I’m Sorry: 7 Bizarre Video Games Courtesy Of Japan

Oh, man, Japan. Yes, Japan remains a source of bewildered amusement for peering western eyes. Sure, a lot of what we think about Japan is probably a load of old hyperbole, but it's not just the neon lights, dinner-serving robots, and school girls that throw about the peace sign like it's the actual law that makes Japan seem so at odds with western civilisation... it's the strange and otherworldly practices that the country seems to embrace as if they're, like, normal.

T.J. Barnard

Published: Dec 6, 2012 01:00 pm

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1. I’m Sorry (1985) (Arcade)

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It’s probably a good thing that everything doesn’t make sense all the time, otherwise we wouldn’t have movies by David Lynch or funny cat videos on YouTube – but there’s a line, and 1985’s I’m Sorry crosses that line, backflips over it, and then crosses it again whilst doing a crazy dance.

An arcade game resembling Pac-Man (but far less grounded in reality), I’m Sorry has you playing as former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in something that supposedly served as a kind of Japanese satire, given that Tanaka was involved in a whole bunch of bribery scandals.

Instead of fleeing from Pinky or Clyde, you escape Michael Jackson and Madonna. All in a day’s work for Kakuei Tanaka. What’s weirder, though, is that this thing was released in a few American arcades – what did those poor unsuspecting players think when they saw this? “Absolutely spot-on satire,” presumably.

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T.J. Barnard