Virtually Overlooked: Yume Penguin Monogatari
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.
Dance Dance Revolution may lead to weight loss, and the upcoming Wii Fit may be designed with exercise in mind. But there's only one game we can think of that is weight loss-themed without actually involving significant movement in real life. Konami's Yume Penguin Monogatari is all the fun of exercise without having to get up and stuff.
Why the game hasn't been announced for Virtual Console yet:
Konami just released a sort of prequel to this game, Antarctic Adventure, in Japan. There's only so much penguin adventure people can handle at once, right?
Why we think it should be on the Virtual Console:
While not exactly totally nonviolent, Yume Penguin Monogatari represents one of the least overtly conflict-based narratives in games. Even though it plays out as a hero vs. enemies platformer, the main conflict in the game is between the protagonist, Penta, and his own weight problem.
His girlfriend, Penko, has run off with an evil, thinner penguin named Ginji, because Penta is too rotund. In order to win her back, Penta must lose a predetermined amount of weight (as indicated by a heart icon on a fitness bar at the bottom of the screen), picking up diet beverages and avoiding the many apples and onigiri tossed at him by Ginji's henchmen.
As Penta shapes up, his abilities change. At his doughiest, he can only walk sluggishly and attack with an awkward belly flop. He first gains the ability to kick, and then, having gotten sufficient aerobic exercise, can shout "PO" loudly enough to damage enemies. Even the projectiles his little plane fires in the shooter stages change based on his weight. At the end of each level is a phone, on which Penta can call Penko and tell her when he has met his goal weight for the level.
The interesting thing about Yume Penguin Monogatari is that it takes absolutely basic platformer tropes (powerups, avoiding bullets) and repurposes them such that their meaning completely changes. Collecting powerups to change to a more powerful form is hardly unusual; but when those powerups actually empower the player by improving the level of health of the character, that is new. Imagine Altered Beast with lower blood pressure substituted for a beast transformation.
The challenges faced in each level become, rather than a life-or-death struggle, simple exercise, and victory in the game is contingent not on defeating enemies, but improving oneself. Yume Penguin Monogatari is a very simple game, but it accomplishes a brilliant transformation of the platformer genre.