Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game

ホク
Ho-Sun power! Make fun good!
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Some Company You've Never Heard Of™
Release date	2004
Genre	Surreal
Platform(s)	Genesis, Playstation 2
Rating	12
Would Pablo Picasso play it?	Probably thinks it's not "cool" enough to play.

“I play "Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game"! It make for good fun! Tee hee hee!”

~ Prepubescent Japanese girl on Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game

Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game (closest translation of the Japanese title Hoku, though some recent translations have been revised to read Super Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game) was developed by Capcom and released by Some Company You've Never Heard Of™ in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and the Sega Genesis. Despite the fact that it sold thousands of copies in Japan, it was inexplicably passed on by American game publishers until 2005, where Capcom decided to publish the game only in Romania.

Gameplay

One of the scenes that deserves to be an iconic part of the culture of Generation X, but never will be.

The purpose of Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game is to place whoopee cushions (Japanese batto meiku farutonoisu) under people as they are about to sit down. To make this seemingly simple task more difficult, the player's character is pursued by raccoon-dogs (Tanuki) dressed as firefighters, who sabotage the whoopee cushions by poking holes in them with pins.

Later levels add additional twists to the feverish gameplay, such as hidden explosive pumpkins and insane ambulance drivers who try to run you over. To extend play time, the game has hundreds of hidden easter eggs, many of which involve Pokemon and rice cakes.

Story

The game stars Hirokashi Tanaka, a mild-mannered citizen of Osaka. One day while talking to his boss on his cell phone, he intercepts a message from an alien race called the Tanuki planning to take over the world and use the humans as test subjects for their hair-care products. From this message, he learns that the Tanuki are impervious to all of Earth’s weapons, but their heads will a splode if they hear the sound of a human fart. They plan to solve this problem not by wearing ear plugs, but by secretly cementing the butts of every man, woman, and child on Earth. Hirokashi plans to thwart the alien’s invasion by planting as many whoopee cushions around the world as he can before they take over.

Throughout the game, Hirokashi tries to warn the people of Earth of an attack by aliens who are allergic to flatulence. He is consistently dismissed by anyone he talks to, except for a conspiracy theorist he meets in Nevada named Sally Derkins, who aids him by pointing him to the next place that the Tanuki will try to land using her tin-foil hat. As the game progresses, the Tanuki get more and more determined to kill Hirokashi, and the people of Earth consider him more and more of a lunatic.

Near the end of the game, the Tanuki successfully invade Hollywood, California. The people of Earth are finally convinced that Hirokashi was telling them the truth about the aliens, but they still think he’s nuts. They unite to build a giant whoopee cushion to make the Tanuki mothership a splode. With the mothership destroyed, Hirokashi and Sally express their love for each other as Hirokashi is carted to an asylum and the credits roll.

Development

The game's creator, Satoru Yokoyama, began production of the game in early 1987, hoping to have it completed in time for Christmas. This was not to be. The development team soon discovered that no system in existence at that time had the power to run the game that Yokoyama had in mind, much to the chagrin of Yokoyama, who cut out their stomachs and promised to return them when they found a way to make the game work. As the team worked on the game, the Sega Genesis was released, giving the team the processing power they needed to get their stomachs back. Unfortunately, before Yokoyama could release the game, all the computers holding the game files simultaneously crashed. The development team committed suicide shortly thereafter. Yokoyama spent the next few years trying to recover their work.

Production on the game came to an abrupt halt after Yokoyama's death in 1996. He was found dead after an apparent fall down a flight of stairs onto a knife. His friends suspected foul play. Following his death, no work was done on his game until it was found by his son, Ginpei. He completed the game in honor of his father, and to pay off his debt to the Japanese mafia, which doesn't exist.

Changes for the Romanian release

Some changes were made for the Romanian release in an effort to make it more "localized" for Romanian gamers. One apparent change was the alteration of the character names; supposedly, the Romanian consoles were unable to display Japanese characters, and you know how hard it is to play a video game when you can't see your character. Hirokashi Tanaka became "The Great Gaspy," the Tanuki became "mutants", etc. The Romanian game also features a training stage in which David Hasselhoff shows The Gaspy how to be awesome.

There were also certain plot points removed from the game because they likely would’ve prevented the game from being sold in Romania. One such deleted scene contains an epic soliloquy from one of the game’s unnamed characters, in which he denounces society in general for not using enough profanity. This scene contains so much profanity itself that sailors and Tourette’s sufferers would be put to shame, Samuel L. Jackson would simply be impressed, and the flesh on everyone else’s face would melt off. Also, during Chapter Seven of the Japanese version, it is revealed that Sally is a clone of Hirokashi; days after her creation, she was abducted by animal rights activists and carried to her foster parents in Arizona. As a result, during the big love scene at the end, Hirokashi isn’t just kissing his sister; he’s kissing himself, as well. Fearing that people would storm the development studios with pitchforks and torches over the apparent incestuous narcissism, the clone plot twist was replaced by the much less interesting fact that she has a thing for dresses made of tin-foil.

Reception

The game was highly praised in it's native country of Japan for being what it is; an incredibly obscure Japanese video game, which is a part of the charm. Roger Ebert, while he was visiting Japan at the time he played the game, gave the game 4 stars, stating "I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It's completely insane and furiously crazy enough to belong in a nuthouse, but that's the whole point. It made me feel like I should belong in a nuthouse, myself. I swear to God, the person over in Japan who made this game deserves a medal for this. I'd give this game 5 thumbs up if I had three extra thumbs on me." Richard Roeper was not pleased with the game, however, giving it only 1 and a half stars.

The game was also lovingly embraced by the people in Romania, who found the charming fart-blap sound of the whoopie cushions very "cute" and has garnered enough response for the possibility of a sequel.

Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game can still be imported from Japan for $75. While the ability to read kanji helps to fully appreciate the game, it is not necessary. In the opinion of many reviewers, it is an experience well worth the money, especially in unlocking the bonus live-action video (this article won't give it away, but let's just say it involves chickens, clowns, and crazy glue).

Legacy

A sequel to the game is in the works. Ginpei Yokoyama was noted to have said during an interview on the game, "I'm thinking that, if I decide to greenlight a sequel... I'll call it The Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game Which is the Sequel to the Previous One With the Same Name."

In addition, there have been several spin-offs of the game. The most notable of these is Incredibly Weird Japanese Video Game, which follows Jun Fujima, a popular character from Chapter Four, and his epic adventures in randomness. To date, this game has itself spawned nine sequels, three of which have won "Game of the Year" from Incredibly Obscure Japanese Game Magazine (unafilliated with Incredibly Obscure Japanese Video Game). Another popular spin-off is Incredibly Funky Japanese Video Game, a version of Dance Dance Revolution that uses a specially designed dance pad; every time the player misses a step, a hand reaches out from the back of the pad and slaps the player in the back of the head.