Update []:
Pixel Co. Ltd has announced the release date for the Nintendo Switch version of is upcoming shoot 'em up Bounty Sisters, as spotted by Gosokkyu.
According to the new release date trailer, the game will launch on December 18th in Japan, with pre-orders for the physical version of the game already being accepted at consumer electronics stores and game shops across the country. A Steam version is also expected to follow at a later date.
Interestingly, something that Gosokkyu highlights that we unfortunately missed in our initial reporting on the game back in June is that this title seems to have been created as a successor to the controversial, unreleased crowdfunded project Steam Pilots, which Pixel Co. Ltd worked on for the former Konami musician Motoaki Furukawa (Snatcher, Sunset Riders, Metal Gear, Salamander) between 2019-2022.
If you're unfamiliar with that story, Steam Pilots was basically a PC-based shoot 'em up that was, crowdfunded in December 2019, and ended up successfully raising over 8 million yen on the Japanese crowdfunding website Makuake. It was expected to release the following year in September 2022. However, it ran into issues a few years later, in January 2022, after Pixel Co. Ltd quit the project, stating that Furukawa had failed to pay him for his work.
Sasaki ended up filing a lawsuit against Motoaki Furukawa, with Furukawa counter-suing for damages, leaving the game's future in doubt. Then, in 2023, the website Automaton reported that backers would be refunded, with the crowdfunding site Makuake, not Furukawa, being responsible for issuing the refunds, as Furukawa had allegedly failed to respond to Makuake's requests for action.
Comparing the footage of Bounty Sisters to screenshots released for Steam Pilots, it's clear that some of the assets created by Pixel Co. Ltd will be reused in this new project, though the central cast of characters seems to be different from the characters originally shown off for Steam Pilots, implying everything else has been reworked entirely.
Original Story: Pixel Co. Ltd, the Japanese developer behind shoot 'em up games like Xelan Force, is working on a new project, that is due out this year for Nintendo Switch and PC (via Steam).
Bounty Sisters, as the new project is called, is set to feature character artwork and ship designs from artist Shūjirō Hamakawa / Shuzilow.HA (the TwinBee series, Gokujō Parodius, Sexy Parodius), as well as music from Junya Nakano (Mystic Warriors, X-Men, Final Fantasy X) and Miki Higashino (Gradius, Suikoden).
It was originally announced last year, back in July, with the developer initially sharing concept art of the three playable female characters and some of the ship designs.
However, since then, it has also received two more promotional videos as well as a few additional screenshots, giving players a slightly better look at the title and its steampunk-esque aesthetic.
As of right now, the developer hasn't shared too many details about the story, other than that it sees players taking control of one of three sisters, who are also bounty hunters, named Dorothy (Dot), Bethany (Betty), and Frannie (Francis). Each sister has their own unique vehicle, with the game seeing players tackle various natural and mechanical threats that stand in their path.
Here's the latest promotional video, which debuted last December and features footage of the game in action: