WonderSwan with Kelsey Lewin, Wrecking Crew '98, The Exit 8

[00:00:00] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and

[00:00:13] gaming culture in Japan's capital.

[00:00:15] Your host Mono here to bring you a slice of gaming life from Tokyo.

[00:00:19] Kelsey Lewin joins the podcast as we chat about the Wonder Swan on its 25th anniversary.

[00:00:24] We chat about its unique legacy, the best games, and unusual pregnancy peripheral that cost

[00:00:29] thousands of dollars and more.

[00:00:32] In the games I take a look at the first Western release of Wrecking Crew 98 and the Japanese

[00:00:36] Indie hit The Exodate.

[00:00:39] And as always, I'll close out with a bit of news.

[00:00:42] Let's start with the feature on the Wonder Swan with Kelsey Lewin.

[00:00:51] Today's feature is about the Wonder Swan, a unique piece of Japanese gaming history

[00:00:54] that recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

[00:00:58] What you need to chat all about it is a special guest.

[00:01:00] So guest, please introduce yourself.

[00:01:02] Hi, my name is Kelsey Lewin.

[00:01:05] I'm the co-owner of a retro game store chain in Seattle called Pinkerilla and I am a self-described

[00:01:10] Wonder Swan evangelist.

[00:01:12] So happy to be here.

[00:01:14] Yes.

[00:01:15] Thanks for joining me.

[00:01:16] For those who maybe aren't familiar with it, let's say some groundwork.

[00:01:19] What is the Wonder Swan?

[00:01:20] Yeah.

[00:01:21] So the Wonder Swan is a late 90s early 2000s handheld kind of a competitor to

[00:01:26] the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, that general era.

[00:01:30] It was not released in the United States.

[00:01:32] It was primarily in Japan, although it also got some releases in South Korea and some

[00:01:36] other Asian countries.

[00:01:37] It was kind of a collaboration between Koto Laboratories and Bandai.

[00:01:42] And Koto Laboratories is an interesting company because it was founded by Goompe

[00:01:46] Yokoi, the guy who was heavily involved in creating the Game Boy, the Virtual Boy,

[00:01:51] Game & Watch, all kinds of other well-known things from Nintendo's history.

[00:01:57] So this was his work.

[00:01:58] He unfortunately passed away before the Wonder Swan came out, but it is very, very

[00:02:02] reminiscent of his style and there were over 200 games for it.

[00:02:06] It's a really interesting system.

[00:02:07] Yeah.

[00:02:08] I've always thought of the Wonder Swan as almost sort of a follow up to the

[00:02:11] Tamagotchi in that Bandai hit it big with a unique electronic device.

[00:02:15] They wanted to expand on that success.

[00:02:17] And even though it was always as a rival for the Game Boy, it obviously has a

[00:02:21] very strong Nintendo connection, like you said, through Goompe Yokoi, who is, yes,

[00:02:24] credited as the father of the Game & Watch, the Game Boy, the Ultra Hand and

[00:02:29] many iconic games in Nintendo's history.

[00:02:31] He left Nintendo in 1996 and formed Koto.

[00:02:34] And then they worked on the Wonder Swan with Bandai.

[00:02:37] And like you mentioned before, it was released in 1999, but unfortunately

[00:02:41] Yokoi passed away in 1997.

[00:02:43] So I am curious about the level of his involvement with the device.

[00:02:47] Do you know the background on if he pitched the Wonder Swan to Bandai or

[00:02:50] if Bandai came to him with an idea for a handheld?

[00:02:53] That I'm actually not 100% clear on.

[00:02:55] So there's a biography about Goompe Yokoi that it hasn't come out in English.

[00:03:00] There was a French translation of it that I have.

[00:03:03] I have faithfully Google translated and stuff, and I've tried to learn

[00:03:08] as much as possible from that.

[00:03:09] But to be perfectly honest, like it's got a pretty heavy Yokoi slant to it.

[00:03:14] It's very much told through his lens.

[00:03:16] And I think it's both a great resource and possibly not entirely the whole truth on

[00:03:23] some of that stuff.

[00:03:24] But I mean, so no, I mean, it's not super well known.

[00:03:28] I think exactly how that partnership came to be, although Koto Laboratory was

[00:03:33] founded kind of with this very, very Yokoi-esque philosophies.

[00:03:38] And everyone who's worked there is kind of spoken of just how big of a tenet

[00:03:43] that sort of like lateral thinking with weathered technology, his big

[00:03:47] his big philosophy and the sort of like playfulness of old tech was to Koto Laboratory.

[00:03:54] So it's the other products that they've made have all been very,

[00:03:59] like you said, like Tomagachi-esque.

[00:04:00] They've been very just like these fun little electronic toys that are very simple,

[00:04:06] very cheap and by cheap, I mean, like literally inexpensive, not like crappy.

[00:04:11] And yeah, so I mean, I certainly as far as did he design the whole thing?

[00:04:16] No, absolutely not.

[00:04:17] But is his DNA a huge part of the design and how it came together and everything?

[00:04:23] Absolutely.

[00:04:24] And I think even years into the Wonder Swan, there's still things that

[00:04:28] feel very Yokoi inspired, that kind of continued to live on through it.

[00:04:32] So I'm sure we'll talk about it at some point.

[00:04:35] But I mean, there was a whole like early indie scene,

[00:04:38] like homebrew scene in the Wonder Swan world, which was not common in the late

[00:04:43] 90s. It was not something people really did on consoles yet.

[00:04:46] So very cool stuff that was very, I don't know, it feels very much like

[00:04:51] something he created, even if he was not alive for its release.

[00:04:55] Yeah, it is sort of like an alternate sequel to the Game Boy in sorts.

[00:04:58] And when you look at it, the Wonder Swan, it doesn't look like a Game Boy clone.

[00:05:02] What are some of the unique features of the Wonder Swan hardware?

[00:05:06] Yeah, so I mean, just physically speaking, you've got this kind of horizontal

[00:05:11] look in console and it has what looks like way too many buttons on it to be quite right.

[00:05:16] Yes, you have a little set of four up in the top left and in the bottom left

[00:05:23] and then an additional set of two on the bottom right and then like a start button,

[00:05:27] a power button, all of that stuff in the middle and the screen.

[00:05:31] But the reason you have these eight buttons all shoved onto the left hand

[00:05:34] side is because the Wonder Swan is actually a console that can be played both vertically

[00:05:40] and horizontally. So you have some games that take advantage of the screen

[00:05:44] having this vertical capability.

[00:05:46] So it lends itself really well to interesting ways of interacting with the system.

[00:05:50] There's some times where you're playing a game and then it's suddenly

[00:05:55] an up and down level or whatever, as opposed to a left to right level.

[00:05:59] There are three versions of the Wonder Swan.

[00:06:01] I probably should have led with that.

[00:06:02] The original Wonder Swan is just black and white, much like the Game Boy,

[00:06:05] although it has a lot more shades of gray.

[00:06:08] It's capable of a lot more shades of gray than the Game Boy is.

