here. And it looks like they might. But on the other hand, Nintendo hasn't told us jack squat about D/P except for a few fourth gen Pokemon...

 

[Misty]

If there's a section for it on Nintendo's english site, suffice to say it will probably come stateside.

 

[Quagbert]

If there's a section for it on Nintendo's english site, suffice to say it will probably come stateside.

Not necessarily; for instance, this game has been out in Japan for over two years, and there hasn't been a word on a US release since. Ditto with this game.

 

[Trainer-c]

Wow, its only sold 41,000 copies. I didn't expect it to break records, but I expected it to do better than that. I guess outside of the Pokémon franchise, GAME FREAK titles will always be a niche market.

I do hope these sales figures do not make them shy away from a US release.

 

[Quagbert]

I was just looking at a thread on a Japanese message board and found some more accurate, but also more depressing, sales numbers, courtesy of Famitsu: as of the week ending October 9, Screw Breaker had only sold 13,115 copies since its release. It didn't even make the Top 30 for the week of 10/10-10/16, on which the lowest game had sold 3,137 copies.

Perhaps if Nintendo had included some promotional material for D/P with this game (since it's also being developed by GAME FREAK), it might have seen some decent sales...

EDIT: From the article on IGN that MistyIRC linked to on another thread, it looks like NOA's got Drill Dozer down for a February 6 release. Nice to see Nintendo giving it a chance in the US despite how horribly it's been selling in Japan.