Welcome to our weekend segment, where we showcase recent or upcoming Japanese indie games that share a specific theme. This week, we’re taking our feet off the brakes with some high-octane/crazy games. Japan is known for having some of the most outlandish game designs, so what better way to showcase how weird things can get than by featuring titles that give you very little time to comprehend them?
Sushi Soul Universe
A sequel to Tadasumen’s previous title, I’m going to die if I don’t eat sushi!, Sushi Soul Universe features crazy cutscenes, loud-mouthed characters, and high-tempo tracks. If it weren’t for the fact that you can control the protagonist, you might mistake the game for an outlandish Japanese restaurant commercial.
Sushi Soul Universe is a 3D platformer that has you traversing over 60 unique levels as a tiny human. When the world is thrown into chaos by villains who want to rewrite the concepts of sushi, you must step up by eating as much of the delicious Japanese dish as you can.
A rapidly decreasing hunger meter dictates how much time you have left before dying, which can only be filled by consuming various sushi strewn throughout the levels. The goal is to reach the finish line while still having food in your belly.
As if things weren’t frantic enough, Sushi Soul Universe includes several skills that enhance your mobility and sushi-grabbing abilities. The game is also compatible with Steam scoreboards, letting players compete against each other in a time attack mode.
Developed and published under Tadasumen’s webpage, Kusoi Site, Sushi Soul Universe is available on Windows (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
Cult VS Gal
Keeping the momentum going is Cult VS Gal, a Doom-esque first-person shooter set within the backdrop of a collapsing empire. After a religious cult called Galwoya starts kidnapping citizens, the army sends in “Hell Smasher” Saki, a lone gyaru with anger issues, to put an end to the group’s heinous acts.
Despite its pixel art style, Cult VS Gal is a very violent game. As Saki, players shoot, decapitate, and flip off cult members with her guns, machete, and middle fingers, respectively. Whenever Saki decapitates an enemy, her tension rises, and she gains temporary invincibility. This incentivizes getting up close to eliminate as many foes as possible during the buff’s duration. To help focus on combat, the game features simple level designs and a mini-map.
Developed and published by Crush-vAdin, Cult VS Gal is four episodes long and available for Windows (Steam) and Nintendo Switch. A free demo is available on itch.io.
Pull Stay
Centering around Susumu, a hikikomori (shut-in) content creator who never leaves his house, Pull Stay puts players not in his shoes, but in the metal frame of his robot companion Robo. Tasked with protecting Susumu, your job is to prevent anyone from interacting with him. Whereas keeping a hikikomori away from other humans in real life is hardly a difficult task, Pull Stay’s visitors are a bit more insistent and will try to break into Susumu’s home.
To prevent waves of home invaders from desecrating your hikikomori master’s hallowed ground, Robo can create and set 15 types of traps around the house. These traps, which include a toothpaste turret and baked fish missiles, among others, require resources that can be acquired by breaking into neighbors’ houses. Once enough materials have been gathered, traps can be crafted and placed around Susumu’s home like a tower defense game.
Traps aren’t the only thing up Robo’s sleeves, as he also has his hefty metal arms and an arsenal of weaponry to choose from. The bulk of Pull Stay’s gameplay has you beating up home invaders and learning new moves in the process. Robo can also task Susumu to create new power-up items for him, which starts a series of mini-games that have you either praising or punishing him accordingly. Aside from protecting Susumu, Robo will also come across bosses that need to be dealt with to maintain peace in the household.
As if Pull Stay’s concept wasn’t interesting enough, the game was developed and published by Souji Nito, a real-life hikikomori who taught himself game development as a way to rebuild his life after living as a shut-in for ten years. After a brief stint in Early Access, the game is fully playable on Windows (Steam). A free demo is also available on the platform.
Macho Scooping
If you’ve ever wanted to take part in the classic matsuri (traditional Japanese festival) game of catching goldfish with a paper scoop, then Macho Scooping lets you do so with a slightly tantalizing twist. Instead of scooping goldfish, you and up to three other players see who can catch the most miniature muscular men in the set time limit.
There’s no sexual content in Macho Scooping; just good, clean fun. After capturing a macho man, you must carefully place him in a bowl before the paper scoop breaks. Unlike regular bodybuilders and athletes, the macho men in this game remain small for the duration of their lives. Capturing different types of macho men adds them to an encyclopedia, which details their statistics and personalities.
While adding more entries to your macho man Pokédex is fun, more competitive players who achieve high scores will be forever remembered on the Macho Scooping online leaderboards.
Developed by NEOLAVI and published by indiegamesjapan, Macho Scooping is available on Windows (Steam).
Agreeee
It only makes sense to end this list on a weird note, and Agreee couldn’t be any weirder. The goal is to review and accept all 12 terms and conditions, whereupon you can play what is meant to be the full game (which there is none). The catch is that, unlike other titles where you simply scroll down and click “Accept”, these terms and conditions screens are filled with various tricks and gimmicks.
From revolving prompts to “disagree” text boxes that are actively trying to shoot you down, the nonexistent game actively tries to get you to not play it. Agreeee also features a bug where the timer starts even before opening the Terms of Service. As fixing the bug would be too much of a hassle, official times start counting down after accepting the Terms of Service and end after clearing the “Heart-Pounding” Action Game.
Just to be clear, none of the terms and conditions stipulated carry any legal validity. They’re only there to entertain and very likely get on your nerves.
Developed and published by Best Man, Agreeee is available for Windows (Steam).
Those were five Japanese indie titles you can play which will surely have onlookers scratching their heads. Though there is a time and place for relaxing games, sometimes you just want to indulge in something fast-paced and weird to jumpstart your mind.
