''I'm Sorry'', known in Japan as , is a

political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where s ...

arcade game developed by

Coreland (formerly Coreland Technology Inc.) was a Japanese video game video game development, developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It had a branch in Hong Kong named Banpresto H.K., which was headquartered in t ...

and published by Sega in 1985. This action game stars a caricature of former

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Sta ...

Kakuei Tanaka was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1990, and was Prime Minister of Japan from 1972 to 1974. After a power struggle with Takeo Fukuda, he became the most influential member of the ruling Liberal ...

. The title is actually a play on the Japanese word for Prime Minister, ''Sōri'' (総理). ''I'm Sorry'' was made after the

Lockheed bribery scandals The Lockheed bribery scandals encompassed a series of bribes and contributions made by officials of U.S. aerospace company Lockheed from the late 1950s to the 1970s in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft. The scandal caused consid ...

, and satirizes Tanaka's greed by making the goal of the game acquiring gold bars. Despite the game's context in Japanese politics, ''I'm Sorry'' was localized to

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

arcades.

Gameplay

The goal is for the greedy protagonist to collect all the

gold bar A gold bar, also called gold bullion or gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of manufacture, labeling, and record keeping. Larger gold bars that are produced ...

s while jumping over or defeating various enemies and obstacles in each maze-like level. Some of these enemies are: Giant Baba (a Japanese wrestler), a moonwalking

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, Madonna, Japanese comedian

Tamori , known by his stage name (an anagram of his surname), is a Japanese television celebrity. Known for his trademark dark sunglasses, Tamori is one of the "big three" television comedians in Japan along with Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi ...

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

, moving statues (activated when passed by). Some obstacles include: Gates, "fire" hydrants, safes (making it difficult to gain access to the gold), a rolling barrel, conveyor belts, and a swimming pool with platforms ranging in size and strength. When you collect all the gold in a given level, you must cash it into a building (labeled "out" when the level begins and "in" once you retrieve all the gold) to beat the level. The player can only hold ten bars of gold at once. In later levels there are more than 10 bars of gold, so the player must make multiple deposits.

Levels

The game has 4 maps. After every 4 levels the game returns to first map. However, the difficulty of the map is increased by adding one of the following: * More enemies * More difficult enemies * Conveyor belts * Gates * Disappearing platforms * More gold * Safes There are 32 distinct levels. Once level 32 is completed, the player returns to level 16.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''I'm Sorry'' on their May 15, 1985 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

References

External links

''I'm Sorry''
at Arcade-History.com {{DEFAULTSORT:I'm Sorry (Arcade Game) 1985 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Sega System 1 games Maze games Parody video games Political satire video games Beat 'em ups Sega arcade games Video games developed in Japan