Hong Kong 2097 with KaniPro Games, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie in Japan

[00:00:07] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and gaming culture in Japan's capital. Your host Mono here to bring you a slice of gaming life from Tokyo. Indie developer Chris from KaniPro Games is back to chat about his newest title, Hong Kong 2097, the sequel to one of Japan's worst doujin games. We walk through how he secured rights to the sequel, what to do when making a follow-up to an infamously bad game, and the epic struggle to actually getting the game released.

[00:00:36] And in the feature section, I run down all the exciting collabs and the movie-going experience of watching the Super Mario Galaxy movie in Japan. Let's jump into the games with Hong Kong 2097 and KaniPro Games. Today we're going to look at Hong Kong 2097, the sequel to the unlicensed and infamous doujin game Hong Kong 97 on the Super Famicom. Joining me is a special guest. So guest, please introduce yourself.

[00:01:06] Hello there. Good to see everybody again. I can't really see you, but yes, I am. I am Chris, also known as ultra-healthy video game nerd. And now going by the name KaniPro, the independent game developer. So thank you for having me on again. Thanks for coming back on the podcast. Now, we've talked in depth about your first game, the action platformer Violet Wisteria, which is now available on PC and consoles, and your shoot-'em-up conjunctive vitalizer, which is in development now. Yep.

[00:01:34] And if you gave me a million guesses on what your third game would be, I think I would go 0 for a million. So give us the pitch. What is Hong Kong 2097? Before I started making games, when I had a YouTube channel and I was reviewing old retro games, the one thing that I became a little notorious for was that I got one of the original copies of Hong Kong 97,

[00:01:57] which is this very kind of notorious unlicensed game for the Super Nintendo that was supposed to be a kind of rebellion against Nintendo's licensing rules and just Nintendo's sort of domination of the game market in Japan at that time, the 90s. So because of that, I got to know the person who made it, Kowloon Kurosawa, who is not a game developer per se.

[00:02:25] He's really a journalist. He's an underground gonzo journalist. At the end of 2024, I helped him to sell off his final copy of Hong Kong 97 on eBay. This is something we've been discussing for a while. And then COVID hit and it made it very difficult to ship stuff abroad. So it took a really long time, longer than it should have. But we finally did that. And basically when I went and gave him the money after it sold, I told him, I've had this idea in my mind for a while.

[00:02:54] I want to make a real sequel to Hong Kong 97. Now that I have a little bit of experience in game development. And he was like, fine, sure, let's do it. So that was how it all started. I had initially thought it would just be another vertical shooter. I figured there was a lot of stuff I could recycle. Somewhere along the way, I decided that I wanted to do something unique and turn it into a twin stick shooter.

[00:03:21] I don't remember specifically how that idea came up. But basically that is how the idea came to exist. I just had this idea that since we had the opportunity, since I knew Kurosawa, now I've got the basics of at least a very relatively easy to use game development software. I just said, let's do it. And he was like, sure. Yes. I've only heard about the original game Hong Kong 97 through your YouTube channel.

[00:03:51] That's how I first discovered it. And I believe Angry Video Game Nerd also has a video on it. So many people know it from you and also Angry Video Game Nerd. And it is essentially a doujin game, which is an indie game before indie games. Japan was doing indie games before everyone else. But it is like an unlicensed Super Famicom game that, yes, it does not have the Nintendo seal of approval on it. It's an unlicensed game. And it is somewhat well known in Japan among retro fans as being bizarre and also a bad game.

[00:04:20] The term in Japanese, kusouge, is mostly known for these notoriously terrible games, of which Hong Kong 97 is apparently one of them. I haven't played it, so I can't give my full opinion on it. But it is infamous in those circles. But now, thanks to you, we do have a sequel. And I'm a little curious about what's it like to get the rights for the IP if Hong Kong 97 is a quote unquote IP? Did you have to sign any paperwork or is it a handshake deal?

[00:04:47] Or how do you possess the Hong Kong 97 IP? Brilliant question. No, it was just, let's do it. Sure. That's it. It was a spoken handshake. Yes. Because of, you know, how copyright works, Kurosawa technically owns the rights to Hong Kong 97. Hong Kong 97 also utterly spits in the face of the concept of copyright. Almost everything in it is just stolen from other places.

[00:05:15] Almost all of the graphics, the music, notorious music. None of it is. Yes. So to say that Hong Kong 97 is an IP and legally licensing that, it's kind of silly in a way I could say. So no, I mean, it was just a spoken agreement between us. What was your goal when developing the game? Were you trying to make, this is going to sound like a weird question, but were you trying to make a legitimately good game and that is the spiritual successor?

[00:05:45] Or did you go in thinking, I want this game to be as if Hong Kong 97 got a sequel maybe a year later from the same person and you wanted it to be the same spirit? Or what's your overall goal when developing this game? I wanted it to have the same aesthetic or the same presentation, the same impact, right? Where you have graphics that look like they're stolen from random places.

[00:06:11] But when you actually pick up the controller and the stage starts, it's actually fun to play where there's actually a reasonable amount of game within the scope of something that we may or may not even be able to sell is almost certainly not going to make any money that I'm not going to get any kind of development budget for. So things are limited in that way. And I'm also, it's just me and I'm not a professional either.

