Hitman Reborn… reborn as a DS board game

When I think about the Hitman Reborn license I imagine fighting games and maybe generic platformers. Board games are on the bottom of my list, just below an off-beat light gun game where you control Reborn with the Wii Zapper. Someone at Tomy thought it was a good idea to mix dice and bullets so Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Bongole Shiki Taisen Battle Sugoroku precipitates this spring in Japan.

Throwing mascot characters into a board game worked well for Mario, decently for Square Enix with the Itadaki Street revival (side note: we might really be seeing the series for the first time in North America) and not so well for Mega Man. Will it work out for Hitman? Doubtful, but Tomy is smart enough to hedge their bets with a second, more fitting game for the license. Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! Fate of Heat brings together the usual cast in a battle RPG. Like the Hitman Reborn Nintendo DS board game, Fate of Heat also comes out in the spring.