Yuke's Likes Us Yanks
So much so that they've opened a North American office.
Published: June 6, 2006
Wrestling games, for all the crap that we give them around the office, certainly aren't going anywhere. Part of this is because the guys at Yuke's, developers of the SmackDown and Rumble Roses series, keep cranking out games that wrestling freaks claim are pure, concentrated awesome (or at least they claim that with their cash at the check-out counter; SmackDown sells like crazy).
Now, we're inclined to agree when it comes to games about half-naked girls mud wrestling and putting themselves in interesting and compromising positions, but we'll admit that there's actually a halfway decent game buried in there (and yes, we're weeping softly to ourselves that we don't have a PS3 update of the game yet. Stupid Xbox360 with your awesome games). We're sure the fact that it's top-heavy girls instead of sweaty men-folk with retarded personalities that has something to do with the attraction too.
Regardless of how you feel about the games they make, Yuke's isn't going anywhere, especially now that they've finally set up operations here in the good ol' US of A. Yuke's Company of America will handle all North American operations for the company, and actually intend to publish their own games (for, yes, the 360, but also support for the aging PS2, the cute-as-a-button PSP and the upcoming PS3), though the actual next-gen projects are still something we're trying to figure out.
It's a safe bet that they'll continue to make SmackDown games for THQ, and we're hopeful that more Rumble Roses games are in the works for Konami, but the fact that D1GP Drift Racing is also mentioned as a major project they're working on -- and the fact that the game has no official US publisher yet, we're hoping we might start to see games in the near future coming directly from the folks that make 'em. Should we learn something new, we'll make sure to update you.
Now, we're inclined to agree when it comes to games about half-naked girls mud wrestling and putting themselves in interesting and compromising positions, but we'll admit that there's actually a halfway decent game buried in there (and yes, we're weeping softly to ourselves that we don't have a PS3 update of the game yet. Stupid Xbox360 with your awesome games). We're sure the fact that it's top-heavy girls instead of sweaty men-folk with retarded personalities that has something to do with the attraction too.
Regardless of how you feel about the games they make, Yuke's isn't going anywhere, especially now that they've finally set up operations here in the good ol' US of A. Yuke's Company of America will handle all North American operations for the company, and actually intend to publish their own games (for, yes, the 360, but also support for the aging PS2, the cute-as-a-button PSP and the upcoming PS3), though the actual next-gen projects are still something we're trying to figure out.
It's a safe bet that they'll continue to make SmackDown games for THQ, and we're hopeful that more Rumble Roses games are in the works for Konami, but the fact that D1GP Drift Racing is also mentioned as a major project they're working on -- and the fact that the game has no official US publisher yet, we're hoping we might start to see games in the near future coming directly from the folks that make 'em. Should we learn something new, we'll make sure to update you.