Look, when I’m at the Tokyo Game Show, I’m typically there to cover mobile and not much else. It’s the mission, it’s what I’m there to do, and I know it’s what most of our readers want to see. But sometimes I see something non-mobile that I just have to try out, and sometimes my cameraman thinks it would be amusing to make a video of that thing. And that, roughly speaking, is how we ended up with this video of me playing an upcoming arcade game called Jet Cola.
Jet Cola is a simple game. Your goal is to get your rocket ship, which is shaped like a cola bottle, as far into space as you possibly can. The higher it goes, the more points you’ll get. If you earn a good score, you’ll be recorded on the leaderboards for posterity. And who doesn’t like a little posterity in their life? I know I dig it, at least. Now, how high your ship goes is based entirely on how much fuel you can load it up with before launch. If you only get a little fuel in there, your ship will be lucky to go past the Moon. Get a lot and… well, I’m not sure where the outer limits are. So how do you load up that fuel? Have a look for yourself.
Yes, Jet Cola has a special controller. It is a cola bottle. Not a real one, don’t worry. A plastic facsimile of one. When the game says to start shaking, you have to give it your all. You’ve only got a set amount of time you can load up fuel in, so flex those muscles you’ve built up from playing Samba de Amigo or something. After the time elapses, you can put down the cola bottle controller and wait to see the fruits of your labors. I managed to get my cola ship all the way to Jupiter. My cameraman took a swing after and didn’t make it much farther than Mars. Someone else on the leaderboards had made it considerably farther than both of us. I wanted to try to beat them, but while the spirit was willing, the flesh was very weak.
And that’s Jet Cola, friends. Where can you play it? No idea. When can you play it? Also a mystery. Will it ever release outside of Japan? That’s a big question mark as well. But I saw something neat, I tried something neat, and I wanted to share that neat something with all of you. Mission accomplished.
