Howdy , and welcome to my Lovedelic page. 

This page is a lil’ tribute to one of my favourite video game developers ever (the aforementioned Lovedelic), and the companies that spun off from them after their untimely disbanding in 2000.

I hope you enjoy reading about this stuff and get encouraged to read more about these games and maybe even track some of them down – adventurous gamers WILL be rewarded. And if not, this was pretty fun to make for me anyway. 

Lovedelic formed in 1996, made up primarily of developers & designers who had previously worked for Squaresoft (who I’m sure you’re all familiar with). These include: 

Kazuyki Kurashima - Character Designer (Super Mario RPG, Live-A-Live, Hanjuku Hero 2)

Kenichi Nishi (Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG)

Keita Eto (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Xenogears(?))

Yoshirou Kimura (Romancing SaGa games)

Taro Kudo (Super Mario RPG)

Akira Ueda (Final Fantasy IV, Secret Of Mana, Super Mario RPG)

Hirofumi Taniguchi (who never worked for Square, but is one of the most amazing video game composers ever)

Cool.

Below, I’ll be spotlighting each of their games briefly.
If you want to read more about any of the games, there’ll also be a couple of links.
Or, you could go here:

http://lovedelicgames.wordpress.com/

This the first and best English-language blog about Lovedelic, by a dude called Ashley who's written for some well-known British gaming mags. Go look at it!  Not right now, but when you’re done here. And check back frequently, as it’s updated regularly. 

And this is a link to an in-depth article on the first 3 Lovedelic games, by Bruno de Figueiredo, a pal of mine and a guy who really knows his stuff. Pretty much required reading as well:

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/lovedelic/lovedelic.htm

Let’s go!

moon: Remix RPG Adventure (PSX) 

Awesome review: http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/moon/index.html

Another awesome review (French): 
http://www.legendra.com/rpg/fiche-rpg_id-1185.html#onglets_articles

Review of the (amazing) soundtrack (with clips!): http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/moon/index.html

Artwork & stuff:
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/psx/moon/moonart.html

Wyrdwad's “Which Moon character are you?” LJ Quiz (SPOILERS): http://www.geocities.com/moon_remix

Full English walkthrough, by some handsome young go-getter <_<
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/573238/50336

Forum: http://www.snesorama.us/board/showthread.php?t=3589

Ridiculous Japanese commercial:

Part 1 in a series of videos showing someone playing through the game:

 
What you're seeing in the above video is "Fake Moon", the game-within-a-game that the main character is playing at the beginning - I recommend watching a few more to see some actual gameplay, if you're interested.

Also, that nifty little tune in the background of the commercial is Kera-Ma-Go, the game's... well, not exactly "theme" song, as it doesn't appear 'til relatively late in the game, but a song that's instantly reconizable to anyone who's played the game. It's written and performed by Hirofumi Taniguchi's band the Thelonious Monkees (see what they did there?) and sung by a 12-year old American girl, who from what I can tell was holidaying in Japan at the time and randomly asked to come sing on the soundtrack to this crazy game... you can't make this stuff up. If you ask nicely, I could maybe send you the full version.

The rest of the soundtrack is really something too - in the game itself there are 30+ songs all written by independent Japanese recording artists, and in the game itself you can purchase these from a record store and play whichever ones you like, at any time, in any order. There's some SERIOUSLY good stuff on there.

As with a few other games I'll be covering on this page, this one was scheduled to be released in the US and scrapped before it happened. A friend of mine recalls seeing a full page ad for it on the back of US Magazine "GamePRO"  back in 1998, and then.... nothing. 

Finally:

My tresured copy of the official book: 



And another book I just discovered.... it's called Moon: Side Story, or some such thing.... I have no idea what it's about, and no-one I've talked to has even HEARD of it.... I want one! This one's currently at $70 and rising on an online auction.... ouch >_<


  EDIT: I've been informed by a Japanese acquaintence that its's actually a story book (the name probably should have given it away) about the further adventures of Yoshida (the purple bird). Very interesting. 


And my results from Wyrdwad's quiz: You are the Invisible Boy!



Which "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" character are you?
Quiz made by Wyrdwad.

 UFO: A Day In The Life (PSX, 1999)



Lovedelic's second game didn't have a great deal in common with it's first, outside of a few recurring monsters.... that and the fact that they're both really weird. The RPG-with-a-twist structure of Moon is gone, replaced with one of the strangest and coolest ideas for a puzzle game I've ever encountered.

Here's a brief synopsis I wrote and posted on some other site one time:

Essentially, you play as some kind of alien with a camera thingy on his head, and you're charged with recovering 50 other aliens who are hiding out on Earth after their ship crashed.