[00:06:36] But within that scope, I wanted to make it a fun game to play. I mentioned it earlier, but you were also working on another game, Conjunctive Vitalizer, which is also a shooter. So what's it like to balance the development of two games at the same time? I mean, the fact is to get really a whole lot further in Conjunctive Vitalizer, I'm going to need money. It costs money to pay for those graphics and music. And I've used what I got from the sales of Violet Wisteria to get reasonably far.

[00:07:05] Stage one is totally finished. The main character stuff, and we've actually got all the enemy graphics for stage two. But really to get much further, I'm going to need some funds. You're going to have to crowdfund or who knows. So basically, Conjunctive Vitalizer was on the back burner. I have been working on it again. The program is really far along.

[00:07:27] But yeah, so really, once I saw that Hong Kong 2097 could be realized with very little money, I just went full throttle into that. Yeah, for me, sometimes I am making multiple podcast episodes at the same time. So I can't imagine making multiple games at the same time. That seems like a very daunting thing. If I didn't also have a full-time job, it could be done. Right.

[00:07:54] Now, I got to ask, the game does use generative AI, which you do stay on the product page. And generative AI is a very hot topic in the gaming sphere. Why did you decide on using generative AI for the game? And did you think this game would also get some blowback because you're using it? I knew that people did not like AI in whatever the creative sphere, because it's taking people's jobs. And a lot of it looks like crap.

[00:08:19] I did not realize that it was where the moment people hear the word AI, there's no more ability to have a conversation or any kind of nuance or anything. It's just anything that uses AI in any way is utterly worthless. There's just a massive number of people that think this way.

[00:08:45] To be honest, I honestly did not exactly realize it was that extreme. I decided to use AI because the original Hong Kong 97 uses digitized graphics. It's the entire thing almost. There might be a couple little things like, I don't know, the main character sprite might have been drawn. Almost everything else is digitized graphics stolen from places, downscaled, and then the color palettes changed for the Super Famicom.

[00:09:11] It's a vital part of the experience of Hong Kong 97 is stolen graphics, effectively. So it just seems like that's a really good tool you could use to mimic that thing without actually infringing on copyright. You can tell AI to make realistic looking things, right, and then just downscale the resolution. So, you know, it looks like Hong Kong 97 because it's the opening scene. I don't know if you've seen it.

[00:09:41] Like the very first picture, it's a Kung Fu dude running away from a lady with a bloody sword. It's totally AI, but it looks like real humans. It looks like it's been stolen from someone. Now, I'm really fascinated about the road to release. Nice. So let's go to the original announcement when you said to the world, I am making Hong Kong 2097 and the page is up on Steam. What was the reaction to you making this game? It was good, man, initially. Obviously, like I just said, some people saw that using the AI, they're like, this is stupid.

[00:10:11] But really, honestly, most people are enthusiastic. Yeah, man. Like there was a couple tweets that almost went viral. There was like a tweet that got like 30,000 likes by someone. It was crazy, man. Yeah. There was announcements. GameSpark picked it up, did an article. Maybe Automaton did also. It actually was getting some attention. It got like 6,000 wish lists in a couple of weeks. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty incredible.

[00:10:39] I thought I was like, yeah, I thought I was going to do this. So the initial reaction, I would say, is very good. Now, it was supposed to come out in December on Steam. And it did not come out in December on Steam. So what happened in regards to the Steam release? So when the page got approved, I'm thinking that they've actually looked at the trailer video and looked at the sample picture, the screenshots. And they're like, oh, there's digitized graphics in here. Who cares? Fine.

[00:11:09] That probably was not the case. I don't know. But basically, as soon as the page got accepted, I was like, I have no idea if this is really going to work out. But I'm going into it as if it will. So I just assumed that once I submitted the game build, as long as the game itself was functional, it would be approved at some point. So, yeah. What happened was, I think they said they wanted a couple of things.

[00:11:35] They said that they wanted a debug version so that they could see the later levels because, you know, I had declared that it contained some inappropriate content. And also, they said, this is the tricky thing. All this is automated. And they say, please give us reasonable assurance. Literally, this is what they say.

[00:11:57] Give us reasonable assurance that you have the rights to the images that you're using in this game because some of it looks like it is real human beings. When we submit a game build to be approved by Steam, you can add a note. Now, there's a character limit. It's not really enough space to add all of the links to all the pages because a lot of those images are of real people.

[00:12:24] They're images that are public domain, famous people, or have Creative Commons licenses. And those are legal to use. These are absolutely are legal to use in other words. No question about it. There's just so much of it that it's hard to say every single piece and every single background and all this and that. So, I resubmitted. I gave them a debug version.

[00:12:49] In theory, some person at Steam played through Hong Kong 2097 in full. But basically, they sent me another mail saying the exact same thing. Saying, please give us reasonable assurance that you have licenses or the rights to use all these things. I said it as clear as I possibly could. All the images used in this game are either AI generated, Creative Commons, or public domain. Some of our own personal pictures. That's it, basically.

