Yesterday I bought the most amazing game in the world: いつでもプリクラ – itsudemo purikura – Print club anytime!
The game can be summed up with a single image
If that didn’t convince you of its awesomeness, I don’t know what will.
Hrm, I could have done better coloring my hair blue.
プリクラ – purikura – print club is the Japanese word for photo booths and the photo-stickers they print. They aren’t ordinary photo booths, mind you. They blare obnoxious music, speak to you in a cutesy voice, and allow you to, um, enhance photographs. I’ve heard they’re also in the US, though I’m in no rush to see for myself.
Here’s a picture from a few years back of a friend decorating a purikura photo
いつでもプリクラ, true to its name, allows users to experience the joys of purikura anytime. Obnoxious music, cutesy voice, and a plethora of options to decorate a photo. In all honesty, I was surprised by how well it emulated a purikura booth. Know then I didn’t actually pay money for it. Upon visiting the DSi Store for the first time, I discovered I had 1000 DSi points. Neat. I browsed the store, saw there were plenty of titles available, but nothing piqued my interest. It wasn’t until last night I bothered to search through the entire store, and that’s when I found this gem for only 500 points. Sure, I could have bought a racing game (Asphalt 4 something something) instead, but knew I would grow bored of it quickly. A purikura game on the other hand, will keep me amused for decades and decades and decades and decades. And perhaps serve as an excuse to not visit a real purikura. You see, pictures edited with the game can be transferred from the DSi to an SD card, and then to who knows where… printer, cell phone, some weirdo’s blog, whatever.
いつでもプリクラ is only available on the Japanese DSi Store, and I don’t foresee them releasing it to other regions. It’d be analogous to creating a football game for the US store and releasing it to Japan. Sure, a few Japanese folks might purchase it, but probably not enough to justify the translations efforts and such. A shame, really, because I’m sure plenty of folks outside of Japan would love to get their hands on いつでもプリクラ. Hell, maybe someone will figure how to pirate it. Now ends my baseless speculation.
The game’s website provides a demonstration (mind your speakers) which explains the gist of its function. No, my DSi is not pink. Even I have my limits.
I’ll just leave this here
