Hudson Soft is a name well remembered by longtime gaming fans. From their beginnings as the very first licensee for Nintendo's fledgling Famicom console, they quickly grew into one of Japan's most respected design houses, making games such as Bomberman, Bonk, and the Mario Party series while assisting with technical design aspects of NEC's PC Engine and, generations later, the Nintendo Gamecube. But if you thought that Hudson had simply vanished from gaming altogether, you'd be easily forgiven -- they haven't had a real stateside presence in almost 10 years. That's all about to change though, as Hudson's back, and they have some very big plans for the future for both their beloved franchise properties and all-new titles.

As you have probably already heard, many PC Engine software titles will be available to download through the Virtual Console service of the Wii. Hudson will be making all of their PC Engine games available through this service, and is also in discussions with other third parties to bring out their PC Engine titles as well, including a few very famous games that have never seen a stateside release. Cross your fingers!

Far East of Eden: Ziria

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. Hudson also has some fantastic plans for the PSP, X360, and DS. Perhaps the most surprising announcement would be their plans to translate two titles from the much-beloved Tengai Makyou RPG series for the X360 and Nintendo DS under the title Far East of Eden. Co-developed by the RED company (who is also co-creator of Bonk and Sega's Sakura Wars series), the Far East of Eden series are traditional-style Japanese RPGs with engaging stories, memorable characters, and most notoriously, a hefty dose of off-the-wall humor. Much of this humor is very culture-specific to Japan, so it will be interesting to see how the localization manages to carry over the game's wit to English-speaking audiences. The X360 will be getting Far East of Eden: Ziria, a remake of the first PC Engine Tengai Makyou game with improved visuals and gameplay, while the DS will be seeing the second title, Far East of Eden: Manji Maru. Specific details about the localization plans for these titles are still sparse, but we'll be eagerly awaiting any further news about this series.

Ziria isn't the only title in the works the 360 is getting from Hudson. One of the most interesting games shown to us was called Dangerous Party, which could best be described as an adult-themed Mario Party with a very dark and twisted sense of humor. One mini-game from Dangerous Party we tried out involved fighting the other players on top of a speeding bus in order to knock them off to splatter on the road below. Another involved trying to escape from an exploding submarine by tapping the A button repeatedly -- but escaping too quickly would actually make you lose game points for wussing out! Dangerous Party was still very early in development, but Hudson plans full Xbox Live support and many more features for the finished game, making it one for any fan of multiplayer mayhem to keep an eye on. Another upcoming X360 release from Hudson is Bomberman: Act Zero, a much darker, grittier take on the franchise with a graphical style not unlike that of a typical FPS game. Bomberman: Act Zero will also be playable over Xbox live, giving console gamers their first online Bomberman fix since 1997's Saturn Bomberman.