Last week we were invited by Hudson to fly out to San Francisco and check out their upcoming titles. My prior impression of Hudson was all things Bomberman and Adventure Island. During my visit we sampled new titles coming from Hudson and I got to know the people behind the company a bit.

The night started off with us mingling and meeting other press that were invited to the event. We were then called into a room where the opening speeches were made. The speeches covered titles that were on display with a demo of the Calling.

I started with Calling which is due out on the Wii in the Spring 2010. This Wii exclusive is coming from the Japan Studio and is definitely staying true to the idea of Japanese Horror. Gamers will be able to play through the game with Japanese voices and subtitles. The character walks through creepy halls and it was more than enough to scare me. But then there was more! The game uses the Wii-Remote as a phone which the ghosts use to call you. This was a new level of creepy for me. Another interesting aspect to the game play was that when the character gets frightened or anxious the screen becomes a darker shade of red. Also monitoring the character is a heart monitor. The Hudson producer completely denied it, but I definitely think this is something that could and should use the Vitality sensor that was announced at Nintendo’s E3 conference earlier this year.

The chapters are described as “Pulp Fiction” with the stories intertwining at the end. If the hands-on is any indication, this game is sure to cause me nightmares!

Feeling scared at this point, I went to try out Rooms. Rooms is a puzzle game coming in Spring 2010 for the Wii and DS. In Rooms, the player is a character that is placed in this weird world and is trying to get out. To assist him on that mission, players have to move around the room pieces to create a path for him to walk on.

Rooms is based on the PC game and is keeping the live action feel of the original. The DS version will have a community where users can create and upload levels.

I didn’t spend much time with Diner Dash, Bomberman Live, Military Madness or Deca Sports DS which is due out this Spring 2010. Diner Dash is the first port to the consoles. Military Madness is out on XBLA and is an updated version of the Turbografix original. The controls are the same for fans of the strategy game. It just has a new look. Deca Sports has been very popular for Hudson and with Deca Sports DS they are bringing 10 new sports to the game and online multiplayer using one card.

The last game I spent time with was Bonk, Brink of Extinction. Hudson could have taken the easy way out and just ported the old Bonk, but they wanted to expose new gamers and remind older gamers how much fun Bonk was. In the game, Bonk now has powers due to a transformative ooze. Yes, sounds silly, but when playing the game it totally works. Switching through the powers is easily done. Bonk Extinction will be out for XBLA, PSN and WiiWare and will feature two player drop-in co-op. In speaking with the producer of the title, you can tell that he has much love for the original and really wants to make a fun Bonk experience for all gamers. I enjoyed playing the title and found the levels fun to go through. There is also a side-game of collecting letter pieces to spell things out.

Honestly, Hudson surprised me at this GamerDay. They did fly me out and put me up for the night, but I really didn’t know what to expect. What I learned is that the company has solid titles and is very interested in trying new things. There are some ports, but they also have a good mix of new, interesting ideas. One of my favorite parts was witnessing how much like a family Hudson employees are. They cheered each other on during the presentation and sang with all of us at karaoke later. I hope we continue to see great things from this smaller studio that is looking to make a big impact on gamers.

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