Shiren the Wanderer 3hits North America on February 9, but Chunsoft and publisher Spike are already preparing to release Shiren the Wanderer 4 in Japan. There, the roguelike dungeon crawler is a big enough deal to warrant television advertising! And that's a good thing, because these TV ads for Shiren 4 (after the break) are absolutely wonderful, featuring puppets(!) of Shiren, Koppa, and monsters in the new tropical island setting.
Of course, if you were to go into this game based on the sunny commercials, you might be a bit surprised when you're murdered repeatedly by monsters, losing all items and progress each time. We hope someone gets the idea to sell Shiren puppets.
And the truth comes out finally, Shiren the Wanderer is a children's game. The Japanese have only been exporting games for their pre-schoolers because they think that is all we can handle. Shiren the Wanderer Is one of their easier games, the games they keep for grown-ups must actually KILL you if you lose.
Shiren the Wanderer on the DS was tough... Once you died all your items and money went away. And there was no way in getting it back unless someone rescued you.
