Microsoft snaps Project Zero II for Xbox

Xbox owners now have the chance to experience (and presumably ignore) Tecmo's excellent follow up to Project Zero, following Microsoft's decision to snap up the publishing rights to the snap (un)happy survival horror title.

Continuing the industry's obsession with the word 'crimson', Tecmo's snappily subtitled Crimson Butterfly is confusingly a prequel to the bad-selling but critically acclaimed original, in which you follow the misfortunes of a young Japanese girl Mio and her twin sister Mayu.

It's dark, it's spookier than Scooby Doo on narcotics, involves snapping ghosts with your special camera and is very good indeed. The Xbox version promises a few extras to the Ubisoft-published PS2 original (released to little fanfare in the Spring and now probably available for a song), namely a first person mode, new costumes, more ghosts and of course the obligatory surround sound and slightly sharper visuals.

A release date has been confirmed this morning by Microsoft as 'January' thus ensuring it will be totally overlooked. If you can't wait that long, why not go out and get the PS2 version? It's probably in our top three survival horror games, it's that good - or failing that, pick up the original, out on both PS2 and Xbox, and also a determined non-seller despite being scarier and more innovative than both the most recent Silent Hill and Resident Evil games. Maybe next time Tecmo might consider signing both versions to the same publisher next time and releasing both versions simultaneously so the game has a chance of succeeding? Just a thought.