The game takes place in an apartment block over a 24-hour period, and the aliens will only appear in certain areas (of which there are 12, IIRC) and at certain times - you can replay each hour of the day as many times as you like.

To catch the aliens, you'll need to take a picture of them using aforementioned camera . Some require multiple pictures of them doing different things - after you've taken one, the big floating head back on your ship will tell you how many more you need.

The catch (and there always is one) is that the aliens are INVISIBLE. So how to figure out where they are? Observation. Things the aliens do will affect events taking place in the regular world - they will react to the inhabitants of the apartment complex, and the inhabitants will react to them (though they don't actually know they're there).

It's your job to keep a sharp eye (and ear) out for unusual phenoma in your immediate surroundings, and try and guess where the creatures might be. There's a green icon in the top corner which will appear when one is close by, and it's up to you to snap a photo of it doing whatever it's doing and take it back to your ship as evidence so that the alien can be captured.

It's difficult to write a review, as there really is nothing else around like this. It's a great idea....not necessarily a great game, but worth a try.

There you have it. At first you'll be having a grand old time catching the aliens and reveling in the groovy little Taniguchi-penned tune that plays each time you do so (I had it as my ringtone for a while), as well as trying to piece together the story of what's actually going on in the lives of the various inhabitants of the apartments, but about halfway through the puzzles become RIDICULOUSLY obtuse and difficult, and the need for constant repetition and trial & error begin to grate. I can't honestly say I stuck with the game right 'til the end, though I did enjoy it and very much appreciate the left-of-centre thinking that went into creating it. If only all developers could have this many great ideas.....

Links:

Walkthrough (Japanese, unfortunately for you):  http://gamepukka.com/g005_ufo.html

Forum:  http://snesorama.us/board/showthread.php?t=32616

User review from Famitsu.com (Japanese) – he seems to feel the same way about it that I do: 
www.famitsu.com/review/user/mypage/0000/0000/0005/6260/archives/post_382.html

A couple of screenshots courtesy of Bruno De Figueiredo:









Now, for no reason, here's a picture I drew in MS Paint one day at work, entitled "UFO: A Day In The Life" - this was before I had actually played the game....

ENDONESIA (PS2, 2001)

Endonesia's instruction booklet is really cool – I don't have a camera worth a damn or I'd show you. The booklet comes in a paper slip with “Endonesia Airlines” written on it, like you'd get with plane tickets, and the booklet itself contains a map, pictures of plasticine airline food and local wildlife, and your official letter of welcome from the Endonesia Director of Tourism (the guy on the right in the lil' pic below), in both Japanese and “English” - which is actually Indonesian. 



One thing that sets Endonesia apart from previous Lovedelic titles is the difficulty level, which is positively masochistic at times. Due to the relative obscurity of some of the puzzles and the narrow window in which you often have to complete certain tasks, it's quite easy to miss out and have to wait out the entire 10-day cycle before you can try the same one again. The game is split up into 7 areas, and each of them is MASSIVE, usually with only one central save point, and you'll often find yourself wandering off on a particular quest, only to become tired before you get there and have to try and turn back toward the save point to recharge.... and often infuriatingly fall just short, and die. So it's entirely possible to play the game for HOURS on end and achieve absolutely nothing.

I got about halfway through the game, even writing an FAQ up to that point, before these idiosyncrasies (combined with the language barrier, which is just HUGE with absolutely no resources on the game available in English) got to me and I quit. So it's not one of my favorites, but still worthwhile. It looks and sounds great (another happening score by Hirofumi Taniguchi, who worked with all 3 of the main Lovedelic spin-off companies), and as I mentioned, some of the puzzles are genius. If you ever stumble across a copy (unlikely) and decide to give it a try, I'll send you my unfinished FAQ. 

                      
God of Names            God of Food Chain          God of Time

Links:

Official site (Japanese):
http://www.vanpool.co.jp/endonesia/guide.html

(Extremely short) Trailer:

Opening sequence & gameplay footage (this doesn't make the game look particularly interesting, but it's just kind of a tutorial): 
 

COLOBALL 2002 (PS2, 2002)

Official site (Japanese) – featuring some screenshots, and messenger icons you can download: http://coloball.vanpool.co.jp/

That's about it. 

Here's some character artwork:  

            




                   

FRESHLY PICKED TINGLE'S ROSY RUPEE LAND(NINTENDO DS, 2006)


This box is * MUCH * shinier in real life

In the years between Coloball 2002 and this title, Vanpool worked with Nintendo on the excellent Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for Gameboy Advance - designing the minigames, to be precise - which was perhaps what got them the job of creating this, Tingle's first solo adventure. And really, it's a perfect fit - a character as *ahem* unusual as Tingle, and a developer in Vanpool who aren't adverse to some well, unusual ideas.... see previous entries. 