[00:13:18] And on the third time, they said, there's too much third-party content. We're not going to release it. So, it wasn't really mostly a content thing. It was mostly just the legality of all the images of the people is the reason why. That's what they say. All kinds of stuff. Images of the real humans, I don't know exactly. You can go on Steam and type in the famous person's name. And there's like thousands and thousands of games. There's people using the likenesses of famous people all the time on Steam.

[00:13:46] But it's just every single thing is digitized. So, I don't know. And it was also going to release on GOG and DLSite. So, is the reason for its non-release there the same excuse? Or did they have a different reason why they didn't want it on the website? So, after Steam said they weren't going to do it, I, yes, I started looking around to other options. I submitted the initial, whatever it is, application to GOG. Yes, I applied on DLSite. GOG never responded.

[00:14:15] So, DLSite got back the next day and said, we don't take any games with digitized graphics. Like wholesale? No. Yeah, that was what they said. Okay. So, if I take a picture of my dog and then put it in the game, they're just like, no. Yes, or at least if it's obviously visible. So, was it your last hope? Did you know for a fact that they would be able to upload it? Or was there a chance they would reject it to you? I did not really understand how it worked. I didn't know if there was an approval process, really.

[00:14:45] Itch is weird. It's so, when you start a page for a game on itch, you can upload the file. And as soon as you hit make public, technically that's it. It's out there. However, there's something called indexing where it takes, I don't know, a couple days or a week for the game to get, quote, indexed, which means it will come up in searches. The page is already there.

[00:15:14] A person can go there and download the game and download it if they have a URL, even if it's not indexed. But once a game becomes indexed, it will come up in the search and that's what you would probably think of as being, quote, released or approved. And I don't really understand the process for that, if it's automated or anything. Now, because of that, I first made the page and I didn't even upload the game files.

[00:15:43] I had no clue even how it was working. After, I don't know, five days or a week, it didn't get indexed. So I was like, I don't know, maybe I just have to upload the game file. So I did and a day or two later it got indexed. So I don't know if somebody actually looked at it closely and said, sure, no problem. Or if it's totally automated. But yeah, it is pretty lenient. Yeah. Yeah, I always assumed it's IO.

[00:16:13] Of course, they do have full-blown game releases, but a lot of hobbyist game developers also put their games on there as well. So maybe it is like a situation where we'll come in there if you break the law and ask you to remove it. But until then, you're free to do whatever you want. Is there any chance it will be released on other platforms or other PC stores or has that ship sailed? There is the idea of making a slightly censored version and attempting to get it on consoles. I would like to try that. Replacing maybe real pictures of people with caricatures, drawings.

[00:16:43] Probably replacing some of the backgrounds and most of the music. So it could be done. That's probably the only way. Once you made the Steam page, did you just think, oh, it's going to be smooth sailing? Or did you foresee or did you worry about these sort of release issues when you first announced the game? Or did it just come out of the blue? No, I knew there was definitely a chance it wouldn't work. Getting the page approved alone seemed like a big step to me. So I was just like, I'm just going to go all the way with this as if it's going to happen.

[00:17:12] I figured if there's certain parts that are unacceptable, after I submit the build, they could say, hey, you can't do A, B, and C. And I'll change that part and submit it. But Steam is completely automated. You can't get human responses. So that did not happen. All right. We haven't really talked about the gameplay of the actual game. I'm sorry. I've mostly been focusing on its very unorthodox release.

[00:17:42] But you mentioned before it is a twin stick shooter. So can you run down the mechanics or what did you want to add to the twin stick shooter genre that is in Hong Kong 2097? Sure. It's actually pretty fun, to be honest. So it is a static screen twin stick shooter like Smash TV. You know, the screen doesn't really scroll and enemies mostly appear from the edges of the screen. There are some things that kind of vaporize on the screen occasionally. So, you know, you can shoot 360 degrees.

[00:18:10] You have three different weapon types you can cycle through. The twist to the gameplay is that the character also has a shield attached to them. And you can rotate it around you with the shoulder buttons. So there's a third kind of mechanic going on in there, right? You move with the left stick. You shoot with the right stick. And then you rotate the shield with the top shoulder buttons. So when enemies shoot at you, they shoot two types of bullets, the green or purple. Only the green bullets can be blocked with the shield.

[00:18:40] And when you do block green bullets with the shield, it basically absorbs them. And you have a weapon meter on the side of the HUD. And the bullets will fill up the weapon meter. And at certain points, your weapon will level up and get stronger. And it will also fill up. You have bombs and it also will gradually fill up a bomb meter and you can get more bombs. So when you level up, your weapon gets stronger. But that shield also gets a little smaller.

[00:19:08] So you have a little bit less defense. And that gives up to level five. But that weapon meter also just very slowly drains if you're not collecting green bullets. So there's a kind of balance there, sort of risk and reward. In the first couple of stages, you can probably get by really without thinking too much about the shield. If you're really playing on the normal difficulty and really particularly getting stage three or four, you're going to have to learn how to use it.

[00:19:35] In addition to that, how the stages work is every time a stage starts, you've got a quota of enemies and a time limit. So in order to beat a stage, you just have to kill that number of enemies within the time limit. And if you take damage, if you collide with an enemy or a bullet, there's not a life meter. You lose five seconds from the time limit. The game limits are quite different from the original games. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's a full-length game. Basically, it's an arcade-style game. It's a beat-it-one sitting game.

