The Japanese game industry is apparently rummaging through its archives of locally released games of years past to find anything that can be refurbished on Nintendo DS and re-released worldwide. Following the international success of the Phoenix Wright games, which were originally released on Gameboy Advance in Japan only, other publishers are following suit.

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles will be the Western name of Jinguuji Saburo, an adventure game series that originally appeared on the Famicom (NES). Unlike Phoenix Wright, the series is said to be fairly grim and serious, though not surprisingly still features a somewhat comically spikey-haired protagonist.

When asked in an interview if the gameplay is like a traditional point-and-click adventure game, the American localization team said it's "closer to a straight forward digital novel", but "you'll still need to search for clues, talk to witnesses, find the right line of questioning to progress in the game".

The first game includes three different cases and will be budget-priced at $19.99. Whether the digital novel characterization implies less interactivity than usual or is merely a marketing angle remains to be seen. In terms of gameplay length the team says "it would probably take about 4-5 hours to complete one episode. So about 15 hours to finish all 3 episodes."

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles is being brought to North America by Aksys and is set for release in Spring 2008.

In other Japanese adventure game news, last week we reported that two detective games by Goichi Suda are being translated and released in English, while Capcom has released a free online Flash demo of Apollo Justice, which will be the first Ace Attorney game made specifically for Nintendo DS.