[00:06:11] And then you have the color, which is very Game Boy advanced-esque in a bad way,

[00:06:16] which is the screen totally sucks.

[00:06:18] It's a very dark kind of difficult to see screen if you're not in good lighting.

[00:06:23] And then finally, they released something called the Swan Crystal,

[00:06:26] which basically just has a nicer screen.

[00:06:28] I mean, there's some other minor upgrades to it,

[00:06:30] but it's basically just a Wonder Swan color.

[00:06:32] With a nicer screen and much like the Game Boy color,

[00:06:35] you have backwards compatibility there.

[00:06:37] You can play the black and white games on the colors.

[00:06:40] There are even some color games that can be played in black and white

[00:06:44] on the black and white system.

[00:06:46] So it's very reminiscent of the Game Boy line in that way.

[00:06:50] Yeah, it is kind of interesting that it can be played both vertical

[00:06:52] and horizontal and the Nintendo Switch.

[00:06:55] There are some games where you can play the screen vertically.

[00:06:58] So Wonder Swan is kind of ahead of its time a little bit.

[00:07:00] And do you think that Nintendo maybe took some inspiration

[00:07:03] from the Wonder Swan or the Game Boy advanced

[00:07:06] since both are primarily horizontal devices?

[00:07:09] Yeah, I wonder. That's an interesting question.

[00:07:11] I don't I certainly don't think Nintendo has ever said anything to that effect.

[00:07:14] Timing could have worked out there, but I think you also

[00:07:16] you also have the game gear and the links for that matter.

[00:07:19] I mean, there were Wonder Swan,

[00:07:20] but certainly not the first one to do the sort of horizontal orientation there.

[00:07:24] But you bring up a good point with the Switch

[00:07:26] because I hadn't thought about how there are some games that played vertically.

[00:07:29] And there was even that accessory made for it so you can hold it vertically.

[00:07:33] Yes, I think it's so cool.

[00:07:35] Yeah, and it's a powerful little system, but in a very Game Boy way.

[00:07:40] Again, it's cheap.

[00:07:41] It makes use of technology that is not top of the line.

[00:07:44] There were certainly basically all the other handhelds coming out at that time

[00:07:47] had more expensive screens and all that stuff.

[00:07:50] But the upshot was that for that original Wonder Swan,

[00:07:53] the one the black and white one, one double a battery, 30 hours of life.

[00:07:59] I mean, just an insane.

[00:08:01] I mean, put that next to the game gear and it's just it's ridiculous.

[00:08:06] It was so well optimized for truly being a handheld system as opposed to

[00:08:11] something you hold handheld, but you really need to have plugged into the wall at all times.

[00:08:15] Yeah. And that was part of Ben Dye's philosophy is that OK,

[00:08:18] we're going to release something that is very, very cheap,

[00:08:20] a really good entry point into, I guess, handheld gaming

[00:08:23] and you have that form factor and the price was cheaper.

[00:08:26] It wasn't really that much cheaper than the Game Boy at the time.

[00:08:29] But it was still like a Tomagachi-esque attempt to get the handheld in people's hands

[00:08:34] that normally wouldn't play these types of games.

[00:08:36] It was like under 5,000 yen at launch.

[00:08:40] Right. I mean, the Game Boy was famously inexpensive as well.

[00:08:43] But the Wonder Swan was even less expensive.

[00:08:45] So really good entry point.

[00:08:47] And because it has that Bandai connection, you have all kinds of

[00:08:52] very popular licenses and stuff that you can tie in with it.

[00:08:56] So all kinds of like Gundam and One Piece and Dragon Ball

[00:08:59] and just all this anime stuff that you can do with that as well.

[00:09:03] OK, we've touched on the hardware, but obviously the meat of the system is the games

[00:09:07] and Wonder Swan has a pretty impressive library for only existing a few years.

[00:09:11] What would you say are some of the standout games on the device?

[00:09:15] Yeah. So I mean, I do think it depends on whether or not you speak Japanese.

[00:09:18] I don't. So I am barred from a lot of the very cool RPGs and stuff on the system.

[00:09:24] Square at the time was kind of having a little bit of a feud with Nintendo.

[00:09:29] And so they for a short period of time were like, fine, we're just going to make

[00:09:33] Wonder Swan games and so you end up with a lot of the Final Fantasy games

[00:09:37] being remade for for one to swan the early ones, obviously.

[00:09:40] And there's even a couple of Final Fantasy special editions of the Wonder Swan color.

[00:09:44] And so there's some very cool stuff like that on it.

[00:09:47] But for someone who maybe doesn't know a lot of Japanese or none at all

[00:09:51] and who wants to get into the system, it's a fantastic system for puzzle games.

[00:09:56] In particular, a couple of my favorites are Tane Omaku Tori, which is

[00:10:01] actually it's kind of a difficult to explain game, but it is a vertically

[00:10:05] I'm a sucker for all the vertically played games because I just think that's so

[00:10:07] neat. It's not something you really get anywhere else.

[00:10:09] So this is a game where you are basically trying to water flowers or plants on the ground

[00:10:15] and you're trying to get these droplets of water through obstacles down

[00:10:19] to safety so that they can water the plants.

[00:10:21] It's a pretty inexpensive game.

[00:10:23] It's a very fun one.

[00:10:25] The big puzzle game on the system is Gunpei, of course, named after Peiakoi,

[00:10:30] which is a gosh puzzle games are hard to explain when you don't have pictures or anything.

[00:10:36] There you have all these different shaped lines and you're trying to get

[00:10:39] the line from one side of the screen to the other.

[00:10:42] But they're kind of they're sloping in different directions.

[00:10:45] They're bending in different directions and you get higher scores.

[00:10:48] The more that you can like kind of intersect and get to the next screen.

[00:10:51] And there were several Gunpei games made for the Wander Swan.

[00:10:54] There was just straight up Gunpei.

[00:10:56] There was a Atari Panda Gunpei, which is a very cute panda themed gunpei.

[00:11:02] And then there is a Wander Swan color version called Gunpei EX,

[00:11:05] which is just a little bit more dynamic and flashy and colorful and stuff.

[00:11:10] Now, one of my favorites is Flash Koi-Bitokun,

[00:11:14] which is you're a little ninja trying to get people to fall in love with each other

[00:11:18] by getting hearts through different obstacles from one person to another.

[00:11:23] There's a game called Engacho, which is that one actually came out

[00:11:27] on PlayStation One as well.

[00:11:28] So if you don't want to deal with the Wander Swan version,

[00:11:31] there's a Japanese PlayStation game.

[00:11:33] But Engacho is it's a weird one that my understanding of this phrase

[00:11:37] and maybe you can help me out here since you live in Japan is

[00:11:41] that it's something that like little boys will kind of ex ex as they do

[00:11:47] something gross, like they'll say Engacho and then like fart or something like that

[00:11:51] blow some boogers or something.

[00:11:53] So everyone in this game is a gross monster.

[00:11:56] There's like a flying butt.

[00:11:57] There's like a guy with big hairy armpits.

[00:11:59] I mean, it's just a very silly looking game.