[00:20:02] But it's the amount of game you would basically expect from a game of that type. So are you targeting this game towards more shmup fans or fans of the original? Or who do you want to check out this game? You know, anyone who just feels like the gaming industry has become extremely repetitive and obedient. There's five genres to choose from now.

[00:20:24] You have Metroidvania, roguelike deck builder, first-person shooter, and I don't know, micro-platformer. It's just all been done to death. And it's just done in a way that tries to appease as many people as possible. And this is for people who want something that is not going to obey any rules at all. All right. So that was our look at Hong Kong 2097. So, Chris, where can people find the game? And where can people find you?

[00:20:53] You can find the game on itch.io exclusively. I recommend buying it quickly before somebody at Itch realizes that this shouldn't be here. You can find me on X as ConnieProGames or UltraHealthyVideoGameNerd. And the links to everything are in the podcast description. So listeners, check it out. Chris of ConnieProGames, once again, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely, man. As always, thank you for having me.

[00:21:25] Today's feature is about the Super Mario Galaxy movies launch in Japan. Better late than never, right? And you might be thinking, I don't care. That movie came out weeks ago where I live. It's old news. But Japan did a lot of fun exclusive collabs to promote the movie. And I checked them out. So I'm going to run through all the fun stuff I did and also regale you with my movie watching experience in Japan. The biggest difference is, hey, this movie came out on April 24th, a full three weeks after the worldwide launch.

[00:21:53] This is a time with Golden Week, the major weekish long Japanese holiday that's happening right now. The same thing happened with the first movie. And honestly, it's extremely annoying. I like to go day and date for new releases, but the internet was literally flooded with spoilers for a movie that I was still weeks away from being able to see. But while Japan didn't have the movie, it still had a lot of fun, collabs, and things to check out. I think the big ones are a double helping of sweets collabs. Krispy Kreme and Baskin Robbins both had special galaxy themed treats leading up to the movie.

[00:22:23] Krispy Kreme had three new flavors. One was Mario Strawberry, which is a red donut with blue sprinkles and yellow stars, complete with a little Mario hat pick stuck in it. Then Yoshi custard egg, which indeed just looks like a Yoshi egg. And finally, Luma and Blueberry Galaxy, another standard donut with a light blue frosting and some silver sugar balls or something or round sprinkles or whatever you want to call it with some yellow stripes on it too. On top of the hole is a little inedible styrofoam picture of the Lumas.

[00:22:52] Again, please don't eat this. You can also get a special movie themed box if you get a dozen. And if you spend over 4000 yen, you get a galaxy themed tote bag. And while I didn't go to this Krispy Kreme, the one in Shibuya also has some galaxy decorations inside the store, but nothing major. Now, I hate to say it, but if I had to pick maybe my three least favorite flavors for a donut, it would be strawberry custard and blueberry. And blueberry especially. That's just my kryptonite.

[00:23:20] I did try all three for research purposes, but man, I couldn't power through. Not even for Mario. Not even for Yoshi. This is totally a me problem though. Krispy Kreme is normally at least fine to pretty good. I will say that when I went, they had a pretty good stock. Compare this to Mr. Donut's Pokemon collabs, which often feel like they disappear by 10 a.m. Now, the Baskin Robbins collab. Technically, this wasn't for the movie. It was for the Galaxy 1 plus 2 collection.

[00:23:47] Yes, a collab for a remaster of Wii games that came out six months ago. In Japan, Nintendo has been advertising this collection very heavily these past few weeks. Which makes total sense. I mean, it is the closest thing to a tie-in game with the movie. Last year, people were going on about Nintendo's big holiday game, but that was actually just the Galaxy collection. The digital version of Galaxy 1 alone, so 2.5 million last quarter, with the digital version of Galaxy 2 selling pretty much the same. So that's 5 million right there.

[00:24:16] And this does not include the digital bundle sales, nor the physical sales. So Nintendo has been making bank off of Galaxy recently. Anyways, Baskin Robbins, or as it's known in Japan, 31, debuted a new flavor called Cotton Fruit Galaxy. It's a mix of light blue and dark blue, with some yellow chocolate stars embedded into each scoop. Thankfully, despite being various shades of blue, no blueberry flavor. Instead, it was a mix of lychee sorbet and cotton candy. And it was a good level of sweetness.

[00:24:46] I have a pretty high tolerance, but I don't often go for these artificial fruit flavors. I am more of a vanilla or chocolate or caramel type of guy. But I thought it was a good balance of similar yet distinct flavors. The star chocolate? On the promo image, they look very big and photogenic. But then you get your scoop, and man, these things are just kind of buried into the ice cream. And what kind of container do you get with your Cotton Candy Galaxy ice cream? You've got one choice, the double cup with a special Rosalina pattern.

[00:25:15] Honestly, in general, if you don't get the double, just don't go to Baskin Robbins in Japan. Why are you lining up for one scoop? Small double is fine, that's what I always get, but no single. Here you get two flavors in a special cup with some nice Rosalina art, and you get a spoon with it with a Luma keychain on it. Oh, and the top scoop also has a little Rosalina crown on it too. You've got to be careful though when you're telling them what scoops you want. I am convinced that the first flavor you want is put on the bottom, and the second one is put on the top.

