January 15, 2007 5:41 AM | Simon Carless

Well, this is news that should really be left for JohnH's regular '@Play' GSW on the subject, but since he's not posting again til next weekend, I'd better to it for him - a NeoGAF thread reveals that a Japanese remake of Rogue for the PlayStation 2 has been announced, blimey!

The always slightly grumpy Duckroll (who can read the Japanese!), comments in the thread: "This is being published by Compile Heart [here's an Insert Credit post on them - as commenters note: "They are a descendant of legendary developer Compile. Moo Niitani, creator of Puyo Puyo, works there. Right now they are developing an original puzzle game for arcade and Wii."].... It is being developed by Plophet, a tiny developer best known for the D3 published Simple series games The Maze and The Dungeon RPG. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that the "supervisor" is the Japanese guy that originally translated Rogue and all support docs into Japanese." Informative, if glass half-empty!

Anyhow, the game is called Rogue Hearts Dungeon, and there's a Game Watch Japanese-language piece with lots more pics - here's the Wikipedia page for Rogue for those wondering about its history. I wonder how the copyright/licensing worked in this case, if at all? Also, some hyper-niche publisher should pick this up for the States, hah.