Nintendo and Namco sign cooperative agreement

Nintendo announced today in Japan that it has signed a deal with Namco to cocreate a new Star Fox game for the GameCube that will be released in April 2003 in that territory. Also, a version of the game will be developed for Nintendo's GameCube-based Triforce arcade hardware. No further details regarding the new Star Fox game were released. Namco also announced its remaining software lineup for the GameCube for the next year. A new Mr. Driller game is scheduled for release on the GameCube in Japan at the end of this year, and a Ridge series racing game is tentatively scheduled for release in March 2003. Namco will also release Soul Calibur 2 in January 2003, an installment in the Tales RPG series in July 2003, and an original RPG purported to have a unique battle system in December 2003.

Namco also has a healthy lineup of Game Boy Advance software in development. It will release Family Tennis Advance, Famista Advance (a baseball game), Mr. Driller Ace, Klonoa of the Wind G2 (based on the Klonoa platformers), an RPG called Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2, an original Klonoa action RPG, a puzzle game, and a port of the SNES version of Tales of Phantasia. All of these titles will be available for Nintendo's handheld by the end of this year in Japan.

We'll have more details on Namco and Nintendo's partnership as they become available. Below is a complete list of the newly announced software and the respective Japanese release dates.

GameCube

Star Fox (working title) - April 2003
Mr. Driller (working title) - November 2002
Soul Calibur 2 - January 2003
Ridge Series Racing Game (title to be announced) - March 2003
Tales RPG (title to be announced) - July 2003
Original RPG (title to be announced) - December 2003

Game Boy Advance

Family Tennis Advance - June 2002
Famista Advance - June 2002
Mr. Driller Ace - August 2002
Klonoa of the Wind G2 - August 2002
Tales of the World: Narikiri Dungeon 2 - October 2002
Klonoa of the Wind (title to be announced) - November 2002
Puzzle Game (title to be announced) - December 2002
Tales of Phantasia - December 2002