[00:12:01] But it's another kind of obstacle game where you're trying to get

[00:12:04] from one side of the level to the other.

[00:12:06] And every move you make makes these weird monsters move

[00:12:10] in a puzzly way either towards or to your right or whatever.

[00:12:14] So if you take one step forward, this monster will also take one step forward.

[00:12:18] But this other monster will take one step to the left or one step to there.

[00:12:21] And it's consistent.

[00:12:23] So the flying butt monster or whatever always moves two steps back

[00:12:26] when you move one step forward or something like that.

[00:12:30] But it's another just kind of fun obstacle avoidance game.

[00:12:34] And then my absolute favorite game on the system is called Rhyme Rider Caror Recon,

[00:12:40] which is made by the Vibra been people.

[00:12:44] So it's kind of an action rhythm game.

[00:12:47] And you're just this cute girl in a frog outfit, avoiding obstacles to the beat,

[00:12:51] basically, and defeating enemies to the beat.

[00:12:54] It's a very colorful, silly looking world.

[00:12:58] And it's a super fun one in the music is really good too.

[00:13:01] There's also some other good like platformers and stuff on it.

[00:13:04] There's Klanowa games on it.

[00:13:05] There's Ghosts and Goblins games on it.

[00:13:07] There's a Konami game called Buckers Evolution.

[00:13:10] But yeah, there's it's a really good system for just kind of your classic

[00:13:14] like handheld experiences that you're not going to sit down and play for four

[00:13:19] hours, you can sit down and play for like 20 minutes.

[00:13:22] Is there any sort of visual style or core element about the games

[00:13:24] that make you think this is emblematic of a typical Wonders One game?

[00:13:28] Oh, that's an interesting question.

[00:13:30] Well, I think because there's so much Bandai tie in, definitely you can spot

[00:13:34] a Bandai Wonders One game for a mile away, because it's just it tends to all be the IP

[00:13:39] and it's all very colorful and anime and all of that.

[00:13:42] No, I mean, I think the thing that sets at least the black and white games

[00:13:46] apart is I mean, it just looks like a super version of a Game Boy game.

[00:13:50] The graphics are more detailed.

[00:13:53] You get more shades of gray, I should say, and more pixels out of it.

[00:13:56] So you just get these really beautiful, detailed, but black and white graphics,

[00:14:01] which I think is really nice because I already like the aesthetic of the Game Boy

[00:14:04] and it's kind of cool to see it cranked up a few notches.

[00:14:08] Yeah, one game that really stands out to me is that there

[00:14:10] were there's actually two games based off of Juni Ito's horror manga

[00:14:13] Uzumaki on the Wonders One.

[00:14:15] And it's an adventure game and the panels from the manga are rendered

[00:14:18] really beautifully in the game.

[00:14:20] And this kind of eight and 16 bit aesthetic mixed with the graphic

[00:14:24] illustrations is a really interesting mix.

[00:14:26] And last year, a game came out called World of Horror that visually looks like

[00:14:30] it takes a lot of inspiration from this Uzumaki Wonders One game.

[00:14:34] Are there any games that stand out to you as being inspired by Wonders One games?

[00:14:39] Oh, yeah, that's such a good question.

[00:14:42] I mean, first of all, there is a lot of future game developers

[00:14:45] that came out of the homebrew scene of the Wonders One.

[00:14:49] I mean, literally some of the people like the people who made Judgment

[00:14:53] Silver Sword, which was a game made for a competition.

[00:14:55] They're still making shoot-em-ups today.

[00:14:57] Those guys who were making games for the Wonders One.

[00:14:59] So that is still happening.

[00:15:01] No, but I would love to know if someone was inspired by a Wonders One game

[00:15:05] to create something else because I'm sure it's out there.

[00:15:08] But yeah, I don't know of any in particular.

[00:15:10] It's not a system that came out in the States.

[00:15:12] So I can't imagine there's a ton of Americans who grew up with

[00:15:16] the Wonders One game and are like, I'm going to make a game

[00:15:18] just like that someday.

[00:15:19] But you never know.

[00:15:20] Yeah, like you've mentioned before, it has a surprising amount

[00:15:23] of notable franchises represented on the hardware.

[00:15:25] The biggest is probably, at least for me, Final Fantasy,

[00:15:28] which has ports of the earlier games on the Wonders One.

[00:15:30] And this is actually how I first learned about the device as a kid

[00:15:34] because I would read in a magazine about, oh, Final Fantasy 2

[00:15:37] is coming to Wonders One in Japan.

[00:15:39] And I was thinking, how on earth is Wonders One getting these games

[00:15:43] but not a game joy?

[00:15:44] And yeah, wait a sec.

[00:15:45] We haven't even gotten Wonders One or Final Fantasy 2 yet.

[00:15:49] But Bandai obviously they have very strong connections and they hold

[00:15:52] licenses for a lot of major anime IP.

[00:15:54] Is there any franchise that made you think, whoa, I can't believe

[00:15:57] this has a Wonders One game?

[00:15:59] I think it is Final Fantasy for me as well.

[00:16:01] That's definitely the big one.

[00:16:03] It's the one that I think makes it stand out is not just like

[00:16:06] obviously the Wonders One never captured a truly substantial piece

[00:16:10] of the market here.

[00:16:11] I mean, Nintendo very soundly won this generation of handhelds.

[00:16:15] But they I mean, it held its own.

[00:16:16] It was enough to release three different iterations of this

[00:16:19] console and I mean, like dozens of colors that it came out in and

[00:16:23] Femitsu covered Wonders One games every single week.

[00:16:26] So I mean, this wasn't a nothing system.

[00:16:28] And I do think a big part of that had to do with that it was getting

[00:16:32] not just these anime licenses, but also some attention from like square

[00:16:37] and getting some RPGs on the system.

[00:16:39] For me, one franchise that stands out is The Ring.

[00:16:42] There is a The Ring game on the Wonders One.

[00:16:45] Which is like this is kind of what I really like about the

[00:16:48] Wonders One is that it is very peak late 90s and early 2000s.

[00:16:53] Japan in terms of a lot of aesthetics and ideas.

[00:16:55] And for me, this is kind of nostalgic because this is when I was

[00:16:57] starting to kind of get interested in Japanese culture.

[00:17:00] And I understood that, OK, Japan has games that America doesn't have.

[00:17:04] And Wonders One is kind of emblematic of this moment in,

[00:17:07] I guess, gaming history.

[00:17:09] So at this time, Pokemon was the biggest thing in the world.

[00:17:11] And you can maybe argue it still is.

[00:17:13] But when the Wonders One hit, we were in the midst of the first wave

[00:17:16] of the Pokemonia.

[00:17:17] Are there any Pokemon clones or similar games on the Wonders One?

[00:17:21] I mean, there's a lot of Digimon games, if that.

[00:17:23] Yeah, I guess.

[00:17:25] I guess it does.

[00:17:26] Yeah, I think it's just a lot of Digimon games.

[00:17:29] I'm trying to think.

[00:17:30] I guess I probably should have pulled up a list of Wonders One games.