[00:25:44] So obviously, you want the photogenic new flavor on the top, so I said that one last. I did have situations where the new collab flavor was put on the bottom of the cup. That's right, the bottom of the cup. Maybe the policy is to put the new flavor on top, and that person just messed up, but it scarred me for life. If you want to save 170 yen, you can just get a double with a different Mario pattern, sans the crown, and keychain. But come on, you've got to give Rosalina her due. There are also two different Galaxy-themed sundaes with little character pick toppers as well,

[00:26:14] and a Luma-themed cup design. Flavor-wise, it is the same as the Double Scoop, but it has more whipped cream on top. These also came with a Luma strap, which is like a mini plush Luma attached to... I don't know how to describe it. Like a towel bracelet you were supposed to put around the cup. To hold, I guess, because it's too cold? I don't really get the ergonomics, but it is a unique piece of merch. It is like a Luma towel bracelet. And speaking of unique merch, if you've got the box of eight flavors,

[00:26:41] it comes with a special tote bag that is themed after Rosalina's storybook from the game. It has Art of Rosalina in that style on it, with a little pouch in the shape of the book on front. This is definitely a fun, obscure piece of merch, and I'll be on the lookout in Tokyo if anyone is actually carrying this thing. And if you did a GPS check-in with the Nintendo Store app, you got an exclusive sticker. So compared to Krispy Kreme, a whole lot more was popping off at Baskin Robbins. Those were the two edible clabs, but there were some other stuff as well.

[00:27:09] This happened in America, but Lush also had a Galaxy-themed collab featuring a ton of awesome soap designs based on Yoshi's Egg, the Lumas, Peach's Crown, and so forth. Not Japan exclusive, but the layout of the Japanese stores are always really spectacular. And I had to assume the US ones are well. But even if you don't buy anything, the Super Mario displays inside Lush are really amazing to look at. And it is very Suroda-themed Mario body wash, Luigi body wash, Peach and Rosalina-themed bar soap. The Mario IP has come a long way.

[00:27:39] Another thing that's technically available in the West, toys. Toy stories are being hit with a ton of the Super Mario Galaxy movie-themed toys, which are distributed by Takara Tami here in Japan. However, I want to say most, if not all, are the exact same as the Jax Pacific toys in the States. But they all probably come out of the same factory in China though, and are just distributed via different companies depending on the country. Kirilan Shinjuku, which I did feature on this podcast, had their first floor dedicated entirely to these new toys. The displays were expansive,

[00:28:08] with the main one covering nearly the entire back wall. I wanted to take a lot of pictures, but for whatever reason, there were a ton of staff standing around here, and people with clipboards. I think they just finished setting it up when I arrived. And pictures there aren't banned, but still, a little awkward for an adult man to be like, get out of my way, staff member, I gotta take a picture of this Yoshi egg. You gotta do it discreetly, then it's totally okay and there's no shame. But if you want some stuff that's maybe not in the West yet, Bandai did indeed have a movie-themed Ichiban Kuji at 7-Eleven,

[00:28:37] with the big prize being a Mario cushion. I got the F prize, which was a hand towel. Hey, you can't win them all, or none of them in my case. I think the highest prize I've ever gotten was maybe D, and I don't even remember what it was. Now let's actually head into the theater. I saw it at Toho Cinema's Shinjuku and Kabukicho, which I would say is one of the most famous theaters in Tokyo, if not Japan. It's the one with the huge Godzilla head on the top, and it also has a huge banner of whatever movie is showing,

[00:29:07] and this time it was the Galaxy movie. But on the road to the theater, which is called Godzilla Road, there's another famous landmark, the Kabukicho Don Quixote. Yes, this is the one from Like a Dragon. And on the side of this shop was a huge banner for both the movie and the Galaxy OnePlus 2 collection. So yes, Nintendo desperately wants us to think that this is a brand new game. Just FYI, a few weeks ago, it was a huge Tomodachi-like banner. The curved exterior of the shop is just so photogenic. That's why they keep putting it in all those Like a Dragon games.

[00:29:37] All right, actually entering the theater. Not a whole lot of posters or standees or banners. Ironically, the big one above the concessions was for The Devil Wears Prada 2, which I will probably not cover on this podcast. But Toho Cinemas did indeed have some special Galaxy movie-themed stuff, including the Yoshi popcorn bucket, which was sold out. Popcorn bucket mania hasn't hit Japan yet, but this might be the first step towards that because I saw online that they were snatched up in many theaters pretty quickly. But if you can't nab a bucket,

[00:30:05] you can still nab some special Galaxy-themed churros. There was a Mario and Luigi half red, half green one with a strawberry and melon flavor and a peach and Rosalina-themed one that was pink and blue, and it was also flavored strawberry and lemonade. The princess one actually seemed better, but come on, I gotta rep the brothers. The churro was pretty good. I mean, it's hard to mess up a churro, but this is not Disneyland-tier churros we're talking about here. Oh, and yes, inside many Japanese theaters, they do indeed have a souvenir area,

[00:30:34] and there were Galaxy-themed goods to pick up. They ironically were just selling typical Mario stuff like plushies and toys, but they did have movie-themed pin badges and tape and things like that. Nothing super special, but I suppose these are more original or obscure goodies to nab if you want something movie-themed. When I scanned my ticket, I got the movie's big freebie, which was a set of trading cards straight out of Nintendo Today. It was a set of five cards with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Rosalina, and Yoshi. They were numbered like on the app, but it seems like every set had these exact same cards.