For those of you who don't know, Tingle is a recurring character in Nintendo's The Legend Of Zelda series. He first appears in Majora's Mask as a 35-year old man in a fairy costume, hanging out by the side of the road and selling maps to help his Father out. We see Tingle next in Wind Waker, in a jail cell (wrongly accused of stealing a camera, if I recall) and if you free him, he'll give you a map to find his island. Once there, he'll charge you exorbitant amounts of money to interpret a certain set of sea charts. He also appears in Four Swords Adventures for Gamecube, appearing periodically to steal your hard-earned rupees. 

Tingle's certainly not one of Nintendo's more popular creations, at least in the US - having done a bit of market research into whether or not people would like to see this game released in the States, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Europe apparently has no such hang-ups, and the game was released there in 2007.  Well, America, your old pal Bob is here to tell you that you screwed yourselves out of a pretty damn good game.

Our story starts with Tingle (at this stage not known as Tingle, just a regular dude in his mid 30s) hanging out at home when he is summoned to the pond at the edge of town by a strange voice. The voice is revealed to be that of Uncle Rupee, an odd looking old man with a giant rupee for a head. He tells the soon-to-be Tingle about Rupeeland, a wonderful place of luxury, decadence and hot babes. How to get there? Transform into Tingle and collect rupees, rupees and more rupees.

As well as being the objects of Tingle's desire, rupees are also his most important resource. Aside from purchasing items, information and bodyguards to fight enemies on his behalf (he's a bit of a weenie by himself), rupees act as Tingle's very life force. If he's injured in battle or falls into a trap in a dungeon, he loses rupees, simple as that. So it's quite a balancing act making sure you spend *just* so much on that potion recipe or bit of juicy gossip, so as not to run the risk of being killed on your way to your next port of call. Good fun.

Combat (excluding boss fights) is really basic - tap the hell out of the touch screen as fast as you can - but what the game is really about is exploration (and rupees, of course) - each environment is quite large, with TONS of little secrets tucked away and usually a fairly large dungeon to explore. Apart from one or 2 dungeons that are more infuriating than clever, a lot of thought and effort has clearly gone into every bit of the game, and it really keeps you coming back. The bizarre characters and sheer absurdity of the game's humour may be too much for some, but again, if this is you, you're really missing out. FPTRRL (for short) is an original and fiendishly addictive adventure, and if you have a DS it's definitely worth grabbing the European version.

Links:

Official Japanese site (worth a look for the bizarre demo):
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/tincle/index.html

Reviews:
http://play.tm/story/13581   - This guy gets it... but for objectivity's sake (stupid objectivity!):

http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=8940

http://www.thehylia.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1190675679&archive=&start_from=&ucat=45&

http://www.totalvideogames.com/articles/Freshly_Picked_Tingles_Rosy_Rupeeland_12140.htm

Really good walkthroughs:
http://www.importgamers.com/tingle/
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Freshly-Picked_Tingle's_Rosy_Rupeeland

Wikipedia entry (quite informative):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshly-Picked_Tingle's_Rosy_Rupeeland

An interesting note or two - the fish statue in the above video is called the "Zora Statue" in the Japanese version, referring to the aquatic race from the Legend Of Zelda series.... this and almost all other references to the Zelda games have been removed from the European version. Why, I'm not sure.

Also, charcter designer Kazuyuki Kurashima doubled as Tingle's voice actor for this game. Cool :)

Now a few pics:



On the day of the game's Japanese release, someone dressed like this may just have been hanging around your local game store (if your local game store was in Japan). Awesome, and creepy.



BOSS FIGHT!


              

Tingle's sexy (?) sidekick, Pinkle, and freaking adorable dog, Barkle.

In addition to the 3 games listed above, Vanpool have worked on a few other things, but none that I feel warrant an entry of their own. We've already mentioned that they did the mini-games for Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but they also developed another Tingle-related game - Tingle's Balloon Fight. Essentially the NES classic, Balloon Fight, but with an extra game mode or two, and the inclusion of Tingle (for better or worse, depending on how you feel about the little fella), this game was offered exclusively to Official Nintendo Club members in Japan.  I picked it up on eBay for next to nothing. If anything, it's a good conversation piece, I guess.

 

Vanpool also developed a couple of fitness titles for Nintendo DS, Let's Pilates and Let's Yoga:

 

If you're interested.... :)