i’ve spent the last couple of days doing research… okay, to everybody else that probably would have looked like me simply sitting at my PC and playing games but it’s research i tell you!!

One thing that struck me is how different Japanese culture is to western and okay, this is probably going to be a case of “Jason stating the obvious” but bear with me; the reason i found myself thinking about it is cute ‘em ups (essentially a cute shoot ‘em up, although the distinction is usually cosmetic because they’re just as hard to play as normal ones) and in particular a preview of a game called TobiChiyon where the player controls a cute anime girl in a sailor suit who achieves flight by flapping her pigtails…!

But it’s not the bizarre nature of that powered flight that set me thinking, it’s more that someone put the mechanic into a game. In the UK in particular, we’ve a tradition of kids comics where the characters have unusual attributes, the Bash Street Kids, Bananaman or Buster Gonad but there aren’t any shoot ‘em ups where these characters are put into service as player craft. Bananaman might perhaps work (with bananas topping up the flight power perhaps) but the Bash Street Kids would need something to help with the flying and Buster would have to… well, think “space hopper” and gravity. Ouch.

Hang on, i’ve sidetracked myself. The “point” i was going for was that in Japan the idea of taking a cartoon character and simply giving them an excuse to fly and fire lasers doesn’t even raise an eyebrow but we just don’t attempt the same here for some bizarre reason; what’s wrong with Johnny Fartpants using his “powers” for propulsion and weaponry? It’s tempting to say “i’ll do one, damn it!” and present a rough design but y’know what? Sitting here right now, i honestly can’t come up with anything…