I’m still hard at work on your Robot Ninja Haggle Man buttons. My free time of late has been paltry and I’m not as far along as I’d like, but I’m continuing to crank them out at as fast a pace as I can manage. I sent a batch of them the other day. If I mailed yours you should have received an email. The rest of you, hang tight. It’ll get to you.

Reader Zachary Robinson took the time to draw some more sprites from Retro Game Challenge for which I am terribly grateful. In addition to other games like Guadia Quest and Cosmic Gate he sent along an alternate pose for my favorite robot ninja. I turned it into a pattern and if you haven’t heard from me yet and you’d like this one, give me a shout.

By the by, in case anyone was wondering where the name Haggle Man comes from, it’s a joke. It’s an intentional mistranslation of the Japanese word hagaruma (or if you want to be fancy はぐるま or even fancier still 歯車) which means “gear.” Like the gears that Robot Ninja Haggle Man throws as shuriken (or later installs as upgrades). NES era localization was shoddy at best. The name Haggle Man is a sly nod to lazy translators.

It’s been a week since I posted my call to arms regarding Retro Game Challenge. Call it bribery if you must. The response has been pretty great thus far.

Honestly, I wasn’t entire sure if I could convince anyone to part with $30 so quickly. Statistically speaking, nobody reads this site. I figured the chances were pretty even that I might put this up and watch it fade into nothingness.

A quick update: To those of you that have sent me your receipts I say thanks and I hope you enjoy your purchase. I’m working on the buttons during as much of my free time as I can spare. They don’t take long individually, but they do take a little time. I will get them mailed to you as soon as possible.

The “busted” Haggle Man style doesn’t seem to be all that popular. I’m not terribly surprised, but I did think he’d be a bit cuter than he turned out to be—he looks pretty cute on the DS screen. I won’t be making any of him unless someone really wants him. So if you didn’t or don’t say anything you will get normal healthy Haggle Man.

Here comes a new challenger!

That said, I sketched up two other patterns over the last week. One is Haggle Man running. The other is Haggle Man’s arch-nemesis Dark Haggle Man.

I’m making equal numbers of Haggle Man standing and running, if for no other reason to give myself a break for stitching the exact same thing. If you send me a receipt you’ll get one of those two. Dark Haggle Man, like busted Haggle Man, I will only be making by special request (and possibly once for myself).

In summary

It is starting to seem that attention is starting to fall away from this little project. The emails have dried up a bit, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing altogether because it give me more time to craft. I have no immediate plans to stop doing this, so keep spreading the word.

1. Buy Retro Game Challege.
2. Email me your receipt.
3. Get a pretty awesome button.

Thanks

Thanks to Tiny Cartridge (twice!), Joystiq, GoNintendo, and especially Shaun Inman for sharing this article with the world. Thanks to everyone else who picked it up too. And if you tipped off any of those sites, double-plus thanks to you as well.

Listen up: I need your help. We need your help. You haven’t bough a copy of Retro Game Challenge yet and this is a big problem. The “we” I mentioned a bit ago is everyone who likes playing good games, ever.

See, it’s like this: There’s a sequel to Retro Game Challenge that has already been released in Japan. It’s called Game Center CX over yonder. As good as Retro Game Challenge is, Game Center CX 2 is even better. Like, a million times better.

But, RGC developer XSEED sees no point to localize Game Center CX 2 until it sells a bunch more copies. I really, really, really want to play this game. You do too, you just don’t know any better yet.

I will not go down without a fight. Though the task may be daunting—unwinnable even—I must do my part. Here is what I offer: for every copy of Retro Game Challenge bought between the publishing of this interview which is to say June 24, 2009 and the release of Game Center CX 2 or Retro Game Challenge 2 I will make a handcrafted Robot Ninja Haggle Man button. Absolutely free of charge. It will look rather a lot like this:

This is a pinback button. You know, like the ones those hipsters seem to like so damned much. Not, like, a button you’d sew onto a sweater or something. Although, if you really wanted, I could fix it that way.

All you need to do is a send me a copy of your receipt. Email is just fine. Blot out any information you don’t want to be shared with me.

Some rules¹:

• It has to be a new copy. Used copies don’t count towards the sales figures. New copies are available on Amazon.com and Best Buy. Probably elsewhere too. Any retailer is fine.
• It has to be a US copy of Retro Game Challenge. I want it to come to the US so you need to bump up those sales. You can live anywhere, but you need to buy a US copy of RGC.
• You get one button for every copy of the game you buy. Buy 12 copies for your entire office, get 12 buttons.
• You pay no shipping whatsoever, wherever you live. I want this game that badly.

I’ll do you one better. You get to choose from two different button designs. You can choose regular vanilla Haggle Man or his “busted” version—this is what he looks like when he takes damage. Here’s an approximation of the two:

Is it a little bit silly to bribe you with a crafted tchotchke of a game you haven’t played yet? NO Because once you do play it you’ll agree that this is the best game you’ve ever played. Why am I so sure? Because it is truth!

I’ll make as many as I have to people. Spread the word. Oh, and buy Retro Game Challege!

Update (02 Jul 2009): I’ve posted a follow-up to this article.

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¹ After sleeping on it I decided I should probably issue a disclaimer that I reserve the right to rescind this offer at a future date should the cost of supplies, shipping, and loss of free time threaten to cause me irrevocable financial and/or mental harm. I have no intention of doing this, mind, I just wanted to put this out there. Oh, and I’d like to mention that I do run an Etsy shop if you’d like to, you know, pay me money for something like this.