I love Japan, I really do. But despite many things that make it great, Japan also has its dark sides. One of these rather dreadful things is the Japanese approach towards whaling. I wouldn't be mentioning it here on Barts News (this is principally a game blog after all), were it not for Conor O'Kane, a man who has chosen a rather unusual media channel to draw people's attention to the issue: he made a PC game about it.
Called Harpooned, the game is in fact a clever satire disguised as your average shoot'em up game. Player controls a whaling ship, killing whales and collecting their meat, while taking care not too shoot protesters. All this is accompanied by sarcastic messages such as "scientific bonus" taking a jab at Japanese explanation that this cruelty takes place just for scientific purposes.
As player progresses through the game, more whales get harvested for scientific research and fewer of them remain in the sea. The comments between the game levels will be saying things like "Our research shows that there are less and less whales in the area - we must kill more of them to find out why it is so" until finally there won't be nothing in the cold waters but scientific vessel and icebergs...
Average player will be able to complete the game in couple of minutes, but it is not really so much a game but rather a statement disguised as a game, a way of drawing attention to the real-life problem. Therefore I couldn't really say that its brevity is a handicap, on the contrary - average player will be able to reach the end of the game before they get bored and witness the empty cold sea themselves. I think this was intentional in order to make an impression on the player - it certainly worked in my case.
It's also worth noticing that the production values are high for an indie game made by one man - from pretty graphics, through blood effects, to sad music, everything is polished and carries a sense of style. There also is an online score board for the bestwhalers scientists.
Download the game at Harpooned website (there is also a Mac version available) and if you can't spare five to ten minutes to complete it, at least have a look at the trailer below:
Now, will anyone make a similar game for Taji dolphins?
Called Harpooned, the game is in fact a clever satire disguised as your average shoot'em up game. Player controls a whaling ship, killing whales and collecting their meat, while taking care not too shoot protesters. All this is accompanied by sarcastic messages such as "scientific bonus" taking a jab at Japanese explanation that this cruelty takes place just for scientific purposes.
As player progresses through the game, more whales get harvested for scientific research and fewer of them remain in the sea. The comments between the game levels will be saying things like "Our research shows that there are less and less whales in the area - we must kill more of them to find out why it is so" until finally there won't be nothing in the cold waters but scientific vessel and icebergs...
Average player will be able to complete the game in couple of minutes, but it is not really so much a game but rather a statement disguised as a game, a way of drawing attention to the real-life problem. Therefore I couldn't really say that its brevity is a handicap, on the contrary - average player will be able to reach the end of the game before they get bored and witness the empty cold sea themselves. I think this was intentional in order to make an impression on the player - it certainly worked in my case.
It's also worth noticing that the production values are high for an indie game made by one man - from pretty graphics, through blood effects, to sad music, everything is polished and carries a sense of style. There also is an online score board for the best
Download the game at Harpooned website (there is also a Mac version available) and if you can't spare five to ten minutes to complete it, at least have a look at the trailer below:
Now, will anyone make a similar game for Taji dolphins?
