World of Goo is a fantastic game. Too bad Japan doesn’t have an official version of it. Family friendly publisher Brighter Minds doesn’t have clout over there, but Nintendo does.
Recently, Nintendo of Japan registered “World of Goo” in the Japanese trademark database. While 2D Boy developed the game Nintendo can register the rights to the name World of Goo if they have intent to distribute or publish it. This is similar to how Natsume owns the rights to the name Harvest Moon and Atlus USA has Super Robot Taisen in their pocket even though Marvelous and Namco Bandai own the respective properties in Japan.
Picking World of Goo up would be a brilliant move by Nintendo of Japan since it’s a quality game. Also, if Nintendo makes this move it would also be a unique case. Nintendo of Europe and Nintendo of America have a history of helping Japanese publishers without a local office bring their titles overseas. Professor Layton and the Curious Village made by Level 5 is a recent example of this. However, Nintendo of Japan doesn’t pick up stray Western games often. So, if Nintendo of Japan picks up World of Goo for WiiWare distribution they must have been impressed by it.
Images courtesy of 2D Boy.
