I’m pretty bummed that La-Mulana on WiiWare was canceled, though I fully understand why Nicalis can’t allocate any of its limited resources towards publishing La-Mulana on WiiWare. The good news is, the subsuquent interviews that Nigoro (La-Mulana‘s developer) granted regarding the game’s cancelation has spurred renewed interest in the game. According to their official blog “Some publishers have offered just after the interview was posted on the websites.“
Having met some of the staff from Nigoro in person back in 2010, I know that their English is… not the best. Still, I think that quote is pretty clear. It makes sense that some WiiWare publishers out there would be interested in putting out La-Mulana, as unlike more WiiWare titles, the game has a built in following and a fair amount of buzz in the press. If i had the choice between publishing a random WiiWare game about bees and spelling or La-Mulana, my money would be on the game people had actually heard of.
The part that really gets me about this whole thing is Nigoro’s reasoning behind wanting to share the game with the world.
“However, to tell the truth, our primary reason for it is to set a example that Japanese indie game can be released. When we release the game overseas, which publisher will have working with us? Following La-Mulana’s example, are there publishers dig Japanese unknown good indie games? Japanese indie games world is untouched vein of gold. Japanese may not be going to dig it. Now, please dig for gold as you like!“
I want a T-shirt that says, “Japanese indie games world is untouched vein of gold.”
