Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2 Sends Players and Virtual Pets Back to Work

by Louis Bedigian

“The whole game is made up of a ton of mini-games.”

Raising a virtual pet can be quite the tiring experience. They’re constantly in need of your love and affection, even though we know they only interpret the feelings as ones and zeros. They beep us when we’re not attentive, they whine when their doggie bowl empties – they never stop.

But if you thought that was a full-time job, just wait till you start working with ‘em! In Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop 2 players have to team up with one of three Tamagotchi. Your mission: to run the best shops in town. Tamagotchi act as your partner, aiding you in your journey, but certainly not doing the job for you. 

And this time there’s a twist. Localization Manager Brian Glazebrook told us that in addition to our existing duties as shop owners, “You will have to keep track of your customers.” The better you are at servicing your customer, the more likely they are to return.

What can we expect from the mini-game lineup? Brian answers, “Some of them have carried over from the previous game, but a lot of them are brand-new. A lot of them utilize the various features within the DS.”

Those functions he’s referring to include key features for both the top and bottom screen, as well as touch functionality for the mini-games. 

“There are only a handful that have come back,” said Brian, going over the three mini-games that have made the jump to Corner Shop 2. “The florist, concert hall, and bakery. The bakery is a little different from the previous series. It’s more refined, there’s a lot more you can do.”

Brian says that when bringing the game to the States, they had to consider our cultural differences before finishing the Japanese to English translation. “Some things had to be changed. The biggest [was] a lot of the humor. It’s more of a cultural thing. Some of the humor doesn’t translate well to us, some of it is completely foreign to us. Areas such as that, we had to take some liberties.” 

Tell us about the new shops, including the Bowling alley and Sushi Bar. What kind of gameplay mechanics do they bring to the table?

Brian Glazebrook: With the Sushi Bar, there’s a conveyer belt, and people come up to the counter and start telling you what kind of sushi they want. With the touch pad you can add rice, wasabi, they type of fish they want and slap it on. Then you put it on the conveyer belt and it’ll slowly move toward the customer, and they’ll be happy. And it’s not just sushi – sometimes they want other things and you’ll have to get those for them as well.

In the Gas Station mini-game, you play as a gas station attendant. Various types of vehicles come through: planes, cranes, cars. You have to replace the tires, wax and gas the car, wash it, and make sure it’s in tip-top shape before you send it on its way.

There’s also a Burger Shop, where people come and tell you what kind of burger they want. Sometimes they want a burger with no burger. Which his kind of weird, a burger with no meat.* The Tamagotchi behind the counter will start throwing ingredients, and you’ll have to collect them for the customer.

*[Vegetarian’s Note: That doesn’t sound that weird to me! :)]

I haven’t played the original so I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like the game is very simplistic. Am I missing something? How much is the touch screen actually used?

BG: Think of it as… The whole game is made up of a ton of mini-games. You don’t have to play for several hours to get to a certain point. It’s very simple. You can play for 10 or 15 minutes and turn it off.

The interactivity part depends on the type of mini-game. The Burger Shop scenario, it’s a lot of twitch movement. There are a lot of burgers being thrown over, and you’re supposed to catch the ones that need to be used. It’s time-based. You have to meet the time on the clock or else the one who ordered will start complaining. “Is it done yet? Am I going to get my food this year?” “If I don’t get my food I’m going to leave!” So you’re trying to frantically get the order done.

On the flip side there’s also the Cake Shop. There are a lot of things involved with that. You have to make sure you get the right shape [of the cake], the right flavor, the right icing, the right design, the right ornaments on it. It’s also timed, but it’s more of trying to get the actual cake right as opposed to speeding through.

We know the Concert Hall is returning. Is all of the game's original content coming back?

BG: Yes. It was one of the more popular mini-games so we made sure we brought it back. The type of music is different, but the mechanic is pretty much the same as the previous one, where you have musical notes and the ball that shows the kind of instrument you’re supposed to connect that to. 

I would assume the music is from the Tamagotchi universe. But I’m wondering if you considered including music from other Namco Bandai games, as the publisher has done before?

BG: I think in the future we’d like to explore it. However, Tamagotchi is not 100% owned property of Namco Bandai. It’s not something we could just easily dump in without answer to anybody, so there are some negotiations we’d have to go through to do that. Since this game was in development prior to the Namco Bandai merger, some of these things we couldn’t work into it. But in the future I think that’s something worth looking into.
 

Thanks to everyone at Namco Bandai and Kohnke Communications for having a wonderful conference call.