バイ、ハドソン

A short time after Konami took full ownership of Hudson (they already had a majority stake, so that shouldn’t have been too surprising), their US branch, Hudson Entertainment, has been shuttered. Hudson Entertainment wasn’t exactly an upper-crust publisher — Hudson as a whole kind of stagnated compared to their heyday in the 8- and 16-bit eras — but in any business where you’re a product of a parent company, you play the hand you’re dealt. And they were crazy enough to bring Takahashi Meijin across the ocean — twice! H.E. was ostensibly just a marketing vessel, but they were the driving force behind the passable Bomberman Live series, the Military Madness revival, and published non-Japanese casual stuff like Rooms and the console version of Diner Dash. (Maybe they should have ported that Obama game.)

It’s difficult to not have a soft spot for Hudson, even when they really fumble. It’s almost… human, for lack of a better term. They made some great 2D games, and hardware, for that matter — not just the PC Engine/TurboGrafx, but some iconic accessories, as well. (What, you can’t appreciate a good controller?)

As for Konami, the natural assumption is they’ll handle the publishing of Hudson’s games from here on out, which wouldn’t be news to anyone — they’ve published several Hudson games in the US already. Konami has also been more focused (somewhat unsettingly) on casual/family games, so adding stuff like Deca Sports to their stable might show some promise from a business angle.

While I love Hudson’s retro stuff, I also have some favorite present-day Hudson games, both self-published and not: If you have a chance, I recommend checking out Kororinpa: Marble Mania and Marble Saga, Lost in Shadow, and Tetris Party Deluxe. And I even got some enjoyment out of the Dungeon Explorer reboot (on DS at least), Onslaught and Rengoku II, but with those, I’m sure your mileage may vary, and wildly. At best, just buy every TG game on Virtual Console.