Okay, earlier this year, a very Japanese trailer for a very Japanese WiiWare game came out that fascinated everyone who saw it, no exceptions. The game, Muscle March, had you… well, just watch.
Besides hypnotizing anyone who saw it, the trailer did one other thing: it seemed to establish that, despite the stateside success of Katamari, Persona, and other very Eastern titles, there were still some games just too damn Japanese to come to our continent.
NOPE. INCORRECT.
Yesterday, Namco Bandai announced that Muscle March is coming to North America in Winter 2010. This is good news and bad news: the good news being that Muscle March is coming to North America in Winter goddamn 2010, the bad news being that it means next years’ Game of the Year will already have been released before it’s even April yet.
Here‘s the marginally more tame US trailer for the game, if you’re interested.
Alright, so full disclosure: Wired’s Chris Kohler did get his hands on a Japanese copy of Muscle March back in May. And yeah, he hated it. But you know what? No. When I buy Muscle March the exact millisecond it comes out next year, I won’t be doing it because I expect it to be a good video game. I’ll be doing it because I want an absurd, comical “cultural” “experience”. And you can’t put a price on that.
Unless they try and charge 800 Wii Points for it again. Because dude, I could be getting Pong Toss! Frat Party Games for that price. Which, if there is any justice in the world, has as big of an ironic following in Japan as Muscle March is sure to have here.
Hey!! Are you going to buy Muscle March when it comes out? Why not? Do you hate fun? Let us know in the comments!
I’m right there with you, Nick. When the first trailer for this dropped months ago my jaw hung agape and I whispered internally “oh goodness, how has this never been done before and do I need to move to Japan to experience such sparkling?”
500 Wii points, I’m all over it. 600, maybe (that’s a Bit.Trip game right there). 800, I’ll probably wait to read more reviews. 1000, it had better review pretty well. I’m a big fan of ridiculously quirky games that confuse anybody watching me play them, but it’s a recession, y’know.
My reaction exactly. As far as getting our money’s worth: I can tolerate excessive simplicity in a game if it’s entertaining enough, and this seems entertaining enough times 400.
The only thing that bums me out about Kohler’s hands-on with the game is when he says that eventually, “moving your arms into the correct position in enough time is nearly impossible”; hopefully this is a Kohler’s-slow-limp-arms limitation, not a Wii hardware limitation.
Either way, I think I’d prefer to play the game on the arcade unit. Apparently this was just a test unit they distributed to a few arcades to try out, kind of like Konami does with their Bemani games. Check this hotness out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1xbH84gBaI
As a person who is supposed to be attracted to men, I’d rather not vomit in my mouth at the image of grotesquely over-muscular bodybuilders in thongs.
At the risk of sounding pretentious about freakin’ Muscle March: I don’t think you “get” Muscle March.
To be honest, though, you are probably a more sane person for it.
I personally think this is AWESOME. Since the release of this game on WiiWare in Japan I’ve been looking forward to an EU/US release.
Just the whole theme, incredibly happy, has an impact on my mood.
And weren’t the reactions the same when Katamari came to the US?
Wow,
Wow, saw this.. Forgot about it. I ruv it!