StreetsAhead
Member
This game is weird.
It is essentially a F2P title, but one in which you can negotiate the price with the in-game store keeper.
You play as your Mii. The game starts by entering Darumeshi Sports Store run by Inuji Darumeshi, a 10 year-old dog (56 in human years) and former professional baseball player. He welcomes you and gives you a boiled egg, his favourite food, as a gift for coming to his store. Inuji is in a bad place- his wife has left him and his store is failing. Children no longer want to play his beloved sport of baseball, instead choosing to play inside.
But Inuji had an idea - he went to Hontendo (the game specifically differentiates it from Nintendo) to get a "4DS" and some baseball games to sell. Gosh darn it, if the kids aren't going to play baseball outside, they damn well will on their 4DS.
For listening to his story his gives you a 4DS and a demo of one of the baseball games.
Then, he tells you how hard it is raising ten kids without his wife around. So, you offer to look after one. The kids' names vary, but other than that they look exactly the same, but you are able to pick which one you want.
You take the kid back to your home and play the baseball demo, by climbing inside the 4DS and running along the cable to the TV.
The baseball game was simple - hit A when the ball comes. You get points for your timing - one, two, or three points. You get three dead balls before 'Game Over'. Each challenge requires a certain number of points to complete it. You get a grade based on your performance, which earns you stamps. Collecting enough stamps earns you items, like boiled eggs, and nose hair trimmers.
There are 6 challenges in the demo, but the kid informs me that there are 50 challenges in the 'full game'. There are different types of challenge - one had two ball machines shooting at me, one was nothing but trick shots. Each had 5 levels of difficulty.
Oh, did I mention that once practise is over the seemingly regular ball machines stand up and are effectively men dressed in full suits with the ball machines for heads.
Yeah. It's one of those games.
Once done with all the challenges, you emerge from the 4DS (which looks shockingly like a large 3DS). Magic or technology allows the items you collected in-game to be transferred to the real world. Of the game.
You then go back to the sports store and talk with Inuji. He shows off his full collection of titles - 10 in total. All variations on baseball - some are hitting, some catching, some aiming, some bat making. Each games costs 400 yen (or about US$4). This is paid for in real money - not fake in-game money as Inuji points out - from the eshop balance.
You can, with the help of the child you picked, negotiate the price. You do this by using the boiled eggs you collected from getting stamps, as well as the items. For example, I let him use my nose hair trimmers to clear up his prominent nose hairs (Do dogs have nose hairs?) and got 100 yen (or about US$1) off the price. You can keep negotiating. If you have enough items and patience you might even be able to get the game(s) for free, but I'm not sure. Certainly, the better you are at the games, the more stamps/items you would get and the more you would have to negotiate with.
The website informs me there are also coupons you can get, which would give you some money off (the site lists 10, 30, and 50 yen).
The game uses Chinese characters extensively and without readings, which is uncommon for a Nintendo game, and says to me that this is intended for an older audience than most of their titles. As does the story of Inuji's separation and the fact that you could spend as much as 4,000 yen on the title getting all the games. It's also spoken in a heavy Kansai dialect, which is very different to traditional Japanese taught in schools and colleges. It's the language of Kyoto though, where Nintendo is located. And the beleaguered salesman with a Kansai accent is almost a trope in Japan.
The game is interesting, and I'm going to do my best to play through it and see how little I can spend. This is obviously from the SPD group at Nintendo EAD - it has a simillar tone and humor to WarioWare and Game & Wario, but slightly more mature. It's certainly weird to have a Nintendo game asking you to cough up money, just as unnerving as the Rabbit in StreetPass Plaza asking about the StreetPass games was lately.
Here is the site: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/eshop/jbcj/index.html
The game was announced in the Nintendo Direct yesterday and is available now on Japanese 3DS' eshop for free. No launch plans for the West have been announced.
It is essentially a F2P title, but one in which you can negotiate the price with the in-game store keeper.
You play as your Mii. The game starts by entering Darumeshi Sports Store run by Inuji Darumeshi, a 10 year-old dog (56 in human years) and former professional baseball player. He welcomes you and gives you a boiled egg, his favourite food, as a gift for coming to his store. Inuji is in a bad place- his wife has left him and his store is failing. Children no longer want to play his beloved sport of baseball, instead choosing to play inside.
But Inuji had an idea - he went to Hontendo (the game specifically differentiates it from Nintendo) to get a "4DS" and some baseball games to sell. Gosh darn it, if the kids aren't going to play baseball outside, they damn well will on their 4DS.
For listening to his story his gives you a 4DS and a demo of one of the baseball games.
Then, he tells you how hard it is raising ten kids without his wife around. So, you offer to look after one. The kids' names vary, but other than that they look exactly the same, but you are able to pick which one you want.
You take the kid back to your home and play the baseball demo, by climbing inside the 4DS and running along the cable to the TV.
The baseball game was simple - hit A when the ball comes. You get points for your timing - one, two, or three points. You get three dead balls before 'Game Over'. Each challenge requires a certain number of points to complete it. You get a grade based on your performance, which earns you stamps. Collecting enough stamps earns you items, like boiled eggs, and nose hair trimmers.
There are 6 challenges in the demo, but the kid informs me that there are 50 challenges in the 'full game'. There are different types of challenge - one had two ball machines shooting at me, one was nothing but trick shots. Each had 5 levels of difficulty.
Oh, did I mention that once practise is over the seemingly regular ball machines stand up and are effectively men dressed in full suits with the ball machines for heads.
Yeah. It's one of those games.
Once done with all the challenges, you emerge from the 4DS (which looks shockingly like a large 3DS). Magic or technology allows the items you collected in-game to be transferred to the real world. Of the game.
You then go back to the sports store and talk with Inuji. He shows off his full collection of titles - 10 in total. All variations on baseball - some are hitting, some catching, some aiming, some bat making. Each games costs 400 yen (or about US$4). This is paid for in real money - not fake in-game money as Inuji points out - from the eshop balance.
You can, with the help of the child you picked, negotiate the price. You do this by using the boiled eggs you collected from getting stamps, as well as the items. For example, I let him use my nose hair trimmers to clear up his prominent nose hairs (Do dogs have nose hairs?) and got 100 yen (or about US$1) off the price. You can keep negotiating. If you have enough items and patience you might even be able to get the game(s) for free, but I'm not sure. Certainly, the better you are at the games, the more stamps/items you would get and the more you would have to negotiate with.
The website informs me there are also coupons you can get, which would give you some money off (the site lists 10, 30, and 50 yen).
The game uses Chinese characters extensively and without readings, which is uncommon for a Nintendo game, and says to me that this is intended for an older audience than most of their titles. As does the story of Inuji's separation and the fact that you could spend as much as 4,000 yen on the title getting all the games. It's also spoken in a heavy Kansai dialect, which is very different to traditional Japanese taught in schools and colleges. It's the language of Kyoto though, where Nintendo is located. And the beleaguered salesman with a Kansai accent is almost a trope in Japan.
The game is interesting, and I'm going to do my best to play through it and see how little I can spend. This is obviously from the SPD group at Nintendo EAD - it has a simillar tone and humor to WarioWare and Game & Wario, but slightly more mature. It's certainly weird to have a Nintendo game asking you to cough up money, just as unnerving as the Rabbit in StreetPass Plaza asking about the StreetPass games was lately.
Here is the site: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/eshop/jbcj/index.html
The game was announced in the Nintendo Direct yesterday and is available now on Japanese 3DS' eshop for free. No launch plans for the West have been announced.
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