[00:17:33] I have a full set of Wonders One games.

[00:17:35] I have not attempted to play literally every one of the games yet,

[00:17:39] although a lot of them are pretty good amount of them.

[00:17:42] But I don't think there's anything other than the Digimon games

[00:17:44] that I would describe as a Pokemon clone.

[00:17:47] And I do think that had there been a good Pokemon clone,

[00:17:50] I might have been good for the system.

[00:17:51] Going back to the hardware a bit, you could actually input

[00:17:53] your birthday name and even your blood type into the hardware's memory.

[00:17:57] Are there any games to actually use this information?

[00:18:00] I think so.

[00:18:01] I'm trying to think of an example.

[00:18:02] I mean, the very silly example that I have is there is a very strange

[00:18:07] accessory for the Wonders One called Mamamite,

[00:18:10] which is a pregnancy tracking device and software.

[00:18:14] That is it's not a game at all.

[00:18:16] Really, it's just kind of like a software cartridge.

[00:18:19] And I mean, this is the late 90s.

[00:18:23] It is like peak.

[00:18:24] We are trying to create basically like a smartphone level thing,

[00:18:30] but we don't have smartphones yet, if that makes sense.

[00:18:33] So we didn't have computers to carry around in our pocket quite yet,

[00:18:36] other than game systems.

[00:18:38] So there's some companies around this time period

[00:18:40] that are trying to basically use them and be like, OK,

[00:18:43] like if you're carrying around a Game Boy in your pocket or a Wonders

[00:18:46] One in your pocket or something, like you have computing power.

[00:18:49] What other applications can we use this for?

[00:18:53] And even I mean, the Wonders One had a mobile adapter to get on the internet.

[00:18:56] Like these were things that they were trying to solve before again,

[00:19:00] before we had smartphones.

[00:19:01] But so I know that that information goes into the Mamamite,

[00:19:05] that it takes your that information when you're tracking your pregnancy.

[00:19:10] But I don't know of any other specific examples,

[00:19:13] but I'm nearly positive that there are.

[00:19:16] I wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple of dating sims on the system.

[00:19:20] I wouldn't be surprised if that factored into it.

[00:19:22] I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some of the horror games used that

[00:19:25] information to kind of try to freak you out, you know,

[00:19:27] I'll metal gear solid or whatever.

[00:19:30] But I don't know of any off top of my head.

[00:19:32] Now, one of the main reasons why I wanted to talk to you

[00:19:34] about the Wonders One is that you don't own one game.

[00:19:36] You don't own 50 games,

[00:19:37] but you own every single Wonders One game.

[00:19:40] There ever was and ever will be.

[00:19:41] I want to know about your Wonders One collecting journey.

[00:19:44] How did it start and how long did it take you to get a complete collection?

[00:19:48] Yeah, it started.

[00:19:49] Gosh, the whole thing took me probably four or five years.

[00:19:53] And it started sometime in 2013, 14 ish.

[00:19:58] I don't remember the exact year.

[00:19:59] It was just something that I really like this system.

[00:20:02] I think it's really interesting.

[00:20:03] I think there's a lot of interesting, not just games for it,

[00:20:06] but also, like I was saying, like applications like this Mama Mite.

[00:20:10] There is a fishing sonar for the Wonders One.

[00:20:13] There's that mobile game adapter.

[00:20:15] There's there's some things on it that I think of

[00:20:18] has really interesting kind of intersections of games and technology.

[00:20:21] So I just thought I don't know of anyone that has a full set.

[00:20:24] I'm not even sure that I trust the Wikipedia list that is the full set.

[00:20:31] And so I'm just going to I'm just going to try to get them all myself.

[00:20:35] And at first it started off pretty easy because at least at the time

[00:20:39] no one really cared about this system, particularly not in Japan.

[00:20:44] So I was buying big lots of games from Yahoo auctions and just importing them.

[00:20:51] And anytime I got a double, I'd just resell it and start all over again.

[00:20:55] And that got me probably like three fourths of the way there before it started

[00:20:59] getting truly difficult.

[00:21:00] But the system has some just very, very rare stuff for it.

[00:21:06] And some of it was very expensive, but I don't even mean it in terms of expensive.

[00:21:12] It's just there are truly not a lot of copies of some of these.

[00:21:16] So for instance, Mama Mite was years and years of searching.

[00:21:19] I had saved search alerts.

[00:21:22] I had a couple people in Japan who were looking for me.

[00:21:25] And it took me forever.

[00:21:27] One finally popped up on Yahoo auctions.

[00:21:29] And I paid $2,500 for it.

[00:21:32] Wow.

[00:21:33] It was yeah, but it's super cool.

[00:21:35] And then let's see what else.

[00:21:37] So I mentioned earlier that there was like a homebrew game competition.

[00:21:41] It was called the Wonder Witch Grand Prix and they ran it three times.

[00:21:46] And the winners of the first two were they actually had their game

[00:21:49] published on a physical cartridge.

[00:21:52] And this cartridge was sold in super limited amounts.

[00:21:54] So that's Judgment Silver Sword, which is a fantastic shoot them up.

[00:21:57] And Dicing Knight, which is kind of like a Zelda-like adventure game.

[00:22:03] Those two were sold in crazy limited quantities.

[00:22:05] They're very rare.

[00:22:06] And then probably the coolest rare thing on the system is it's something

[00:22:13] called Tenori on and it's made by Toshio Iwai who is he's the guy

[00:22:18] who made Electro Plankton.

[00:22:19] He also he's an artist in Japan.

[00:22:22] Like he's not he is a game developer, but he is mostly just an artist

[00:22:27] of all kinds of of all kinds of types, electronics and lights and sound and

[00:22:31] music and everything.

[00:22:32] He's done several art exhibitions in Japan when the Wonder Swan Dev Kit was released,

[00:22:39] which I guess I probably should have mentioned.

[00:22:41] There was a consumer Dev Kit for the Wonder Swan.

[00:22:43] That's how this whole homebrew scene started.

[00:22:46] When that started becoming available, he actually made part of his art exhibit

[00:22:51] using like he created some programs using this consumer Dev Kit.

[00:22:55] And that was part of his art exhibit.

[00:22:57] And one of them was a collaboration with a visual artist that was just like

[00:23:01] little animated chairs and tables and stuff that would dance when you press the buttons.

[00:23:06] But the other one was this really cool musical toy using the Wonder Swan.

[00:23:12] And you fill in different buttons on the grid and each one of those buttons

[00:23:15] is a sound that kind of plays and you can make pictures on this grid.

[00:23:20] You can fill it in however you want.

[00:23:22] And no matter what you do, it will sound nice.

[00:23:24] Like there's no way to make a horrible sounding beat or song with it.

[00:23:30] It's all meant to kind of work in harmony with each other.

[00:23:33] So he made this for this art exhibit and people attended it and they were like,

[00:23:38] this thing is so cool.

[00:23:39] This little toy you made is so cool.

[00:23:41] And they were posting on these Wonder Swan fan boards and everything.

