Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Takuya Banno, Producer, Tozai Games, who gives us the inside scoop on the Nintendo Switch version of “Lode Runner Legacy.†One of the most important retro games of its time, the new version brings the experience to the Switch, making it one of the most imaginative and creative games on the system.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born? Lode Runner has existed in so many different variations. Why a Switch version?
Takuya Banno: Yes, as far as we know, there are about 100 Lode Runner games in the past. Back in the 80s and 90s, Lode Runner was released on every existing platform as a “must have†game. But nowadays it is not always easy to create a game for every platform, even though there are good game engines and tools arising. Tozai Games has been entrusted with the Lode Runner IP from the original creator, Douglas E. Smith, and it has always been our wish to keep this game updated and fresh. This time the latest Lode Runner is for Nintendo Switch, and we have many reasons why we chose it. Not only is the Nintendo Switch a very interesting and exciting platform which is now seeing robust growth, we also wanted to access a family audience and a younger generation of players who may not even know about the game to experience the fun of Lode Runner.
Lode Runner played a significant role in the history of video games. It was one of the first games to include a Level Editor, and the original Famicom version was the first third-party game to sell over 1 million units when it first released in Japan. Lode Runner has a great heritage that should be kept alive for future generations, which is why we called this version “Lode Runner Legacyâ€. Another reason we chose the Switch is that we had known about how we can leverage the uniqueness of the platform after we released “Spelunker Party†on Nintendo Switch with Square Enix last year. It is a unique platform and we are very happy that we could release the latest Lode Runner version on this platform.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
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