As we may have mentioned once or twice before, Japan seem to get all the best things. And when it comes to the games industry, they also tend to get them first. Announced only a few days ago, and hitting the Japanese 3DS eShop a few days later, one such game is Rhythm Hunter: Harmo Knight - and it's a game we're hoping will be making its way over here sooner rather than later.
Hit them with your rhythm stick.
Made by the team that brought us the Pokemon games, Rhythm Hunter: Harmo Knight is about as different as it could possibly be to the critter-catching series of role-playing games. In it, you play as the titular Harmo Knight, who runs automatically through the levels, picking up purple music notes as he goes. With each note he nabs, a part of a song plays, much like when Mario has to run around collecting rainbow notes that play a tune in Super Mario 3D Land. And it's this that forms the challenge. Everything you do in the game ends up forming the song that's playing, so you'll have to time your jumps in time with the music so as not to miss a note, and smack away the various enemies with your handy rhythm stick to continue the tune in much the same way. Given the developer's history, it's hardly surprising there's cameos from Pokemon characters and songs thrown in for good measure too.
Seeing as everything else about it is in Japanese, we're not entirely sure what else to expect - although the trailer does show a series of rather stylish animated cut-scenes at the beginning, suggesting there may be some sort of story to it, rather than just a set of musical stages:
With a hefty dose of originality, though, apparently comes a hefty price - weighing in at 1800 Yen, the game works out at a whopping £14.50 over here - assuming we get a one to one Yen to Pound conversion rate. Apparently it takes up the same sort of space on your SD card as the New Super Mario Bros. 2 download does, meaning it could well be a rather hefty game, comparable to a shop bought release, but whether it's packed full of enough tunes to warrant the price remains to be seen. Currently, there's no word on a UK release for the titles, although it's another one of those we'd love to see over here at some point.