[00:31:03] And they were pretty awesome looking, with a good feel, and all of them had a holographic sheen to them. Having a physical version of something that was once purely digital is always cool. This is definitely a top-tier movie freebie I've gotten here in Japan. Definitely beats like a coaster or a pamphlet. Now, you might be wondering, is the movie dubbed or subbed in Japan? The answer is both, but for animated movies, dub is far more prevalent. There was only one screen showing the subbed version, and it wasn't in IMAX. This was the trade-off of having the honor of hearing Chris Pratt.

[00:31:34] I did kind of underestimate how small the non-IMAX screens are, though. I would have sat way closer if I knew the gap beforehand. So, how was the movie? I actually liked it a lot. Now, keep in mind, it's impossible for me to be unbiased when assessing the movie, I've tried, but I just can't do it. I liked the first movie, but honestly, it felt like this movie was more of an enjoyable adventure film, yet it still sacrificed some of the more human elements from the first movie. The first film did have some similates of a character arc for Mario, and I thought the focus on the two brothers

[00:32:03] trying to make a business, trying to change their lives for the better, was relatable and a unique direction for the characters. It was a fresh take on the Mario character, and one I am surprised Nintendo even allowed. Here, the plot is really almost entirely focused on let's just save the princess. Bowser is the only one with the shadow of an intriguing character arc, but I felt the conclusion of that storyline was pretty unsatisfying. But that said, I think they did an excellent job in making exciting, visually compelling adventures for the Mario brothers and friends to go on.

[00:32:33] I've seen people say it felt like a TikTok compilation, but I do think that is underselling it. I kind of had low expectations going in regarding the plot, but I mean, everything made sense. I always understood what they were doing and where they were going and what they were trying to accomplish, but the pacing is very much let's go here, this happened, now we are here, this happened, and now we are here. But I think the inspiration is not prestige animated movies like Spirited Away or Toy Story, but instead classic animated shorts. It harkens back more towards the old school

[00:33:03] Mickey Mouse, or perhaps more recently, the newer vibrant Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts from Paul Rudish. Or is it Ruddish? I'm sorry Disney fans, I like these shorts, but I don't know how to pronounce his name. And Paul Rudish and or Ruddish, he also worked with Genndy Tartakovsky, who is also famous for his animated series which are basically just a collection of shorts like Dexter's Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls. And of course, the original Clone Wars cartoons which were just a few minutes long. Miyamoto is a producer on the film and he is credited as the lead producer, albeit I think that it's mostly just lip service.

[00:33:33] But I honestly feel like Miyamoto wants to position Mario similarly to Mickey Mouse, where he is part of a cast of characters who all go on a variety of adventures where the focus isn't on plot or character development, but visual flair and communicating the character's personalities and differences through how they move in outlandish scenarios. I would not be surprised if they just focused on what are some fun set pieces for Mario and company to be in, then kind of just made a skeleton of a story to hang them on. And as a collection of fun things for Mario to do, I think it absolutely succeeds. There are a lot

[00:34:02] of creative ideas and visual inventions throughout the movie. Something like the Yoshi in New York scene shows that the directors have a smart eye and aren't afraid to try something a little different. I don't feel like these scenes are by the number or generic at all. It is a stellar blend of incorporating Mario elements with some inventive action scenes. No, I'm not going to remember the emotions Luigi made me feel during the movie, but I will remember the world map scene, the part with the babies and the dinosaur, the Mario maker section, not just because it's something I recognize from the games, but because they are filled with a lot of great clever action.

[00:34:31] And these scenes are boosted by how rich the movie looks. The animation and detail are truly stunning and stuff like the Bowser puppet once again shows that the filmmakers aren't just resting on their laurels. They aren't just coasting on the IP, but they are willing to experiment with new and interesting visuals. Now, could you have these awesome set pieces and an emotional story? Yes, but that's not the priority for the series and we don't have to like it, but we should accept it at least. Oh, Fox, he was also in the movie. I mean, Star Fox music blaring

[00:35:01] in a movie theater. This is surreal, right? The hard cut to the N64 profile pic of Slippy in a major motion picture. Whoever imagined that? I thought Glenn Powell did a great job as he voiced the Fox, but it was a little annoying that everyone's reaction to Fox is just that he's insanely cool. You don't need to say that. You can just show him he's a space Fox. We don't need it spelled out for us. Well, that was the Super Mario Galaxy movie experience in Japan. I am very curious if the Zelda movie will get this level of collaborations

