Nintendo hopes to redefine 'hit game' with search engine-based Kensax
Nintendo of Japan revealed a ton of new games at its fall media conference, and it's just now getting around to talking about some of them. Kensax was one of the many first-party games buried in the avalanche of news, with nothing released but three baffling, context-free screenshots and a few seconds of video.
IGN has translated an article from the latest issue of Famitsu revealing the first information about Kensax, which, as it turns out, is about ... search engines? The minigames in Kensax all revolve around putting words into a search engine and using the resulting hit count as a measure of progress and as the focus of multiplayer competition.
For example, "Battle! Search Panel 9" tasks up to four players with combining words from a "stock" with words from a 3x3 board to conduct search terms. The player with the highest hit count steals a panel from another player. At the end, the game tabulates the panels in each player's possession, as well as the total hit count, to assign a winner. In "Fastest! Search Shooter", players shoot moving words to create high-hit-count combinations with their stock words.
Kensax includes 3,000 words and their estimated hit counts, but players can go online to bolster the game's vocabulary. Famitsu didn't offer a release date beyond "2009", and, of course, there is no word on a release outside of Japan. We hope to hear more about the other stealth Nintendo announcements soon, like Cosmic Walker.
IGN has translated an article from the latest issue of Famitsu revealing the first information about Kensax, which, as it turns out, is about ... search engines? The minigames in Kensax all revolve around putting words into a search engine and using the resulting hit count as a measure of progress and as the focus of multiplayer competition.
For example, "Battle! Search Panel 9" tasks up to four players with combining words from a "stock" with words from a 3x3 board to conduct search terms. The player with the highest hit count steals a panel from another player. At the end, the game tabulates the panels in each player's possession, as well as the total hit count, to assign a winner. In "Fastest! Search Shooter", players shoot moving words to create high-hit-count combinations with their stock words.
Kensax includes 3,000 words and their estimated hit counts, but players can go online to bolster the game's vocabulary. Famitsu didn't offer a release date beyond "2009", and, of course, there is no word on a release outside of Japan. We hope to hear more about the other stealth Nintendo announcements soon, like Cosmic Walker.













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ramuji @ Feb 11th 2009 3:07PM
Umm ... what?
BigD145 @ Feb 11th 2009 3:51PM
If Google were a game with a point system.
ramuji @ Feb 11th 2009 3:55PM
So ... a game to test my Google-fu?
(01) @ Feb 11th 2009 7:33PM
Literally exactly what I was going to say. "Hey man, want to go to the bar?" "No thanks, I'm playing Google."
BxGT @ Feb 11th 2009 3:09PM
Throw "party" into the title and we might have game of the year.
Steven M @ Feb 11th 2009 3:19PM
'Kensax Party'...........ummm when you say that out loud it sounds like some sort of male barbie-doll orgy...
Syn @ Feb 11th 2009 3:46PM
Kleenex Party! Everyone get in a circle! Get your Wiimotes out, and start waggling!
BigD145 @ Feb 11th 2009 4:54PM
Don't you mean "Ken Sex" party? I would think that would have more waggle action.
McWeen @ Feb 11th 2009 3:18PM
?
Moptimus Slime (Leader of the Taylor Swift Defense Force, Gobot in disguise) @ Feb 11th 2009 3:21PM
so it would translate into "Search Party"? Yep, sounds like an epic game for the "Hardcore" gamer to me
Moptimus Slime (Leader of the Taylor Swift Defense Force, Gobot in disguise) @ Feb 11th 2009 3:23PM
christ, I hate this comment system SOOOOOOOO much.
guttertalk @ Feb 11th 2009 3:37PM
I think the comment system started the hating first.
MowDownJoe @ Feb 11th 2009 3:22PM
This confuses me more than that Nobi-Nobi Boy footage I saw...
Hardy @ Feb 11th 2009 3:24PM
I don't even need to see anymore to see that this game is a total pass.
If I wanted to have fun with word searches I'd use google because I can get content Nintendo wouldn't dare put in their game.
TheDemiurge @ Feb 11th 2009 3:30PM
I can actually see how this game would be fun for a while with friends. I wouldn't pay more that $5.00 for it though.
Alien Lord @ Feb 11th 2009 3:30PM
Why Nintendo, why? You did so much for us with Metroid (I know it's a capcom game), Mario, Zelda, Kid Icarus, etc, why are you turning your back on us now? Does the word hardcore scare you now or something...............hey look Xbox 360 has games for us..................who's Nintendo again?
samfish @ Feb 11th 2009 3:31PM
lol wrong
Dirty @ Feb 11th 2009 3:35PM
Since when is metroid capcom?
Sam @ Feb 11th 2009 3:37PM
ATTRIBUTION FAIL
Mr Khan @ Feb 11th 2009 5:08PM
Nintendo would be the one kicking Microsoft's ass despite the fact that their superior machine's basic model is $50 cheaper than the Wii, in this economy, no less
I think that counts for something
Foetoid @ Feb 11th 2009 6:23PM
lol @ Capcom.
