Retro Gaming Australia

Nicalis has axed their plans to publish the long awaited Western release of La-Mulana for WiiWare, catching everybody offguard – including the game’s developer.

The publisher cited poor projected sales on the WiiWare service as the catalyst of this decision, which is understandable. What’s baffling, however, is that they did not talk to the developer of the game before publicising the decision. Posting on the official La-Mulana Twitter account, a Nigoro representative stated “We’re very embarrassed by Nicalis’s announcement. Please give us some time to confirm the matter.”

La-Mulana, an action/adventure/platformer inspired by the MSX, was first released on Japanese PCs in 2005 with a Japanese WiiWare release following in 2011. A localised PC port, self-published by Nigoro is still on the cards, so the game won’t be lost forever. It is possible that another publisher could pick the game up for release on WiiWare, or even shift it to the WiiU, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

La-Mulana is a PC indie effort heavily inspired by Indiana Jones and various MSX games. It was announced ages ago that it was heading to WiiWare in 2010, but after more delays, the game has only been released on the Japanese WiiWare service.

So what’s the hold up? The pesky Germany classification board, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle or USK, according to developer Nigoro. The game was submitted to classification by the ESRB, PEGI, ACB and USK at the same time, but the USK has yet to provide a rating. Nigoro wants the game to come out at roughly the same time in Europe and America, and won’t release it until he has a rating from the USK.

The wait continues.