Marvelous start as Japanese firm re-releases Half-Minute Hero on PC

Marvelous AQL has announced the upcoming PC release of Half-Minute Hero – and the game will mark the first digital game from its new European team.

The Japanese publisher is a serious player in the digital games space in Japan, but is now hoping to build a similar business in the West.

Its slate of owned properties include No More Heroes and Harvest Moon as well as Half-Minute Hero – although these actually cracked the market in the West thanks to former partner Rising Star Games when it released them as boxed properties.

But now Marvelous wants to push some of its IP into the online space. Half-Minute Hero may be a catalogue re-release, available through Steam and Playism at the end of the month, but it’s a milestone for the publisher’s UK HQ as its first game. The UK division was first announced back in May.

"It’s a classic game that wasn’t as big as we think it deserved to be," Harry Holmwood, CEO of Marvelous Europe, told MCV.

"There had been a lot of online speculation about it coming on Steam, which proves there was a bigger audience and demand for it."

Originally the game was released on PSP and later Xbox Live – the cult action game sets players 30-second tasks, each one a slice of different gameplay.

The re-release comes backed with a clever promotional campaign. Gamers will have just 30 seconds a set times (listed below) to register for a free code for the game at halfminutehero.com or via @HalfMinuteHero on Twitter.

(Times are Thursday, September 27th 6:00 pm UK time and Friday, September 28th at 4pm UK time and 6pm UK time.)

Added Holmwood: "Some may consider Half-Minute Hero a niche product, but it is a line in the sand for us – it’s a digital product, and we are a serious digital distribution publisher."

Check next week’s MCV for a full interview with Holmwood.