''Incredible Crisis'', known in Japan as , is a
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed by
Polygon Magic
is a Japanese video game developer. The company has been one of the largest studios in Japan. The company develops games for various platforms including arcade, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Facebook, Japanese SNS such as GREE and Mo ...
. The game was published in Japan by
Tokuma Shoten
is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, m ...
on June 24, 1999. Translated versions were released by
in North America and Europe throughout November 2000.
''Incredible Crisis'' follows four members of a working-class Japanese family on their bizarre adventures from their daily routines while trying to get home early for the family's grandmother's birthday. The game consists of several
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
-oriented
minigame
A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...
s strung together and book-ended with pre-rendered cutscenes. The game was designed and scripted by
Kenichi Nishi
is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).
Car ...
and features music from the
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
, commonly abbreviated by fans as Skapara or TSPO, is a Japanese ska and jazz band formed in 1988 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, and initially composed of over 10 veterans of Tokyo's underground scene. At the time, the band's sound was unlike t ...
.
Gameplay
''Incredible Crisis'' consists of 24 levels (26 in the Japanese version) spread over four main parts, with each part focusing on one of the four family members; Taneo, Etsuko, Tsuyoshi, and Ririka. Each level revolves around a minigame, some of which are repeated, which the player must clear in order to proceed. These games range from action-based objectives such as dodging obstacles and rhythm games, to puzzle-based objectives such as answering a quiz and finding items that are on sale. Each of these levels has a stress meter that represents how close the player is to failing the level objective which, depending on the minigame, fills from either making mistakes, drawing closer to a pursuing obstacle, or running out of time. A life is lost if the meter becomes completely full, with extra lives earned by performing well after each individual chapter. Minigames that have been played in the main story can be replayed from the main menu.
Plot
It is grandmother Hatsu's birthday. She wants everyone home early for her special day: the day that serves as a reminder that she has been alive for more years than she can remember. However, her family has completely forgotten to make up last-minute birthday promises to Hatsu. The game begins like any other normal day for the family members - father Taneo, mother Etsuko, daughter Ririka, and son Tsuyoshi - until strings of events stand as obstacles in their way of returning to Hatsu's with the presents.
The first chapter revolves around father Taneo, who is routinely working in his office (albeit quite tiredly) when suddenly he is ordered to dance by his supervisor along with his peers. After doing so in quite a frenzy, his co-workers then run off, looking quite scared and seem to be running away from something. Taneo turns round to investigate, when he sees a giant boulder-like statue part (which was being placed onto a statue nearby, but accidentally came off) come crashing through the wall; and is forced to run down corridors from it, until he reaches the safety of an elevator which he uses to descend. The boulder comes crashing from above, shooting debris down while Taneo desperately works on activating an emergency stop. Eventually, the boulder also shoots down onto the elevator, and in an explosion, Taneo is shot out of the window. Falling to certain death, Taneo luckily grabs onto a flagpole - but it cannot take his weight, and thus Taneo falls once more; various things slow his descent, and he lands safely. The boulder emerges again through the building's main entrance, but he easily evades it - not long after though, a piece of the statue which was holding the flagpole lands on his head, knocking him unconscious. He later wakes up in an ambulance, strapped to a stretcher while the paramedics ask him questions to check his thinking state. After answering the questions correctly, they accidentally send Taneo - still strapped to the stretcher - out of the ambulance and into the traffic, due to their over-excitement. However, Taneo successfully dodges the traffic and breaks free of his restraints; but when he does so, he crashes into the boulder from before (which miraculously appears). When he recovers, he is helped by an attractive lady, who soon leaves him. Taneo, seemingly in love, follows her onto a Ferris wheel and gives her an erotic back-massage (in this scene, the two characters are only heard but not seen; in the North American version, it is said to be a "back massage", but in the Japanese original, it was hinted at it being a far more sexual act, and although the American version downplayed this, the female still belts out orgasmic-sounding screams when Taneo is successful). Afterwards, she suddenly jumps from the Ferris wheel and onto a helicopter, before pointing out she left a bomb behind Taneo. The bomb explodes, sending Taneo onto the helicopter. Soon he makes it off and sees a UFO, which two navy ships are trying to destroy - for some reason however, Taneo commandeers a turret and shoots down their missiles, saving the UFO. Eventually, Taneo himself is shot upon by a missile, exploding the turret and sending him high into the sky - but somehow lands safely and gets onto a boat. He gets curious about a block on the boat and removes it, which unwittingly starts sinking the boat. Taneo and the boat owner successfully block the hole and get back to shore, where Taneo decides to take an underground train (possibly to avoid any more madness). Once boarding the train, he finds it strangely empty, and the attractive woman from before appears, revealing she has cut the brakes of the train. The train crashes into various blockings on the tracks and shoots up from the underground, where Taneo finds himself miraculously outside of Hatsu's house.
