What's long, hard, and full of 'Seaman?' Nintendo

Two years ago, developer Yoot Saito was apparently eyeing Nintendo's 3DS as a possible medium for one of his more well known projects. Now, a new trademark points that we may be that much closer. The mouthful of a phrase, "Mysterious Pet: Legend of the Fish With A Human Face and Mysterious Partner: Legend of the Fish With A Human Face," has been trademarked by Nintendo in Japan. Now, younger gamers may not realize, but this points to a possible revival of a rather obscure experiment in video gaming. 

Before becoming a third party developer, Sega's last hurrah in the "console wars" was a system called the Dreamcast, for which a game called Seaman was made. It tasked players with raising a fishy, human faced creature from egg to frog, and all the stages of development in between. It was one of the first games to feature voice controls, an impressive feat for the time. The creature's development took place in real time, and players had to check in on their buddy every day, or else he could die. Basically, it was a very advanced Tamagotchi. At a certain stage, your pet would learn how to communicate, and often did so in a rather insulting manner. Humorous, but who really wants to care for something that's going to mock you? Most of us get enough of that just from online gaming.

The game was a hit in Japan, even earning a sequel, but didn't quite catch on in the States, much like the Dreamcast console. The game had something of a resurgance when it was ported to the PlayStation 2. Judging from the phrasing of the newly registered trademark, it's thought that the wet bodied, dry witted creature could be due for a possible return, though Saito is keeping the details hush hush.

We'll keep you posted if anything else comes to light. If it is indeed another Seaman game, keep your fingers crossed Nimoy will return, and I can only hope it's better than his denture mouthed outing as the infamous Spock in the latest "Trek" flick. Highly illogical.