December 5 to 11 Indie News Roundup

Back to Bed

Back to Bed will be releasing on the European Wii U eShop on December 15 at a 9.99€ price point.

You can watch the game’s launch trailer below.

Kutar

Circle Entertainment has recently announced that the Kutar series is coming to the European eShop on December 15.

This encompasses the same 10 games that were released in North America a few weeks ago.

Mercenaries Saga 3

Circle Entertainment will be releasing Mercenaries Saga 3 on December 15 in the North American 3DS eShop.

You can find a few screenshots and an introduction video below.

Scribble

Bear Box Media has now confirmed that Scrible will be releasing on the European Wii U eShop on December 15 with a price of 2,99€.

This date has only been confirmed for Europe, but it should release in North America around the same time.

Teslapunk

klutzGames has announced it will be releasing Teslapunk on the European Wii U eShop on December 15. The title will be sold for 9.99€.

It was already released in North America in the past week.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

WayForward has recently shared that Shantae: Half-Genie Hero should be releasing digitally on December 20th, both in Europe and North America.

According to the studio, the Kickstarter Backer codes have also started to be distributed, so you should keep checking your inbox for them.

The latest Kickstarter update however, states that the Wii U release date is still awaiting confirmation, so the date might change slightly if there’s a small delay.

Meanwhile, XSEED has announced that the retail version of the game will be released a week later, on December 27.

The launch edition of the retail version, subtitled Risky Beats Edition, includes a copy of the game along with a musical selections CD containing 30 songs from the game’s soundtrack.

Finally, you can find the launch trailer below.

Geki Yaba Runner Deluxe

QubicGames’ Geki Yaba Runner Deluxe is coming to the Wii U eShop in Europe on December 22, according to a recent eShop listing. The game will cost €4.99.

Like previously reported, QubicGames intends to later bring the game to Switch too.

Hive Jump

Graphite Lab has recently shared an update on Hive Jump’s development progress where it reinforces the teams commitment to release the game on Wii U.

You can find Graphite Lab’s update below.

“You can see from our frequent and steady updates that we ARE moving the game forward and each step is making the Wii U version better. We have no intentions of softening our commitment to Wii U players and believe we can get Wii U launched in early 2017. In fact, we’ve added another engineer to the Wii U team this week to help accelerate production and finish this version.

In other production news for Wii U, our programmers, testers and artists are working on lots of optimization tasks to get the best possible performance. The physics calculations are causing the biggest hits but working through them and making progress. The GamePad mini-map is in a demonstrable state, but it will need some optimization as well to ensure it is fully featured and running smooth. We’re also working through different input bugs to ensure GamePad and Pro controllers work all as intended. Thanks for your patience as we bust tail on the Wii U version!”

The Sacred Hero

SiMPLiSTiC has announced it has plans to bring The Sacred Hero to Switch in 2018.

The Sacred Hero is an upcoming RPG with songs from Ruven Wegner, who has previously created original takes on Zelda music.

You can find a teaser trailer for the project below.

https://youtu.be/V8381cwbD2M

Brave Dungeon

Inside System’s Braev Dungeon is currently undergoing localization, and should released on the 3DS eShop in the west by Circle Entertainment at some point.

For now, a video showing off a work-in-progress translation has been released, and can be watched below.

https://youtu.be/_uMNK0NCp0c

Ohayou! Beginner’s Japanese

Finger Gun Games has released the first update for Ohayou! Beginner’s Japanese, bringing the game up to version 1.1.

The update doesn’t add any new content, but makes some improvements and fixes a couple of issues.

You can find the full patch notes below.

Ohayou! Beginner’s Japanese 1.1 Patch Notes The follow changes are coming in the upcoming patch, which should be out either this week or next for both Europe and North America.

– You can now scroll up and down with the D-pad if you do not wish to use the joystick.
– Your last position is now saved on the lesson screens so you don’t have to scroll back down when you finish a lesson.
– Character duplications in the “d” and “z” Sound Game lessons have been removed. No more confusing two characters of the same type popping up.
– The issue with no star showing up when you get five stars in all lessons in either the Hiragana or Katakana category of the Sound Game has been resolved. Before, if you got five stars in all lessons in either the Hiragana or Katakana Romaji Games, the star to show that you completed them all will also show up in the Sound Game menu.

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

USGamer recently caught up with Nick Wozniak from Yacht Club Games and obtained more details about Specter of Tournament, the next “expansion” for Shovel Knight.

You can read the article over here, but here are a few of the main tidbits:

– Specter of Torment will be free to everyone who owns Shovel Knight.
– The game is being pushed as a “standalone” title so casual observers understand that it’s more than a simple reskin with a new character.
– YCG may eventually make Specter of Torment a true standalone release, but they didn’t elaborate on what form that would take.
– Story is set before the original Shovel Knight, and follows Specter Knight as he recruits the Order of No Quarter.
– Specter Knight can wall climb and dash slash.
– His levels are being remixed, containing new screens as well as new art.
– You might recognize “one or two screens if you really know the old game”, but otherwise it will very different.
– Players can choose any level they want.
– All boss battles have been redone.
– Stages can be harder or easier depending on progression, sort of like in Mega Man.
– The team mainly wanted to avoid doing another level map, and wanted to put players in the mind of playing a new adventure instead of pushing through the same content as before.
– A Village is included, with NPCs to talk to and story events, but it won’t be the same Shovel Knight village players know.
– The King Knight campaign will be coming next, and will be a “lot crazier” than what we’ve already seen.
– The team also intends to implement a body swap option, so that players can change the genders of any of the characters in the game, and a four-player objective-based competitive mode.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

The second developer diary for Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap has recently been released. It revolves around music and sound design for the game. Check it out below.

Dragon Fang

Dragon Fang is releasing this week on the Japanese eShop as a free-to-play download for the New 3DS. That said, a new trailer has been uploaded in anticipation of that fact, which you can find below.

Gameplay Footage

Below you can find gameplay footage from some indie games recently released on Wii U and 3DS.

Bridge Constructor

Cup Critters

Plantera