[00:35:31] and marketing over here. Man, a Zelda Baskin Robbins collab? The sky is the limit. That's all for the feature. Let's check out the news. There's actually been quite a lot of news. Let's get into some Tokyo stuff and new merch and then focus on the new games. Family Mart is having a small campaign right now for Pocopia, arguably the greatest game ever made. There's a strawberry and a ramené frap with a special cup,

[00:36:01] did-o-mochi, and a pikichu cake roll. And you can also get some keychains. Due to Pocopia's success, I can definitely see more collabs rolling out in the future. It is basically the big Pokemon game for 2026 since Gen 10 isn't out until next year, so we would definitely see more Pocopia crossovers for the rest of the year. And while not Pocopia-themed, Boss Coffee does have a Pokemon collab going on right now where you can win some sweet-looking jackets based on the starters. If you like Sega merch, you're going to be able to buy a lot of it as they have not one but two pop-up shops coming this spring. May will have

[00:36:31] Sega 65th The Limited Shop in Shibuya's Miyashita Park featuring exclusive merch, even from obscure franchises like Romania 203 along with collabs from Japanese artists. This will run from May 21st to the 20th, so a pretty short window, so get there quickly. Kind of funny to have a pop-up shop about a five-minute walk away from your permanent shop, but they are selling stuff from more obscure franchises that aren't in the main store. And I'm talking about franchises like Knights, Sakura Wars, the aforementioned Romania 203, Space Channel 5,

[00:37:01] so I would definitely be checking out this pop-up. But man, is any t-shirt going to be under 9,000 yen? When it comes to Sega, I doubt it, so Sega, please surprise me. And around that same time, from May 9th to June 3rd, there will be a special Sonic the Hedgehog pop-up shop at Otore Ueno selling, well, you can guess, Sonic stuff. They advertise the Japanese-themed Sonic goods, which I did talk about on this podcast when I covered the Sega Store Tokyo, so go check out that episode. And I'm not sure if there will be new merch here

[00:37:30] or if it's just a collection of existing stuff, so maybe it's not worth going to. Now, Ueno and Shibuya, they are kind of far apart, I suppose, but on the Ginza line, it's like maybe 30 minutes. So again, I don't know why Sega's having so many pop-up shops when they have a real shop. And Square has also been busy from April 29th to May 3rd, so sorry you missed it if you're listening to this podcast, but there was a Seventh Heaven themed pop-up bar in Roppongi. Seventh Heaven as in the bar from Final Fantasy VII where you can try some new lemon sour.

[00:38:00] Kind of a loose collab here, it's not like Cloud is on the can, but they did make some funny art of Sephiroth drinking some lemon sour, so that's good enough. It is kind of strange to realize that, oh, this is specifically for the Switch 2 version of the game. They are almost treating it like a brand new release over here. Dragon Quest Dive, which is the big Dragon Quest 40th anniversary exhibit, is coming in July in Harajuku. Tickets are on sale now and, uh-oh, I haven't bought them yet. Is this going to be like a if you didn't buy it three months ahead of time, you're out of luck type of thing? Hopefully not

[00:38:30] as it seems fairly expansive and I'm sure once it starts, you could probably just buy a ticket a week ahead of time. It runs from July 17th to September 9th, so you have plenty of time. I was very impressed by Square's Final Fantasy IX exhibit last year and the Dragon Quest events I've been to in Japan have all been pretty stellar, so I have high expectations for this one. Square Enix will open up a permanent location in Shinjuku titled Square Enix Cafe and Shop. It's at Pase Labo where they have been hosting pop-up cafes for the past few months. Square closed down their Akiba location about a year ago and I was wondering

[00:38:59] what the game plan was for a new location and it makes a ton of sense to move it to Shinjuku which is closer to one of their offices and also the Art Nia Cafe. Ironically, I haven't actually been inside their Pase Labo pop-up shop but I have passed by it many times and I have been to the neighboring Taiyaki joint which often sells slime and Chocobo Taiyaki but I'll definitely try to swing by their new permanent location which opens up in spring of this year and more Square stuff. They have a pop-up shop happening right now until May 10th at Ikebukura Parko which is kind of funny since again,

[00:39:29] like Sega, they have a permanent shop in Shibuya and the distance from Ikebukura to Shibuya is not that far like a 20-minute train ride with no transfers but if you're near Ikebukura this is slightly more convenient. Merch does a lot of it. Nintendo Tokyo is selling new Mario Kart World themed Yoshi clothing specifically a swanky orange apron and shirt. It kind of looks like a bowling shirt and honestly it looks pretty awesome and I want to buy it. I did buy a button-up Zelda shirt from Nintendo Tokyo and while it does look thin

[00:39:58] and feels quite artificial on your skin it does feel actually nice. The material is stronger than you'd expect and it fits pretty well so look out for me in a bright orange Yoshi shirt in the near future. For Mother 3's 20th anniversary Hobonichi Mother Project is selling a Chimera plushie and a Mother 3 Converse collab is coming in May. I am just loving these peanut butter and chocolate-esque combinations. I mean Mother and Converse? Give the character licensing manager a raise please. Kirby is also getting some Air Riders themed plushies