The second chapter focuses on mother Etsuko, who is out buying ingredients for Hatsu's birthday dinner. She soon visits the bank, where she finds it to be in the process of being robbed, but manages to sneak out without being noticed until the last minute. The bank robbers choose to use Etsuko to investigate the money vault, and she is ordered to take a golden piggy-bank, which she finds booby-trapped and thus must replace its weight using the ingredients she has bought thus far. After doing so, she gives it to her captors; who force her to open it by inputting musical commands which two of the bank robbers demonstrate. Once done, they unexpectedly find it open up and transform into a deadly machine, firing off lasers. Etsuko manages to remove its head however using one of her ingredients, and it explodes, throwing her and the bank robbers to the back of the bank and onto a long area of snow. The bank robbers try to shoot her down (possibly because she's a key witness to the crime), but she manages to speed off ahead, and accidentally lands into a gorge. Sometime later, Etsuko awakens in a secret military air jet hangar, where she decides to pilot a jet to get back home. After take off, she discovers that a giant bear (which has a large sign of Ririka on) is roaming and destroying the city; and being the only fighter jet remaining in the sky, she is forced to shoot it down, and succeeds. After its defeat, she returns to Hatsu's house with the ingredients, declaring "
Sukiyaki
is a Japanese dish that is prepared and served in the ''nabemono'' (Japanese hot pot) style.
It consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef) which is slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in ...
" for dinner.
The third chapter features son Tsuyoshi, who is out reading in a park-like area. To his amazement, he witnesses a teddy bear grow to giant size not too far away (the same bear that Etsuko encountered) which gives off pink rays - one of which comes into contact with Tsuyoshi and shrinks him to miniature ant-like size. To his horror, he is forced to run away from the ants while avoiding mudslides, spiders, and an encounter with a shrunken boat owner like his dad.
The final chapter is told from the perspective of daughter Ririka, who is going to her private girls' school. Once she is in her home room, her friend shows her a new store. Wanting to go there, Ririka makes her classmates switch seats (Many of who get knocked out by chalk sticks thrown by the teacher) so she can get to the exit. Once she's at the shop, Ririka buys a total of 4 things that are on sale. She leaves the shop, but while walking back to class (and probably getting an inevitable chalk smash), she spots a "Take a picture on a bear" machine outside the local Teddy Bear store. While she's getting ready to have hers taken, something similar to a tiny UFO appears and gives the picture an unfortunate angry frown. Ririka yells at the UFO and tries to capture it, but it shoots out purple beams, one hitting the teddy bear dispensed out of the machine. It starts growing while Ririka chases the small UFO into a building, where her friend comes through a door and says, "Ririka! Come sing with us!", starting a minigame taken out for the English version. Ririka then chases the UFO outside, and past a big TV screen where she grabs the UFO. After seeing the mothership on the screen, she calls her dad, Taneo, and tells him to shoot the missiles heading for the mothership after blackmailing him by telling that she wouldn't clean her room ever again. After Taneo agrees, Ririka goes to the screen and plays a game of Simon says by pressing the colors on the small UFO matching the flashing colors of the mothership, interrupted by a "Please Wait" sign and a news story of the giant teddy bear attacking Tokyo, the bank robbery Etsuko witnessed, and the big boulder with Ririka's teacher throwing chalk at it. After that, she goes into the subway and finds a mask belonging to the mysterious woman Taneo encountered, to whom she returns it. She arrives at a bay and rides the boat that her brother and dad rode, also almost sinking it. After Ririka gets to her destination, she gets a delivery bike leaning against a wall and rides away from a crane/bulldozer manned by the bank robbers and the woman Taneo encountered, the lady in red. After that she gets off the street, Ririka and her bike are lifted up, into the mothership, past a famous scene from E.T., crossing the moon. Ririka is unbeamed in front of her house, surprising Hatsu for the last time after Ririka says "Hi mom!"
