Time was survival horror was a genre of video game with the potential to actually scare players. These days, survival horror means games like Dead Space 3, where there’s a building-sized, snarling monster trying to eat you while you shoot noisy buzzsaws at it with a friend. Horror doesn’t have much of a home on video game machines anymore. It wasn’t that long ago that games like Tecmo Koei’s Fatal Frame came out on the regular. That series, about exorcising ghosts with an enchanted camera, was tense and horrifying.
It’s been years since a Fatal Frame came out in the United States. With the exception of this year’s Nintendo 3DS spin-off Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, the main series has been absent from these shores since 2005. This is largely because Nintendo took over publishing duties for the series when Fatal Frame 4: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse came out on the Wii back in 2008.
Bad news for horror fans: Nintendo now co-owns the entrie series. Rely on Horror reported on Wednesday that, based on updated copyright filings, Nintendo now shares ownership of the Fatal Frame series with Tecmo Koei.
It was already unlikely that this summer’s re-release of Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly would make it to the US. The Wii’s a dead platform after all. What’s sad is that it’s unlikely that any of the classic games will be re-released as HD remakes or through digital services in the future.
A pox on you, Nintendo.
Survival Horror is where I live. Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, and even Dead Space (when I want it more aggressive) are my faves. That said, I do have my doubts that DS3 will manage to capture the same atmosphere of the original. A bright, snow-covered planet? Co-op? Hmmmmm. And, well, the WII has never been able to get it right. Still, it managed to suck me in with the potential of its Silent Hill, Dead Space, and Fatal Frame titles. All shadows of the other series’ entries. Yeah, Nintendo can’t get it right. It’s a sad day.