No horror game series ever grabbed my interest and scared me quite as much as Fatal Frame. Sure, I prefer Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and even Illbleed, but neither of those continued after a first entry. Fatal Frame is all about the camera obscura. Essentially, developer Tecmo created a mythology around existing technology. An actual camera obscura is an early projection device, the kind of thing used for entertainment in a parlor or by a travelling show to convince people ghosts are real.

In Fatal Frame, there is no trick of the imagination; the ghosts are real and the camera obscura is your only defense.

In each of the entries so far (1-3, plus Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir), you play as a different character who winds up entangled in a paranormal mystery. Ghosts are causing trouble. You find a camera that lets you see the ghosts and defeat them by taking photos. The ghosts can play tricks on your mind, but not on the lens of the camera. The camera defeats it with an objective view of an otherworldly event.

Tecmo and Nintendo have just announced that Fatal Frame is making its Wii U debut. The untitled sequel will probably be a Wii U exclusive for a while, too. Other Fatal Frame games have been ported from one system to another, but Tecmo takes the time to reconfigure the entire game for the new system and add additional features.

One has to assume that a photography-driven horror game will use the Wii U GamePad for control. Later entries in the series did include coop gameplay, which could make for some interesting control dynamics. Perhaps one player will be able to hunt for resources while the other player scopes out the perfect shot with the GamePad.

The only downside is that the GamePad does not use motion control. The best entry in the series, for me, is Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir. This 3DS game used the camera on the system and the AR cards to make the game fully immersive. You actually had to walk down hallways and search your rooms for ghosts and clues using the 3DS as the camera obscura. You look like a fool while playing it, but it's way too much fun to get self conscious about. I even filmed myself playing the game as part of my horror innovation episode of Slipstream.

No official release date has been announced, which means we're not even close to finding out if and when a US release is happening. The other entries have all made it stateside. There's hope that this one will follow suit.

Source: Polygon via Famitsu