is a 2002

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

and

indieszero is a Japanese video game developer headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Founded on April 21, 1997, it is a frequent collaborator with Nintendo, developing some of their smaller scale and more experimental titles. Overview The name is a ...

and published by Nintendo for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

. The game was never released outside Japan. The game is billed as an where the player ventures between the game's "real-life" town and internet. The game was originally planned for the

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

, but was switched to the

. The game's characters were designed by

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

Momoko Sakura , known professionally as (May 8, 1965 – August 15, 2018) was a Japanese people, Japanese mangaka, manga artist. She was best known as the creator of the long-running manga ''Chibi Maruko-chan''. Biography Sakura was born on May 8, 1965. She ...

, best known for writing

Chibi Maruko-chan is a manga series written and illustrated by Momoko Sakura. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of Momoko Sakura, a young girl everyone calls ''Maruko'', and her family in suburban Japan in the year 1974. Maruko is a troublemak ...

. Her sister, Noriko Miura, designed the basis for the game and contributed to its script, while

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

Takashi Tezuka is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He is a senior officer in Nintendo's Entertainment Planning & Development division and is an Executive Officer at Nintendo itself. Tezuka was the right-hand man to Shigeru Miyamoto an ...

, and

Satoru Iwata Satoru Iwata (; December6, 1959July11, 2015) was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer and producer. Beginning in 2002, he was the fourth president of Nintendo, as well as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo of America from ...

also contributed to the game's development as producers or advisors.

Gameplay

The player takes the role of a young boy or girl who is on the "carnival committee" of Colortown; a mysterious town where there is no nightfall. The player ventures through the game's overworld in

top-down perspective A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...

to fulfill two objectives: receive a star from each of the eight guardian gods living in the town to inaugurate the town's festive

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

, and invite as many people as possible to the carnival. The final goal of the game is to invite all 100+ characters of the game to the carnival, but only a portion of the characters can be invited during the first playthrough. Completion of the final goal requires at least three playthroughs of the game. In preparing for the carnival, the player is faced with various puzzles or mysteries present within the town. The player can meet with local residents directly to receive items useful in solving the puzzles, or access the game's simulated internet using a PDA. Relevant information can be gained through the web pages, emails, forums, chat rooms, and search engines simulated within the game. None of the puzzles and mysteries are difficult to solve, and few puzzles are presented during the first playthrough, allowing the player to get through to the carnival fairly easily. A fair portion of the game is spent as a tutorial, where the player learns the controls from supporting characters, and the game's dialogue and colorful style is directed towards casual gamers and young children. The game also includes a mode where the player can create their own

homepage A home page (or homepage) is the main web page of a website. Usually, the home page is located at the Root directory, root of the website's Domain name, domain or subdomain. For example, if the domain is example.com, the home page is likely l ...

viewable on the game's internet. The player can design an original homepage by entering text and using preset icons and wallpaper. A homepage designed by Sakura Momoko and her sister is included as an example. This homepage can be exchanged between cartridges via the

Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable The also known as ''Video Link'' in early versions, is an accessory for the Game Boy line of handheld consoles. Introduced in 1989 alongside the original Game Boy, it was revised over four generations with varying degrees of backward compatibi ...

, and can serve as a communication tool similar to an exchange diary.

References

Interview with Noriko Miura and Toru Osawa

External links

{{in lang, ja 2002 video games Adventure games Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Indieszero games Japan-exclusive video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo games Social simulation video games Video games developed in Japan Video games produced by Shigeru Miyamoto

Gameplay

See also

References

External links