#vanpool

" Thrilling you with kindness! "

The manual for Endnesia is designed in the style of a travel brochure, showcasing the natural beauty of the Bali-inspired island its story takes place in, its virtual culinary delights and ficticious cultural hotspots.

The booklet bears witness to Vanpool's ability to commit to a concept in full, using every resource at their disposal as a means to communicate with and engage the player.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is a game I remember being particularly excited for when it first came to the Wii. It marked the first time in eleven years that a “proper” Kirby game would be on a home console, the last one being Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. After years of wonderfully weird experimental games that saw Kirby rolling around in paint, splitting into tiny versions of himself, and being made of yarn, I was ready for a sequel steeped in the platforming basics.

Ripened Tingle’s Balloon Trip of Love (いろづきチンクルの恋のバルーントリップ) - Vanpool - Nintendo DS - 2009

As per the announcement on their website, Vanpool closed its doors yesterday after over two decades of activity, and on the same day their debut project was first marketed.

The studio was founded ca. 1999 by Taro Kudo, who learned the trade as an employee for Konami, Nippon Telenet and Square, then helped establish Love-de-Lic alongside other vanpoolers, namely artist and character designer Kazuyuki Kurashima. Their first production was the 2000 PS2 cult game, Endnesia, later followed by Coloball 2002. Neither game knew any meaningful success.

Character art for Endnesia, by Kazuyuki Kurahsima (2000).

The path taken by Vanpool was quite distinct from that of Nishi's studio. Though it may have been founded on similar principles, the company survived by pivoting, at times sacrificing inventiveness in favour of more marketable ideas, published by majors.

Covers for Yoga Everywhere and Pilates Everywhere, released in 2007.

Arguably their pièce de résistance, Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland also marked the beginning of a very close relationship with Nintendo - so close, in fact, many mistook Vanpool for an external studio of theirs. Though developed under the close supervision of the Japanese giant, seen as it borrowed a peculiar character from the Zelda series, it was built on an entirely original concept proposed by Kudo himself, at least according to some sources (*). The game was not only a small success in Japan, it also fared quite reasonably overseas.

After 2009, Jun Tsuda directed the studio's last original projects, including the Japan-only sequel Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip, and The Rolling Western tower defence trilogy. Kudo took on the role of writer for the 3DS, WiiU and Switch Paper Mario episodes, teaming up with Intelligent Systems. In recent years, Vanpool subsisted almost exclusively through collaborations with HAL Laboratories, creators of several Kirby games, the last of which the acclaimed Switch platformer The Forgotten Land.

This picture dates from 2006. It was taken when the studio was hard at work producing Rosy Rupeeland. I took the liberty of adding some names for those faces I was able to recognise, having followed most of the staff on social media for several years.

My apologies if failed to identify any of them accurately.

お疲れ様でした。