by Tuesday PopeHave you ever sat down in a moment of deep soul searching and wondered ; am I mildly, moderately, or truly considerate? Would you go to a romance movie over a robot convention for the girl of your dreams? (Not this girl, bring on the robo con.) Would you look away if your boss’s toupee fell off? Would you protect a rooster patron by taking all the tamago (egg) sushi so he doesn’t become horrified? If you want to learn how to be considerate and not boke, then YUUKIMUYO: Consider It is the game for you.
In all seriousness, this game is a collection of Wario Ware style mini-games you can play solo or with a friend centered on the Japanese culture and the consideration one is expected to give to others in life. It’s available on the Nintendo Switch e-shop for five dollars. The art style is very simple. The background is completely white and the characters and objects are just black outlines. You control objects that are drawn in red and in two player, your friend controls objects in blue. In single player mode, you play 100 games in a row to determine your final score. Every 5 games you are told your level of consideration. Be too inconsiderate and you will be told you are moderately boke which means you are a heathen who would not hit a homerun for a dying kid or feed starving orphans. In two player mode, you must work together to be considerate in groups of 10 random games. You can either sabotage each other or work together to be true considerate citizens! At the end, you are given your score and how well the two of you must know each other based on actions. Are you friends of a friend or are you tweedle dee and tweedle dum?
And that’s pretty much it. It’s a simple concept with simple animations and simple gameplay. When you play through the game, you’ll unlock a lot of secrets including inconsiderate mode where you are free to unleash the boke beast inside and mildly ruin everyone’s day.
This is not going to be for everyone. If weird Japanese games aren’t your style, you’re not going to find the enjoyment in this. If you do have a knowledge of Japanese culture or are looking for something little to have a laugh with friends for an afternoon, this is perfect. There’s a lot of fun and charm to the simplicity that makes it something you’ll want to return to from time to time. At $5 it’s worth the price if you’ve liked the descriptions above or are a weeb.
While the game is funny and charming, it’s also a look into the cultural identity of Japan. In Japan, there is a greater sense of politeness and doing something because it would be good for the greater whole, like in one game ordering the same thing as the rest of your group to make it easier on the waiter. A common phrase in Japan, which is the Japanese part of the title, is ‘reading the air’ which is the concept of being able to tell what to do in a situation without anyone saying it. If someone hates you or doesn’t wish to talk to you, they will not directly tell you. It is up to you to read the atmosphere of the situation and realize that their niceness is surface level consideration. The best outcome there is to not invite yourself along to their party even if societal consideration still has them inviting you so you are not left out.
Here in America, that’s very much not the case. There’s Southern niceness, sure, but there’s no unspoken rule of doing the considerate thing because we are very much an individualistic culture at our core and often times laud the breaking of societal norms. In game, a man’s toupee falls off and it’s the considerate thing to look away as if nothing has happened to give him is dignity. Here we may make a joke to make light of the situation and so they can laugh too and not feel so embaressed. Nothing wrong with this way of life, people still do mean well, it’s just two different ways of life which is why this game is so interesting beyond a gameplay aspect. While not an educational game at all, it’s really a good taste of another culture in a silly setting. And heck, maybe this game will make everyone a little more considerate.