[00:40:28] in July including Kirby on several of the machines like the Warp and Shadow Star plus plushies of Cappy and Star Man. Kirby is also getting an Uno set. Why is Meta Knight the plus four? Aren't we friends? Rivals but still friends? And Kirby's not done as the apparel chain GU is now selling some nice Kirby shirts with original designs. So again kind of a weird marketing boost for Air Riders six months after it came out but I'm not complaining that game is great and you should play it. But if you are more of a Final Fantasy guy Square is also releasing new plushies

[00:40:58] of the entire Final Fantasy X cast as part of their 25th anniversary campaign which also includes a new vinyl and an art book. I am hoping they announce an exhibit similar to the Final Fantasy 9 one. I mean isn't it crazy that Final Fantasy 9 and X are a year apart? That will never happen again. And yeah the big new piece of Square merch that's not Final Fantasy X related has been the amazing looking formism figures of Chrono and Moral that look like the illustrations come to life. I'm not a figure guy but these are incredibly tempting.

[00:41:28] 8,800 yen though that's like almost one Switch 2 game. Toei as in the movie company announced Toei Games a new company that is focusing on creating games not just from their IPs but entirely new IPs as well. Not to be outdone Sanrio has also announced Sanrio Games a new company to handle games from their IPs and also announced Sanrio Party Land which is coming to Switch and Switch 2 this fall. It is very interesting to see these other Japanese companies branch into gaming. Just last year we had Parco Games where the department store Parco

[00:41:57] made their own publishing company focusing on indie titles. The gaming industry often seems incredibly volatile and oftentimes like it's contracting but it seems like companies are now realizing that their IPs could have tremendous value in the gaming space. Now what does Toei own? I would have to think their most popular IP is the Sentai series. So are we going to get a big AAA Power Rangers game? Maybe but they do seem more focused on creating original IPs whatever that means. Are they going to put out some JRPG with completely original characters?

[00:42:28] I'm very curious about what Toei games is actually going to make. Splatoon Raiders it's real and you can play it on July 23rd. We got to see more of the gameplay and it looks kind of like a single player Salmon Run mixed with a little bit of Sidewater stat boosting and equipment builds. It's mostly single player but you can team up with others online but this seems to be more of a friend only type of deal and not like matchmaking. Oh and we are getting even more amiibos of Deep Cut. I think half of Japan's land area is now covered with Splatoon amiibos.

[00:42:58] Now I love Splatoon 3 was my game of the year and I will play anything they put out but I have to admit I am not super excited about this gameplay reveal. It really does feel like a Frankenstein of existing gameplay mechanics from the series as opposed to something entirely new which you can afford to do in a spinoff. Are we going to find out that this was DLC spun off into its own game because it kind of looks that way. But again Splatoon has hit nothing but home runs with both the main games and the DLC so I shouldn't worry. But I do wonder if there's going to be some mechanic or element

[00:43:28] of the gameplay loop that really sets it apart. But the single player campaigns in the Splatoon games unbelievably underrated. I fully believe you could buy each Splatoon game at full price only play the single player campaign and still be convinced it was worth your money. And the good thing about Solo Splatoon is that I can finally use weapons I'm terrible at using with very little consequence. Finally I can pretend I'm good with the bow. The game is also priced at 6500 yen for the digital version and $50 for the west. So with Yoshi's Splatoon Raiders

[00:43:57] and Rhythm Heaven Nintendo has been more experimental with different pricing. However in Japan nearly all these games are 6500 yen or 7500 yen likely due to the weekend compared to the US dollar. So I am sadly not exactly reaping the rewards of a more consumer friendly pricing structure. An interesting thing to note though is that displays for Splatoon Raiders in Japan do have a section detailing the download card highlighting how it is cheaper than the digital version and they even give a date on when the download card will be available. Something I've never seen before.

[00:44:27] Oftentimes download cards feel like an afterthought and just magically appear in convenience stores a week or two before launch. Yoshi also got a download card themed announcement a few days before it became available so I think Nintendo definitely wants to emphasize going digital. And when Nintendo announced in the US that digital and physical would have different prices something that has always been the trend for Japan since the Switch 2 launched we all did kind of assume that would mean that digital versions would be $70 with the physical being $80 but that hasn't come to pass just yet. We will see with

[00:44:57] Fire Emblem though I can easily see that being $70 digital and $80 physical with the explanation being well it's the biggest Fire Emblem ever. Final Fantasy 14 is also coming to Switch 2 finally. Honestly a little surprised it didn't come to Switch 1 but even though it's not that much of a looker I imagine there is a lot of clunky things under the hood to make it a pain to run. The big controversy of course is that the Switch 2 version requires a separate subscription than the console or PC version. I'll be you do get it at half off if you are already subscribed.

[00:45:27] I can't imagine there will be many people who will dual subscribe but I do think there is potential in nabbing people who will only play this game on their Switch 2. Not as big of a slice of the pie as the PC or PS5 version but this is a significant way to expand the player base in a new way. Okay that was a lot of news so let's wrap it up. Thanks as always for listening. Be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app. Leave a 5 star review as well it really helps. This podcast is also available on YouTube so like and subscribe there as well. On Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram, just search for

[00:45:57] Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description. If you like the podcast be sure to share with your friends and on social media. The next episode will be on May 17th. See you next time. Matane!