[00:23:44] And they're like, man, I really wish you'd sell this.

[00:23:46] Like this thing is really cool.

[00:23:47] I had such a fun time at this art exhibit.

[00:23:50] And so Toshi Uai read that and he hand flashed 120 cartridges of this program

[00:23:57] and sold it at the next art exhibit.

[00:24:00] So there are 120 of them in existence.

[00:24:02] And that one also took me forever to find.

[00:24:05] It's very cool.

[00:24:05] Literally, it's a cartridge that came in like a little plastic baggie.

[00:24:08] But it wasn't sold in stores or anything.

[00:24:12] You just hand flashed them and sold it at this event.

[00:24:15] Do you own a Wonder Swan homebrew dev kit?

[00:24:18] I do.

[00:24:18] I own both the color one and the black and white one because they did make two.

[00:24:25] So you can make Wonder Swan games and continue the legacy of the Wonder Swan.

[00:24:28] If I was better at programming and C plus, I sure could.

[00:24:31] But yeah, I mean, I can in theory.

[00:24:34] I think it would be really cool for someone who is into programming languages

[00:24:38] that aren't used quite as often anymore and into...

[00:24:42] It's kind of a tough thing to get up and running because it's all

[00:24:44] you connect it with like a serial port and everything.

[00:24:46] It's all stuff from computers from the late 90s, early 2000s.

[00:24:50] Like things our computers don't have anymore.

[00:24:52] Like a CD drive, for instance.

[00:24:54] But yeah, once you get that set up, you totally can just create some games on it

[00:24:58] and get them onto this.

[00:25:00] It comes with a little cartridge, Wonder Swan cartridge included.

[00:25:03] And you can flash the games onto it and play them.

[00:25:05] It's really cool.

[00:25:06] Do you have a favorite Wonder Swan hardware color?

[00:25:09] Ooh, maybe the...

[00:25:13] Oh, there's so many good ones.

[00:25:14] They made so many cute ones.

[00:25:15] I am really partial to the whole line of the black and white ones that were...

[00:25:21] There was like a mint one, a melon one.

[00:25:25] And then I forget what they called the light blue one,

[00:25:27] but they're all just like these very cute little kind of pastel-y colors

[00:25:32] that are really gorgeous.

[00:25:33] They made some really nice colors for the system.

[00:25:35] I'm just a big fan of the skeleton blue color.

[00:25:38] Just any type of skeleton case looks awesome.

[00:25:41] I got to say all of that.

[00:25:42] I mean, it's very of the time.

[00:25:43] Right.

[00:25:43] It's the same kind of like that iMac or funtastic Nintendo 64 or atomic purple.

[00:25:52] It's all that era that colored clear tech is so cool.

[00:25:57] Yeah, definitely.

[00:25:57] I'm a big fan of that.

[00:25:58] I really hope they bring it back and I'm sure they will.

[00:26:00] It'll loop around to where the people in charge are nostalgic for that.

[00:26:02] So hopefully it'll be back sooner than later.

[00:26:05] Totally.

[00:26:06] I don't know why that's not a switch option yet.

[00:26:08] I see people...

[00:26:08] Yeah.

[00:26:09] I know that they've made third-party replacement doicon cases that are all those clear colors, but...

[00:26:16] Do you have any tips for somebody wanting to start their own Wonderswan collection?

[00:26:20] Yeah.

[00:26:20] I would start with a couple of the simpler games like a puzzle game or something like that.

[00:26:25] And I would honestly just start with the black and white Wonderswan.

[00:26:27] They're still very cheap.

[00:26:29] They're like, I still don't think you'll be paying more than $45 or $50 for them.

[00:26:33] They've gotten more expensive as more people have discovered it,

[00:26:36] but they're still on the fairly cheap side.

[00:26:39] And there's a pretty good amount of just very playable puzzle games, rhythm games,

[00:26:45] even some platformers and stuff for that console that won't break the bank.

[00:26:49] If you decide you really love it, then you can start getting into the Swan crystal

[00:26:53] or maybe even getting a modded one or something like that.

[00:26:56] But I think to start, I would honestly tell people to just get a regular Wonderswan

[00:27:01] and maybe a copy of Gunpei or something like that and just see how it feels,

[00:27:05] how you like the form factor and if you're having fun with it to make a bigger investment in it.

[00:27:11] So the Wonderswan was released in 1999, but it stopped production in 2003.

[00:27:15] What was the downfall of the device? Was the GBA just too dominant?

[00:27:19] Yeah, it just really never got a good foothold in the market.

[00:27:24] There were even talks to bring it to the United States, but they all just kind of fell apart.

[00:27:28] And yeah, it just, I mean, it kind of chugged along the entire time.

[00:27:33] There was never a point in its life where it was a dominant console or even like a threatening to

[00:27:39] maybe slightly dethrone the Game Boy console. It was always kind of niche.

[00:27:45] And yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly how accurate these numbers are, but it seems like

[00:27:51] it probably picked up only about eight or nine percent of the market share.

[00:27:55] And again, that's just in Japan. So you haven't even brought it to a larger market

[00:27:59] like the United States or something. So people liked it, but it just ultimately wasn't

[00:28:05] supported. And if you're a developer, what are you going to make games for?

[00:28:08] The one that has 80 percent of the market or 8 percent of the market?

[00:28:13] And it is a little ironic because there are some Wonderswan ports to the Game Boy Advance.

[00:28:18] Even the Final Fantasy games on Game Boy Advance are adjusted versions of the Wonderswan

[00:28:22] ports. So some people have been playing Wonderswan games without even realizing it.

[00:28:27] Yeah, I mean, the Final Fantasy ones are interesting because those genuinely are much

[00:28:31] better on Wonderswan than they are on Game Boy. There's I guess like the PSP versions of them

[00:28:36] are probably a closer analog because you get some more of those fancy effects and stuff on them.

[00:28:42] I think the Wonderswan ones play a little nicer than the Game Boy ones, but

[00:28:46] they're not in English. So not much you can do about that.

[00:28:49] Bandai and other third party companies haven't really made an effort for a revival or

[00:28:53] porting the games to modern hardware. Even the 25th anniversary of acknowledgement from Bandai

[00:28:58] was just some new merch like a shirt and some stickers. Why do you think there hasn't been an

[00:29:03] effort into at least porting Wonderswan games to modern hardware or releasing some collection?

[00:29:08] Yeah, I don't know. I have to think that that's probably just a lack of interest or a perceived

[00:29:14] lack of interest in the Japanese market because again, I mean, I just I don't think that many

[00:29:19] people in the United States other than us nerds who are really paying attention to what's going on

[00:29:26] over there, if you told the average Nintendo Switch owner that they're making a Wonderswan

[00:29:31] collection, they'd be like, oh, what is a swan? It's not a super well known console. I mean,

[00:29:37] like you said, you obviously saw it pop up in some magazines and stuff, but it wasn't

[00:29:42] a big splash over here. So I do wonder, I've always thought that they could do more in

[00:29:47] Japan. But at the end of the day, it really is a lot of licensed anime stuff. And I just don't know

[00:29:52] how much of a market there is or how much of a hunger, I guess I should say is over in Japan for

[00:29:58] like, I really miss this these four one piece games as opposed to the other four one piece games

[00:30:05] on the PlayStation one or the other four on the PlayStation two or the you know what I mean?

