Hit those bugs!

Arcade-style shooter may be Hudson's first outing as a WiiWare licensor.

Siliconera have found a US Trademark filing which appears to indicate that Hudson are undertaking the localisation of Grand Prix's 2008 arcade-style shooter Shootanto: Kakohen in what is sure to please folk curious about this currently Japanese-only title.

The game was released in December 2008 and got some attention due to its off-beat concept of having the player control a monkey who throws coconuts and bombs at various prehistoric beasties coming towards the bottom of the screen in a gameplay style reminiscent of classic arcade games Cabal and Blood Brothers. The monkey gradually "evolves" into a human, whilst foes range from dinosaurs to giant bugs, sabre cats and lizard men through three stages that can be tackled by 1 or 2 players.

Stop the, uh, rolling tyres!

According to the filing the game will be called Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem, though Hudson have yet to make any official announcement. This marks their first time publishing a WiiWare title from another developer so it will be interesting to see if any other Japanese WiiWare exclusives are handled by Hudson in the future.

Grand Prix are also working on a sequel to Shootanto: Kakohen (Past Chapter) called Shootanto: Miraihen (Future Chapter). So far little is known about the latter title outside of it having at least one stage that appears to be set in World War II.