3. Wedding Cake and ''Ringside''
Now, I’d like to ask each of you to say which of the games you especially like.
There are several, but I always get excited playing Air Rally .
All you do is press a button, but I was surprised at how fun badminton can be.
Surprisingly, Packing Pests was one that I played over and over again in frustration. My frustration when I make a mistake sorting out the bugs from the sweets is intense!
(laughs) It really is excruciating!
And the phrases that you catch a glimpse of sometimes are fun. The game itself is really simple, but I think people like primary school pupils will really go for it.
I myself can’t get enough of Bossa Nova, which I brought up earlier. If I had played that when I was in primary school, I would have been mimicking those sexy voices so much that my parents would have been mad at me!
Where did the idea for those sexy voices come from? (laughs)
Um, at first, there was an underlying bossa nova rhythm like ♪doot dit-dit-doo-dit dit, and we had Tsunku-san add music to that.
Surprisingly, the series never had a bossa nova rhythm before. It was funny how refreshing it was when it made its first appearance as the background music for volleyball!
We listened to that song and decided to give the visuals a fairy-tale atmosphere.
When I saw those cute pictures, I thought, I’ve got to give this an edge!
(laughs)
Ah-ha!
You’re the culprit!
So you’re the reason for this song in particular.
Well, uh… (laughs) You know, the two characters seem to get along well, so I thought, “I want to express how much they like each other.”
(laughs)
We made it so you can only hear those grown-up voices in the main rhythm game. You can’t hear them when you’re practising.
I suppose everyone is taken aback when they play the main game for the first time.
Like, “What are these voices?!” (laughs)
Which game do you recommend, Yone-san?
I like Hole in One . That feeling of the ball plunking into that small hole is thrilling.
Why is the golfer left-handed?
Because we thought it would be easier with the ball served from the left toward the right.
They say that it’s easier for people to follow something moving from left to right.
I see. That makes sense.
Which is your favourite, Masaoka-san?
I like Remix 3 . There’s a part where Figure Fighter and Air Rally alternate. I was happy when that back-and-forth fitted together perfectly.
How about you, Kamada-san?
Sound-wise, I like Karate Man . It features a guitar performance. This is a bit personal, but in Karate Man, you’ll hear my blistering guitar solo when the game really heats up.
(laughs)
My feelings pick up along with the game. It feels really great to play.
I want people to listen to it with the volume cranked up. Now that the game is for a home console and on the television, you can play it with rich sound, so you’ll be able to hear things you never could otherwise. You can enjoy making new discoveries. How about you Takeuchi-san?
I like Ringside .
Oh! Ringside!
This was an idea written in Yone-san’s notebook of ideas. The moment I saw it, I thought, “We gotta make this!” And, I wanted to draw muscles.
Huh? Wait a second. What was drawn in Yone-san’s notebook that made you want to draw muscles?
Muscles.
Muscles? (laughs)
Yeah. Then the next thing I knew, the pictures were done.
Was there any music at that point?
No. The main character is a professional wrestler, so it’s easy to imagine performing wrestling moves in time with the rhythm, but as for an interview with a reporter, I was like, “I don’t get it!” (laughs)
(laughs)
Including situations like that, we had a good time making it.
I actually thought up Ringside in the bath.
Huh?! Surely not by looking at your own muscles!!
No, no… (laughs) I often think about the past when I’m in the bath, and when you cut the cake at your wedding, it isn’t easy because you might be off and make a mess of it. And while you’re concentrating on that, everyone with a camera is screaming, “Look this way!” (laughs)
(laughs loudly)
I thought it was really comical how you’re like, “Oh, uh, okay!” and trying so hard while at the same time you have to look into the cameras.
So the basis was cutting the cake at a wedding?
Yeah.
Aha!
But making a game out of cutting cake didn’t seem very promising, so I came up with a similar situation - giving an interview while also having your picture taken.
In Ringside, the visuals are amusing when you make a mistake.
It gets black and white, like…dadoom!
Well, it’s like “dadoom!” when you fail at cutting the cake too! (laughs)
(laughs)