[00:30:09] Right. The Wonderswan turned 25 years old just a few weeks ago. What would you say

[00:30:14] is the legacy of the Wonderswan? I think to the people who were into the Wonderswan,

[00:30:20] it has potentially an enormous legacy over there. I mean, that homebrew scene that I mentioned was,

[00:30:26] I mean, that created a whole generation of game developers in theory. Like there were people who

[00:30:32] were able to do really interesting things with that. By the way, that competition wasn't just

[00:30:37] for games. There were people who made like a GPS that worked with the Wonderswan. There

[00:30:41] was a blog about a guy who used a Wonderswan as like his GPS when he went parachuting and he had

[00:30:48] like this whole kit set up that his Wonderswan was like his guide for like skydiving and parachuting.

[00:30:56] It's a really, really interesting console that did a bunch of really cool things and just sadly

[00:31:00] not a very long life on it. Even just in the middle of its life, there were all kinds of fun

[00:31:05] things planned for it that just never panned out. I mean, there's going to be a camera

[00:31:09] accessory. There was going to be a GPS accessory. There were going to be games for this GPS accessory.

[00:31:14] There was basically going to be like a proto-Pokemon Go with this GPS accessory. There was like a

[00:31:20] Pac-Man game for it and just really, really interesting stuff that was all kind of cooking

[00:31:26] and just never really had a chance to launch. So I think its legacy is mostly as like a,

[00:31:32] it's almost like an alternate history. It's like what cool stuff could have been and

[00:31:36] what cool stuff was already starting to cook with it that just never quite found the market.

[00:31:41] But it's such a fascinating piece of technology that could never exist again because we have

[00:31:45] smartphones. I have no reason for a console that can be this versatile and do this many

[00:31:50] weird things because that's basically just what a smartphone is now. It's cool to see a video

[00:31:55] game console trying to do that. All right, final question. Let's say Bandai does release

[00:32:00] a Wonder Swan Classic or a Wonder Swan Mini similar to Nintendo re-releasing the Game and Watch.

[00:32:05] Pitch it to me. What do you want it to look like and what games do you want loaded onto it?

[00:32:10] Oh, well I think we have learned that it needs to have a backlit screen. Not even because I

[00:32:17] think it needs it. I have an IPS mod at Wonder Swan. I use them interchangeably. Like I personally

[00:32:23] like both but I'm a big Playdate fan and everyone hates that the Playdate doesn't have a

[00:32:27] backlit screen. So I think that's a non-negotiable. Yeah, I think that in a perfect world it would

[00:32:32] have kind of that Playdate-esque marketplace and you could still have that homebrew scene on it in

[00:32:39] much the same way that the Playdate does right now but that's a very lofty goal. I think the

[00:32:43] more the thing that would probably happen is just a nice pretty version but I think it would

[00:32:49] just kind of have to be the same size basically same form factor maybe you'd have to do something

[00:32:54] to it to make it just look a little different I guess because all of these classic systems they're

[00:32:58] either mini or they're you got to do something. I don't know what but I'd want it to have a very

[00:33:03] similar form factor and then I think that your collection in there is going to have a lot of the

[00:33:08] puzzle games. It's going to very heavily feature Gunpei I think but I think it would be really

[00:33:13] cool to include some of those RPGs even if you don't necessarily get them all translated just

[00:33:20] as a curiosity to kind of boot up and be like oh yeah this is really interesting. This is a game

[00:33:25] I haven't seen before. What would my dream list of games include? I mean I mentioned a lot of my

[00:33:30] favorite games already. I think you'd probably have some of the like pocket fighter games or

[00:33:37] like the Guilty Gear petite games on it. I think some of the musical games on there would

[00:33:44] be interesting too like the Beat Mania and Turn Table as DJ Battle. I think you'd want to have some

[00:33:50] of the just classic everybody knows them games. I mean there was a Tetris on there, there was Puyo

[00:33:55] Puyo 2, there's Mr. Driller on Wonder Swan is fantastic. Yeah I think you'd have to have

[00:34:01] kind of a mix of like something everyone can enjoy so a lot of those puzzle games and stuff

[00:34:05] and then a couple of surprising things. I do think those Uzumaki games should be

[00:34:08] interesting surprise to be on there like yeah next to your happy little Puyo Puyo's

[00:34:13] and Mr. Driller is in all of that it's this these horror games. Awesome well I'm glad to

[00:34:19] get to chat with you about the Wonder Swan definitely an important part in Japanese gaming

[00:34:23] handheld history so Kelsey where can people find you? I am not very on social media anymore

[00:34:30] these days I'm actually on Blue Sky mostly which is just at Kelslow and Blue Sky. I am on

[00:34:36] Instagram at Tentacals if you are in Seattle or not in Seattle and in the market for some

[00:34:43] fun like video game related stuff you can support my store it's Pinkerilla Games we've got three

[00:34:48] locations in Seattle and then we saw some merch and plushies and other fun stuff on our website

[00:34:54] PinkerillaGames.com. Great and the links to everything will be in the podcast description so

[00:34:58] listeners check it out. Kelsey Lewin once again thanks for joining me. Yeah thanks for having me

[00:35:03] and happy birthday to the Wonder Swan. Wonder Swan was 1999 but what about a year before that in 1998?

[00:35:15] Obviously the biggest game of that year was none other than Wrecking Crew 98.

[00:35:19] I mean it's got the year in the name this was released a few days ago via Nintendo Switch online

[00:35:24] and it amazingly got a western release so this is the first time that the game has left Japan.

[00:35:29] Even within Japan Wrecking Crew 98 was only re-released once before in 2016 on the Wii U.

[00:35:36] Man Wii U really had a lot of surprising virtual console games that people had no idea even existed

[00:35:41] until they hit the switch. Mother 3 actually came out on the Wii U's virtual console so

[00:35:46] they're Kurukuru Kururin and the Super Mario Bros. 3 e-reader levels so thank you Wii U.

[00:35:51] Anyways Wrecking Crew 98 has a pretty unique history for one yeah it's a Super Nintendo game

[00:35:57] that came out in 1998 mere months before Ocarina of Time or Metal Gear Solid or the Dreamcast in Japan.

