(Originally published on the 1UP.com Freeloader blog in May of 2012)
As featured in this 1UP video from 2008, the proprietor of Japanese retro game store Meteor, Satoshi Sakagami, put together an exhibition of Nintendo Famicom cartridges in 2007. He asked a variety of artists, game designers, and illustrators to create their own fictional games and design the labels that would go on the front of the carts:
None of the games featured here were ever actually made…until now. Those crazy cats at TIGSource had themselves a little competition to create games based solely on these, or other similar fanciful labels. Dubbed the A Game By Its Cover competition, participants had approximately two months to craft a fully-functional game. Voting for the best game of the competition has now begun, and here are a few strange highlights.
With text from the label that translates literally as, “Everyone! Good luck to touch a cat thing!”, how could one not want to play NECO TOUCH. It details the trials and tribulations of 4 individual’s attempts to touch a cat (thing). As a colored cursor moves across a bulls-eye shape of colors, the player must press a button when the color of the cursor matches the color of the background. Success leads to pleasurable cat-touching, while failure results in a number of humiliating pussy blockages (sorry).
Love Love FavoritHold (NSFW)
This one…well, it’s just wrong, but that’s why it’s so right? As far as I can tell, you play a woman who doesn’t know what she wants. You’re only recourse in this situation is to go and have sex with as many people as possible. Have enough sex and you might gain access to a vehicle, allowing you to have even MORE sex. At the end of 45 days, you score is tallied. Adult? Definitely. Mature? Debatable. Interesting? You be the judge.
In this surreal, abstract, autobiographical game, you play a whale who wants to learn how to sing. As you swim through pixelated oceans, the notes that you learn allow you to progress past obstacles of increasing obstruction. It’s simple, but the great sound effects create an incredible atmosphere despite the primitive visuals.
wizardofvideogames.com 