I'm sorry!

March 24, 2012 6:53 AM

VGJUNK looks at "Gonbee no I'm Sorry", a strange Japanese arcade maze game released in 1985 by Banpresto and Sega that mocked notoriously corrupt former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei "Shogun of Darkness" Tanaka, who was convicted in 1983 of taking 1.8 million dollars from Lockheed Martin in exchange for letting them sell planes to the national airline.
posted by JHarris (14 comments total)

Brilliant! Thanks, MAME!
posted by Tom-B at 7:22 AM on March 24, 2012

This dovetails nicely with this American Japanese Language School skit by the Rahmens
Bad language and a lot of Tanaka Kakuei.
posted by Enigmark at 7:27 AM on March 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

When will there be a sequel, set in the mighty halls of Olympus?
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:32 AM on March 24, 2012

Oh, boy:

Fukuda and Tanaka soon became the two battling heir apparents of Satō's faction, and their rivalry was dubbed by the Japanese press as the "Kaku-Fuku War."

posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:38 AM on March 24, 2012

This game has sick background music. I did a remix of it about 7 years ago that stands as one of my favorite things in the universe.
posted by Palmfrond at 7:40 AM on March 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

When I was a boy I wanted nothing more than a cool nickname. I wanted people to greet me with "Hey, Werewolf!" or whisper "Look out, here comes the Fire Warrior!" or other such things that seem so cool when you're nine years old, and seem so silly today. As I grew older that impulse faded into nothing, especially when I came to realize that most people who end up with nicknames like that are either people who do something extremely dangerous for sport or a living, or people who do something outrageously criminal. All that said, even today there's that little-boy part of me that would be willing to do whatever foolhardy, criminal action that would ensure that people would whisper to each other as I entered a room, "Look out, here comes the Shogun of Darkness."
posted by Kattullus at 7:49 AM on March 24, 2012 [3 favorites]

Great remix Palmfrond, but why does it cut off so suddenly at the end?
posted by Tom-B at 8:50 AM on March 24, 2012

Huh, I always thought it was Richard Nixon, and the guy with the whip was Spiro Agnew.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:52 AM on March 24, 2012

No, I'm interested in your character. You're not playing as a merciless yellow mouth-demon devouring the spirits of the dead, or a morose blob with no head and eyes for nipples

Did anyone else click that link, read the article and assume it must be an elaborate prank? An alt-history atari game series that never actually happened.
posted by delmoi at 9:11 AM on March 24, 2012

Delmoi: No. Only a few days after President Obama's election, I was playing Super Obama World. So, yeah, I see where this game is coming from.
posted by SPrintF at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2012

/pedantic mode: Lockheed Martin didn't exist at the time. It was just Lockheed in 1983. /pedantic mode off.
posted by Mcable at 9:24 AM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is weirdly ahead of its time, games as political satire, 30 years later and we still haven't caught up...
posted by Tom-B at 10:42 AM on March 24, 2012

Wut no gameplay video?
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:12 AM on March 25, 2012

Aces for me, politcal commentary for me always loosens some laughters
posted by gamersson at 11:01 AM on March 25, 2012