LittleWing Co. Ltd.
is a Japanese Video Game developer devoted exclusively to creating realistic computerized pinball games. The company consists of the husband-and-wife team of Yoshikatsu Fujita (programmer) and Reiko F. Nojima (artist), who work out of Toyama, Japan.
LittleWing was first founded in 1990, soon after the marriage of Fujita and Reiko. Their first title, Tristan, was released in 1991 for the Apple Macintosh and ported to the IBM Personal Computer. Tristan was a simple game, designed to resemble early solid-state pinballs of the early 70s; even so, it was highly praised for its ultra-realistic physics and engaging gameplay, and won the Software Publishers Association's "Best Simulation of 1991" and MacWorld's 1992 Game Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, LittleWing did not fare too well in Western markets, largely because their distributor, Amtex, did not have a major retail presence. As a result, fans of pinball games like Pinball Dreams or Pro Pinball often have not even heard of LittleWing or their library. In 1998, LittleWing opened up their web store, and since then all of their games have been sold online.
Except for Eight Ball Deluxe, all of LittleWing's pinball games are original tables. The rulesets and designs are typically based on solid-state pinballs from The '90s, similar to those of Williams/Bally/Midway of that period, with themes typically drawn from Western fantasy and medieval lore.
LittleWing's games have traditionally been available on home computers and mobile phones. Crystal Caliburn II is their first game released exclusively on iOS devices.
The following games have been developed by LittleWing:
- Tristan (1991)
- Eight Ball Deluxe (1993)
- Crystal Caliburn (1993)
- Crystal Caliburn II (2012)
- Loony Labyrinth (1994)
- Mad Daedalus (2010)
- Angel Egg (1996)
- Golden Logres (1998)
- Jinni Zeala (2002)
- Psychedelic "O" (2006)
- Monster Fair (2004)
- Fairy Tower (2007)