[00:36:04] Originally it was released via Nintendo Power not the magazine but instead in Japan it was the name

[00:36:09] of a service where you could bring blank SNES cards which were sold to these kiosks and then you

[00:36:14] could download games. Wrecking Crew was originally only available through this but a few months after

[00:36:20] its Nintendo Power release it did get a normal cart release and you might be thinking is this

[00:36:24] secretly the last SNES game? No not by a long shot Metal Slater Glory Directors Cut came out in 2000

[00:36:32] thanks to Nintendo Power and hey that game did get a Wii U release so it will be coming to

[00:36:37] switch eventually one would have to think. An obscure title that is secretly one of the most

[00:36:42] important Nintendo games ever. Wrecking Crew 98 is not one of the most important Nintendo

[00:36:46] releases ever but it is an interesting one. It was developed by R&D One and Pax Sofnica

[00:36:52] a studio that supported many notable Nintendo games in the 90s like Donkey Kong 94, Pokemon Snap

[00:36:58] and even the Game Boy Hamtaro games. With the release of the Mario vs DK remake and now Wrecking

[00:37:03] Crew 98 it is a big year for Mario puzzle spin-offs that harken back to its pre-Super Mario days.

[00:37:09] He was doing a lot before he decided to be the king of 2D platforming

[00:37:12] and one of his jobs was in construction in the original Wrecking Crew for NES.

[00:37:17] This game is pretty much a sequel but instead the focus is more on competitive multiplayer

[00:37:21] puzzle battles instead of a single player arcade PvE type of experience. It is almost

[00:37:26] closer to something like Puyo Puyo or Panel Dupont instead of the original game which for me

[00:37:31] is a more fascinating concept because it does join the ranks of Japan only 90s Nintendo puzzle games

[00:37:36] that never found its way over here like Mario Super Picross or Kirby Super Star Stacker.

[00:37:42] Which are both on NSO so thank you NSO. The gameplay is fundamentally the same as

[00:37:47] the original game. You have a hammer, you break things and you climb ladders. But built upon that

[00:37:52] is a tile matching game where you need to match three or more of the same tiles to clear the stage

[00:37:56] and send junk to your enemy. Whoever's tiles reaches the top of the screen loses so pretty

[00:38:01] much the rules of every puzzle game ever. Unlike in the original game where it was just you

[00:38:05] vs enemies you are always in a match against someone via split screen. Just the very concept

[00:38:10] of the game is so fascinating to me I can't think of another game that had a sequel that

[00:38:14] just turned it into a multiplayer puzzle game. I wouldn't count Pocket Fighter since that is

[00:38:19] basically just a puzzle game with a three-fighter skin. This still has the gameplay mechanics of

[00:38:23] Wrecking Crew but they've stacked on another layer on top of that. Another gameplay element

[00:38:28] that stands out is that all the tiles are different in terms of what junk they send to

[00:38:32] your foe. Some of the tiles can summon enemies that are straight out of the original game,

[00:38:36] others are tiles that push blocks up, others that can put bricks in front of each tile

[00:38:40] which forces the player to hammer the bricks in order to reveal them. It is creative in that

[00:38:45] not only do you have to match the colors you need to think specifically about what you want to match

[00:38:49] in order to mess up your opponent. Maybe I'm wrong about this or maybe this is in some other

[00:38:54] games but I don't think a five match of Green Puyo Puyo is different from a five match of Purple

[00:38:59] Puyo Puyo right? I will say that the one that covers all your tiles with bricks is pretty brutal.

[00:39:06] I don't want to say broken but since it is a tile matching game you kind of need to see the tiles

[00:39:12] and you've got to manually break the bricks of each one to reveal them so if the enemy can cover

[00:39:16] up three or four of your rows it's hard to come back from. Conceptually it's quite deep in force

[00:39:21] as the player to juggle a lot of balls in the air but this is also what makes it much more

[00:39:25] difficult than something like Pen of the Pawn for example. You have to move Mario,

[00:39:29] you have to break bricks to reveal tiles, sometimes you have to break tiles to prevent

[00:39:33] them from reaching the top or to organize them. You also have to climb up ladders to different

[00:39:37] levels then you have to use a crank to shift over the tiles and set up combos. Oh and also

[00:39:42] you need to walk across each level and sometimes jump over gaps. This is a far cry from just

[00:39:46] swapping tiles like you do in most puzzle games. It can be very overwhelming and you

[00:39:51] can easily get bodied. The AI here is pretty tough and tough early on. It's not like puzzle

[00:39:56] games where you can easily breeze through the first few enemies and then hit a wall.

[00:40:00] Everyone is strong here from the get go. But since there is no real penalty for losing

[00:40:05] you can just sit back and kind of observe to see what the enemy is doing to understand the flow of

[00:40:09] the game and see what kind of combos they're setting up. Due to the complexity of the mechanics

[00:40:14] it's not very pick up and play like a lot of other classic puzzlers from this era.

[00:40:18] But I can certainly see its focus on trying to be a bit more rich in mechanics

[00:40:21] being interesting to hardcore fans of the genre. Yet I can still also easily see a kid playing

[00:40:26] this and being like, what do I do? You can do multiplayer battles against a friend or the CPU

[00:40:31] but there is also a brief story mode that has you fighting against enemies from Wrecking Crew and

[00:40:35] yes even Form and Spike. The sprite work in all the cutscenes and the game overall looks very

[00:40:40] nice and the story segments are kind of in this Yoji's Island-esque storybook frame which is

[00:40:45] pretty eye catching. Later on in the game you find a bunch of odd enemies including a ghost

[00:40:49] girl, a rice ball, a dogu which is an ancient Japanese sculpture. Where are these

[00:40:54] characters in modern Mario games? Can dogu be in Smash? I also really like Mario's look here.

[00:41:00] It's his proto-Mario maker gear with the yellow construction cap but he just wears his normal

[00:41:05] overalls. They weren't quite ready to give him a full yellow outfit just yet.

[00:41:09] I just love these types of games popping up on NSO and giving me and others an opportunity

[00:41:13] to finally try them out. The game is in Japanese but even if you don't know a single kana

[00:41:19] you can still manage pretty well. NSO is just so underrated when it comes to bringing obscure

[00:41:23] or unknown games back into the spotlight and thanks to NSO probably a dozen or so games

[00:41:29] got their first ever Western release. But it's a neat title to try out and a creative evolution

[00:41:34] of the Wrecking Crew gameplay formula. Oh and by the way you can just play the original Wrecking

[00:41:38] Crew in this game just in case you're too lazy to open up the NES NSO app. So if you've

[00:41:43] got NSO, if you like Mario, if you want to check off another game from your big list of Nintendo

[00:41:48] titles you've yet to play Wrecking Crew 98 is at least worth checking out for a few rounds.

[00:41:53] Good luck versus the dogu though. Another game I've been playing that just shadow dropped on

[00:41:57] Switch a few days ago is the awkwardly named The Exodate. Just call it Exodate, that's a Japanese

[00:42:03] name. It's from the dev Kotake Create who I believe is a solo Japanese dev. You might have

[00:42:09] seen this game since it went viral late last year but it is a first-person horror puzzle game

[00:42:13] where you traverse a Japanese subway corridor. It got a lot of attention because of its creative

[00:42:17] concept and its incredibly faithful rendition of a place many people have been to in Japan.

[00:42:22] I mean how many subway corridors have I traversed in my time here in Japan? Hundreds?

[00:42:27] Thousands? It's something so mundane but we don't often see it represented in a game.

[00:42:32] Also you can pretty much just take any mundane place in Japan, put it in a game

[00:42:36] and it will still grab people's attention. Who knew mundanity could be so interesting?

