After the premature demise of ex-Capcom computer-game czars Clover, the think-team (key players in Capcom's PlayStation era rebirth) of Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya - rather than slink back to the parent company - did it all over again, and founded Seeds Inc. Hooray!
So who are this gentlemen of gaming you may ask? Let's find out!
Shinji Mikami, graduating from a string of licenced Disney games, Mr Mikami began work on a (then) next-gen scale up of NES film tie-in survival horror effort Sweet Home, from this rather drab beginning would spring the first in the Biohazard / Resident Evil series. DNA inherited from its 8-bit ancestor include the mansion setting, multiple endings and the hyper-tense load buffer Opening Door sequences between areas; brand spanking new genre defining additions include canted ultra oppressive camera angles, atmospheric pre-rendered backgrounds and a serious crush of George Romero body horror.
Installed as the resident producer of Capcom's survival horror wing, Mikami oversaw the avalanche of Biohazard sequels as well as the Jurassic Park flavoured Dino Crisis. Mikami returned to directing with the underplayed Gamecube commercial dud P.N.O3 (not a sequel), then bounced back wrestling / rescuing the floundering Biohazard 4 project away from Hiroshi Shibata and ghoslty hook men. The following year, Mikami's movie magic gaming went mondo mondo with the 80s post-apocalyptia/ Lucha smash-down God Hand - a thoroughly misunderstood, and misrepresented fix of fighting super duper fun. Inbetween, he found time to oversee Suda 51's mind-scape fuckfest Killer7. Mr Mikami is a gentleman I hold in the highest of regards.
Skinny's a little thin on the ground for the next two..
Atsushi Inaba served as producer for all of Clover Studio's output, and according to the Moby Games website was somehow involved in the Gyakuten Saiban / Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney(!) courtroom melodrama series on Nintendo DS - although they do not list in what capacity.
Games credit listings are in short supply. It really is a tremendous shame. Next!
Lastly is Hideki Kamiya, likely a strapping giant of a man. Mr Kamiya is the man most directly responsible for such pure-joy interact-crack as Devil May Cry, Biohazard 2, and Okami. In short:
Devil May Cry: Ditching the survival / puzzle structure of the first title, Kamiya decided to amp the action quota up into hysteria, and regressed the stagnant(ish) survival horror genre back to 2D action game maths. DMC is the true spiritual successor to the likes of the Castlevania action, and screen management Arcade scrolling 2D beat ‘em ups – both brands of play seemingly unable to translate into consistently entertaining 3D-gen entries.
Techno-flesh pursuit sequel Biohazard 2 saw the twin faux narratives of the first game splinter into a doomed love-affair explore 'em up, and dogged, harassed chase yarn. Featuring scale-shattering zombocalypse city-scapes, and a circus troupe of mutating / writhing post-humans, Biohazard 2 arguably even betters the original.
Okami is a Zelda-bothering, art-craft silk 'em up slice of love and change. You play as a artistic God-on-earth Wolf tasked with cleaning up anti-Shinto evilniks with a celestial paintbrush. Underperforming on PS2, it's headed to Wii soon. Buy it!
One nifty name change (Seeds Inc became PlatinumGames), and a four game distribution deal with Sega later, what have these generous gaming gigantatrons got lined up for us?
Well!
Hideki Kamiya expounds Devil May Cry theorem with Bayonetta - likely another super stylish maths fighter. Bayonetta is a Witch with Tango and Cash guns on feet (!) battling against a cadre of dickhole Angels. Bayonetta is expected to collide with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime in the awesome future.
View the God-botherer bothering Official Sega Europe trailer here.
Next up is Wii exclusive west-sop (I mean that in a nice way) Madworld. Hyper-stylised Frank Miller lifts and debts to Western dev slash classic Manhunt abound. Already being talked up as a Cero Z (an 18 equivalent to Johnny UK) rated Japan non-release. You are cast as a chainsaw lugging muscle mountain Jack (shades of Go Nagai hopefully, the character has more than a hint of Italian cobble-bot RanXerox too), your job? Beat everyone to shit. Pulse-pounding, blood-boiling pose-down mayhem! Hooray! The 1980s never left us.
View the CAUTION ADVISED Official Sega Europe trailer here.
Nintendo DS sci-fi RPG Infinite Line hasn't been trailered as of writing, and Mikami's entry is yet to be revealed.
I am excited. Very very super excited. To the Max.
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