You've just proven your IQ to us all and your gaming knowledge is terrible. How can we ever take you seriously again? (did we ever?)
1337stra @ Feb 11th 2009 8:43PM
Zelda is more capcom the metroid. because they made one game in the series. Seriously.. are you trying to impress us all with some obscure video game trivia?
samfish @ Feb 11th 2009 3:31PM
I read it twice and I still can't imagine how this is gonna work.
...not that it matters ,since it's yet another game that NOA won't localize.
Baby J Penn (PSN johnnynumber5) @ Feb 11th 2009 3:50PM
It's probably for the best in this case. This has niche written all over it. I couldn't imagine paying actual real money for this.
Baby J Penn (PSN johnnynumber5) @ Feb 11th 2009 3:52PM
It's probably for the best in this case. This has niche written all over it. I couldn't imagine paying actual real life money for this.
Baby J Penn (PSN johnnynumber5) @ Feb 11th 2009 3:53PM
whoops ...
Mr Khan @ Feb 11th 2009 5:11PM
There has to be a valid reason NoA does what it does. Low-profile releases of a lot of those games they neglected over the past year or so definitely would have made a profit (especially Disaster, since the game was already in American English)
It has to be something more than laziness or neglect, and i think the answer is resource allocation. NoA can't meet demand for the big Wii games, so that's still their primary focus
samfish @ Feb 11th 2009 5:36PM
Except NOA is just as bad about localizing DS games, too. No Professor Layton 2, no A.S.H...and that's to say nothing of no Mother 3.
I don't know WHAT the Hell is going on with NOA in the last few years either, but they're really killing the Wii's image among the more traditional crowd.
I forget where I read it, but someone was saying how if Nintendo wants the Wii to really become the next PS2, they have to allow for those niche games and build an audience for them. When they refuse to localize games that might be considered niche, they're effectively killing their chances of meeting and beating the PS2.
Maybe NCL is not allowing them to localize games, but I don't think that's logical. It's very possible to earn very good profits on localizing small, niche games. Atlus and Xseed are doing just great so far on that model.
thesoiden @ Feb 11th 2009 3:52PM
Another interesting game that we may never see around here :(
Aero @ Feb 11th 2009 4:06PM
Or, you know, you could just go on google and open a notepad file to keep score.
Markusdragon @ Feb 11th 2009 7:26PM
Or play googlefight. Everybody loves googlefight.
Jerk Face @ Feb 11th 2009 4:29PM
This... this is a terrible thing.
Asok @ Feb 11th 2009 6:42PM
Oh no! Someone voiced a negative opinion against a Nintendo game! DOWNVOTE HIM! NOBODY INSULTS GLORIOUS NINTENDO!
Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Feb 11th 2009 4:33PM
As long as it includes Google Porn Game.
Dirty @ Feb 11th 2009 4:42PM
I play that every day. I always win too.
Mr Khan @ Feb 11th 2009 5:12PM
Definitely a Nintendo Japan product. A simple concept applied in a very strange way
CH3BURASHKA @ Feb 11th 2009 5:35PM
This game isn't fair; just as the bomb wins every rock-paper-scissors game, 'porn' will always win.
1337stra @ Feb 11th 2009 8:31PM
Um, aren't some words ridiculously unfair? there could be some serious game breaking here
Ryuukuro @ Feb 11th 2009 9:00PM
This actually looks like a fun party game but they'll have to spiff up the graphics a bit or add something else to it. What? I don't know.
Yeah, you can hate on me all you want. I like the sound of this game. And, no, I do not work for Nintendo. If I did there'd be no more Animal Crossing.
Moose @ Feb 11th 2009 9:11PM
I'm kind of intrigued by it also, but it's probably because search-engine optimization is about 75 percent of my job and I'm kind of a nerd that way.
acefondu @ Feb 11th 2009 10:38PM
I read the word 'minigames' and stopped reading.
Abscissa @ Feb 12th 2009 2:46AM
Ok, that's it, Nintendo's officially lost their fucking minds.
Sisyphus @ Feb 12th 2009 11:28AM
They've always been crazy and that's the secret to their success.
A plumber jumping on mushrooms to rescue a princess from a dinosaur that wants to have his way with her? Check.
A cloud-thing that inhales other creatures and takes on their attributes? Check.
A space combat game featuring a frog, a fox, a rabbit and a bird as the pilots? Check.
Abscissa @ Feb 13th 2009 2:53AM
Yea, but like the games in your examples, it used to be a good kind of crazy. But these days they're about one step away from putting out games like "Push a button! You pushed A, you win!", or "Rock Shaking Simulator!". There's no creativity, no depth. Just packaging up the most trivial, banal parts of real life, and charging money for it.