Development
''Incredible Crisis'' was developed by
Polygon Magic
is a Japanese video game developer. The company has been one of the largest studios in Japan. The company develops games for various platforms including arcade, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Facebook, Japanese SNS such as GREE and Mo ...
. The design and script was done by
Kenichi Nishi
is a Japanese video game designer. He has helped found a number of notable video game companies and develops games at Route24, his own private limited company. The number 24 in the title comes from its founder's name: "Ni" (2) and "Shi" (4).
Car ...
, a director at
Skip Ltd.
Skip Ltd. (stylized as skip Ltd.) is a Japanese video game developer that has a close relationship with Nintendo. Nintendo has published all of their Japanese releases; with the only notable exception being ''LOL'' (''Archime DS''), which skip ...
known for his unconventional approach to game production.
The game's art director was Naozumi Yamaguchi, a former
Human Entertainment
was a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded in 1983. The company produced games for a number of platforms, including home consoles, portable consoles, and personal computers. Human declared bankruptcy in 2000 and disbanded. Its for ...
employee who would later go on to work with
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
on projects such as ''
Phantasy Star Universe
(''PSU'') is an action role-playing video game developed by Sega's Sonic Team for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 platforms. It was released in Japan for the PC and PlayStation 2 on August 31, 2006; the Xbox 360 version was re ...
''.
acquired the rights to publish the game abroad, and introduced it as their only PlayStation title at the
Electronic Entertainment Expo
E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...
in 2000.
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...
obtained exclusive rights to distribute the game in Europe. Two minigames, which involve bomb disarming and
karaoke
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
respectively, were removed from the localized release of the game, reportedly because they relied too much on
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
and Japanese language, making them difficult to translate. The game's musical score was composed by the
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
, commonly abbreviated by fans as Skapara or TSPO, is a Japanese ska and jazz band formed in 1988 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, and initially composed of over 10 veterans of Tokyo's underground scene. At the time, the band's sound was unlike t ...
. A CD titled ''Tondemo Crisis! Original Soundtrack'', featuring 25 songs from the game, was released in Japan by
Avex Trax on July 23, 1999.
Reception
According to
Media Create
is a Japanese company that gathers and analyzes data from the digital entertainment industry, specifically focusing on the Japanese console gaming market. Business operations include publishing, market research and consulting. It is a popular webs ...
sales records, the PlayStation version sold 70,760 units by the end of 1999, making it the 184th best-selling video game in Japan for that year.
Also, ''
Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' gave it a score of 29 out of 40.
Elsewhere, the same console version received "favorable" reviews according to the
review aggregation
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
Eric Bratcher of ''
NextGen'' noted game's short length, but said that all players should play ''Incredible Crisis'' at least once.
The PlayStation version was a runner-up for ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
''s annual "Best Game Story" and "Best Puzzle Game" awards among
console game
A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...
s. It won the award for "Best Other Game" in both Editors' and Readers' Choice at ''
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
''s Best of 2000 Awards, and was a runner-up for Story.
Jess Ragan of ''
1Up.com
''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conten ...
'', in his retroactive review, felt that the game, for its time, was an innovative introduction to mini-game compilation titles. Ragan thought that ''Incredible Crisis'' was an important first step for this new genre of games, but with its wacky situations and hyperactive ska music, it was outclassed by Nintendo's ''
Wario Ware'' series.
Notes
References
External links
* {{moby game, id=/incredible-crisis
1999 video games
Action video games
Arcade video games
Minigame compilations
PlayStation (console) games
Polygon Magic games
Tecmo games
Titus Software games
Tokuma Shoten games
Video games developed in Japan
Single-player video games
Virgin Interactive games