[00:42:40] The concept of Exodate is incredibly simple but oh so clever. It is very much a

[00:42:46] why didn't I think of that type of game. It's a blend of walking simulator,

[00:42:50] those spot the different types of puzzles and first-person horror.

[00:42:54] You are trying to get to Exodate but first you need to pass through exits 0 to 7.

[00:42:59] After going through the corridor once or twice, you realize that you've looped back to exit 0

[00:43:03] and then you're greeted with a sign that says if you spot an anomaly in the corridor,

[00:43:07] basically something unusual or odd that normally isn't there, turn around and go back.

[00:43:12] Otherwise if it's normal, proceed. The loop of the game has you walking down

[00:43:17] the same corridor over and over again having to decide whether to proceed or to turn back.

[00:43:21] If you mess up, you start back at exit 0. The corridor itself is purposefully nothing special.

[00:43:27] It's something I've seen countless times. White tiles on the walls and the floors,

[00:43:31] some posters on the left, some doors on the right and another city-dweller passing by.

[00:43:35] You don't think much about what it looks like the first time through but as you play

[00:43:39] the game you realize that every element needs to be carefully inspected if you are to make

[00:43:42] it to the end. I don't want to ruin what the anomalies are since the whole port of the game

[00:43:46] is to identify them but they range from blatantly obvious to incredibly hidden.

[00:43:50] I wouldn't say it's a pixel hunt type of game since it's nothing so obscure like

[00:43:54] the font of this poster is slightly different but there are many types of anomalies that

[00:43:58] are hidden in plain sight. There were plenty of times where I failed and legit had no idea

[00:44:02] what the anomaly was until I encountered it a few more times and thought, oh.

[00:44:08] Once you see that the next sign has you started at exit 0 again,

[00:44:11] you can just go back to the corridor and try to find the anomaly. Your progress is still reset

[00:44:16] but you can use that knowledge for next time. Also it seems like none of the anomalies that

[00:44:20] you turn back on repeat only the ones that you ignored or didn't notice. So the game does feel

[00:44:25] fresh during its short runtime, you aren't constantly seeing the same scary thing over and

[00:44:28] over again. The game has a good mix of very clever hidden changes in the hallway

[00:44:33] and immediately noticeable ones that will make your eyebrows flare up.

[00:44:37] It is very fun to turn the corner, see the hallway and immediately be like,

[00:44:40] nope. I said it's a horror game but it relies more on a creepy atmosphere instead of jump scares.

[00:44:46] A lot of the changes are supposed to be scary or freak you out but some are a little funny too.

[00:44:51] Nothing pops up two inches from your face and kills you but I think you can initiate a game

[00:44:55] over if you interact with some of the more blatantly ominous anomalies. I'm not a horror

[00:45:00] gamer at all, I will never touch another Resident Evil game but this has a good blend

[00:45:03] of being a bit creepy without making me throw my controller in the air. The whole experience is

[00:45:08] about an hour max. When you beat the game you get a sign saying how many anomalies you have left

[00:45:12] so if you choose you can just go through it again to clear them out. I had two left after

[00:45:17] my first playthrough then I found all of them my next time around and got a nice little sign

[00:45:21] thanking me for finding them all. It's definitely worth encountering all the anomalies

[00:45:25] and like I mentioned earlier there are no repeats until you clear everything

[00:45:28] so you can easily find the ones you missed unless you are a speed demon

[00:45:31] and finish the game in one or two runs. I think it is theoretically possible for someone to beat

[00:45:36] it in maybe 10 to 15 minutes but most won't have any idea what they're even looking for

[00:45:41] and what kind of anomalies are even possible so I'd say for most people it would take maybe

[00:45:45] an hour to clear. The game is only $4 though so do your dollar to hour calculation and see if

[00:45:51] it's worth picking up. But for me I had a great time with the Exodate. It takes something

[00:45:56] very specific about Japan and turned it into a creative gameplay experience.

[00:46:00] It's incredible that someone took what's essentially an unreal demo, something you practice with and

[00:46:05] play around with when making a game and flesh it out into what's essentially a brand new

[00:46:09] gameplay genre. I have to imagine like Suika Game another Japanese title with a very simple

[00:46:13] concept that hit it big there must already be imitators springing up. Even the developer

[00:46:18] already announced a follow-up Noribah 8 where you are inside a typical Japanese subway train.

[00:46:24] He says that it's not exactly like Exodate so it might have some new twist on the gameplay

[00:46:28] but it's going to be an instant buy for me if it captures the same vibe as Exodate.

[00:46:32] The dev is also working on another game Strange Shadows where you run away from giant monsters.

[00:46:37] I might skip that one. But Exodate absolutely worth putting on your radar.

[00:46:42] Though hopefully I won't encounter anything too creepy the next time I pass through a

[00:46:45] subway corridor. Drunk people I can deal with. That's it for games now for the news.

[00:46:50] Well I already kind of spoiled the news by talking about Raking Crew 98 but that along

[00:47:00] with Super R-Type and Amazing Hebreke are now available for an Nintendo Switch online.

[00:47:05] This is also the first ever Western release for Amazing Hebreke which is kind of like a

[00:47:09] party arena fighter. It was already on Japanese NSO so I played it there but if

[00:47:13] you don't have that you can now play it on your Western NSO app.

[00:47:17] A Japan exclusive NSO game is Marvelous Another Treasure Island the direct oral debut of one

[00:47:22] Ajiyao Numa. I've always been meaning to play it and now is as good as time as any.

[00:47:27] I definitely want to cover it on the podcast in the future hopefully with the guest so

[00:47:30] look forward to it. There was also an Indie World this week. The Exodate which I just talked

[00:47:34] about showed up in the Japanese Indie World but not in the US one despite being available

[00:47:38] worldwide. I think by default that's the most interesting thing from the show. Honestly

[00:47:43] nothing really caught my eye. The big announcement is that Steam World Heist 2 is coming but I've

[00:47:48] never played the first one yet I have heard great things about it so maybe I should just wait for

[00:47:53] this one. But no Wildermith on Switch, no Silk Song. Those games exist right. It's not just some

[00:47:59] shared delusion. I feel like there should be more news. There was an endless ocean trailer

[00:48:03] that told us stuff we already know. Did I miss something else in the Nintendoverse?

[00:48:08] There's a G mode Persona 3 game coming soon that's neat. These new segments are really

[00:48:12] short when there's no big plushy announcement. So let's just wrap it up. Thanks as always for

[00:48:16] listening. Be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app. Leave a

[00:48:21] 5-star review as well. It really helps with visibility. The podcast is also available on

[00:48:25] YouTube so like and subscribe there as well. I'm on Twitter, threads, Blue Sky, Instagram.

[00:48:29] Just search for Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description.

[00:48:33] If you like the podcast be sure to share it with your friends and on social media.

[00:48:37] If there's anything you want me to talk about or cover don't be shy just message me on

[00:48:40] Twitter. The next episode will be on May 5th. See you next time. Matane!