Someone who doesn’t follow the video game industry as closely as a geek like myself would probably be unaware of the fact that one of the most successful games right now in Japan is a simple game called Brain Training (I’d link the Nintendo Japan site for this game, but it wouldn’t do any good, unless of course you can read Japanese). In fact, it’d be inappropriate to call it a game. It is, in fact, anything but a game.
I just read this piece at Cabel’s Blog LOL (a new blog to me, on the feed list it goes) and it does a great job of both explaining what this game is and how it has taken hold in Japan. While I don’t know if this game will ever see the light of day here in the States (doubtful), I’d love to see games similar to this for us to play.
The whole article is great. Nintendo seems to be coming through on the promise to make games that everyone can play. As Cabel says:
… there are a lot of people who could play video games, but don’t, because the right software isn’t there.
I’d just add “yet” to the end of that sentence.
(There’s more Brain Training items at GameSetWatch)
My wife and I have been screwing around with Electroplankton for the last week. It’s a hoot. It does absolutely nothing.
I think there can be a market for games like this.
Yeah, exactly! While there will always been shooters and sports games, we can expect some quirky, fun games that really aren’t games. I’ll have to give Electroplankton a try.