Namco Bandai, the video games company behind such titles as Dark Souls and Tekken 6, has ventured into the realm of webcomics with a new site, revealed yesterday.
The website, accessible at shiftylook.com, already features four webcomics: "Sky Kid," "Xevious," "Alien Confidential," and "Bravoman." Accompanying blogs are available for each. Namco Bandai named the purpose of the new website at its launch:
SHIFTYLOOK, through the unlimited power of the web, exists to excavate the buried treasures of the NAMCO BANDAI Group, bringing back to life characters once thought consigned to a lonely oblivion.
Sky Kid was a scrolling shooter game first released in 1985 for arcades. Another scrolling shooter (vertical this time), Xevious, came to arcades in 1982, with other consoles following suit mostly in Japan, although the title made its way to the Atari 7800 in North America six years later.
Alien Confidential refers to an upcoming game property, while Bravoman dates back to 1988 and is a platformer/beat-em-up hybrid. Japanese gamers have had more exposure to these games and characters than Americans have, so these webcomics will provide a new experience for most gamers in the US. Why the sudden revival of old properties? Perhaps Namco Bandai is planning just that, or perhaps they're hoping to draw more attention to their library in general.
Rob Pereyda (@rpereyda) introduced the website on its News page, detailing a weekly release schedule for updates to each webcomic and teasing the upcoming addition, "Rocket Fox" (to appear on Wednesdays and Saturdays).
Below is a breakdown of author credits for each webcomic:
– Xevious (written by Mike Costa, art by Mike Norton)
– Sky Kid (written by Jim Zub, art by Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz)
– Bravoman (written by Matt Moylan, art by Dax Gordine)
– Alien Confidential: Black & White (written by Sharon Scott, art by Andrew Pepoy)
