Makibishi - Website Review

Today I was looking at the favourite website awards and found a site for Dodge the car company. It seems they are trying to break into the Japanese market and as a result hired a company called Makibishi to make a flash game called Dodge Quest. The game is a traditional 2D RPG much like that of "Zelda Links Awakening" or "Secret Of Mana", you can find the game here. I initially thought this website would be very short being essentially an advertisement but Makibishi insist that it is not an advertisement, but a tool. As a result the game actually looks and feels like a genuine old "NES" game, with 8-bit 2D graphics and midi sound track, it also takes several days to complete (your character sleeps in real time, "carry on the adventure tomorrow!"). The games story centers around a depressing tool salesman (played by you) who secretly loves a flower girl called Lucy, one day he over hears her say she could only marry a man who owns a Dodge, but your character doesn't realise this was only an excuse to deter a creepy suitor. So obviously the rest of the game is spent trying to build copious amounts of money to buy a dodge and win the heart of the flower girl. I'm only one day in so I don't know what happens but I will post back when I'm done. Anyway I was very impressed at just how much they managed to squeeze into a flash game, especially as it is really just an advertisement or "tool".

I also visited the Makibishi website, which I must say was one of the strangest things I've seen in a long time. After navigating my way through loads of meaningless text, a second page of bizarre images came up and after that found myself here. I don't know if that was the site I was supposed to go to for all my Makibishi needs but it is certianly what interested me the most. It turns out that this site is another game, but a very different one, from what I understand a group of ninjas are trying to hide from a shadowy character called the "Ashasin". After that I found myself searching for magic stones on a far away planet to activate a giant robot to stop a giant gas mask wearing tattooed baby from producing hundreds of replica ninjas out of its behind.



It all sounds very abstract, and it is, but oddly it's very compelling, so compelling in fact, that I wish there was a walk through guide so I could finally find out what it all means. Until then it will just reinforce the idea that all Japanese people love robots, ninjas and wacky plot lines.

To find out more about Makibishi you can read their blog here.