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Tokyo2.z5
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.
tokyo.z5
original competition entry
Requires a Z-Code interpreter. Visit IFWiki for download links.

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Downtown Tokyo, Present Day

by John Kean

Kaiju, Screen, Satire
1998

(based on 22 ratings)
2 reviews

About the Story

"In this game you actually play two people - one is the real you, sitting in the dark in a movie theatre, and the other is the hero of the film that you are watching.
Originally conceived for Adam Cadre's infamous Chicken-Comp of June 1998 (spot the chicken-crossing-the-road)."
[--blurb from The Z-Files Catalogue]


Game Details


Awards

10th Place - 4th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (1998)

Editorial Reviews

Baf's Guide


B-movie big monster spoof: defend Tokyo, and rescue lovely reporter, from the ravages of a colossal chicken. Very small, but with opportunity for irrelevant actions (like dropping live alligators onto ships from a helicopter). Satisfyingly satirical, with an interesting double perspective (the player controls both the hero of the movie and a member of the audience). Title sequence contains character graphics. Has a hint menu.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt

SPAG

The plot is minimal, and it's to the game's credit that the whole thing is rather casual about the story--plenty of room for even time-sensitive actions, and the story essentially stops in the middle so that you can wander around and have fun. This is the sort of thing I'd disapprove in most IF but which works just fine here, since B-movies don't exactly set a high realism standard and it's so much fun to play with the toys you're given. Indeed, this middle section (if you can call it that in such a tiny game) is the best thing about Downtown Tokyo; the beginning and end come off more as quotations, homages, than as parodies, and the parody is much more fun.
-- Duncan Stevens a.k.a. Second April
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

Tokyo does a great many things well, and is one of the better short-short games I've played. Again, it's a bit disappointing when a game this enjoyable ends so soon -- I think this concept had quite a bit more mileage in it than was used by the author. Still, I enjoyed it while it lasted -- it won't entertain you as long as the average summer blockbuster movie, but it will probably entertain you more.
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Member Reviews

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Number of Reviews: 2
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
The Chicken Must Die, July 2, 2008
by C.E.J. Pacian (England)

Although Downtown Tokyo, Present Day is most likely to be mentioned for its bipartite player character - you play the parts of both the hero in a monster B-movie and a cinema-goer in the audience - this game must surely be equally notable for demonstrating how a small set of commands can create a game that is diverse, malleable and above all fun.

All you need to do is fly your helicopter in compass directions, go up and down, and push the button that deploys its grabber - and in this fashion you explore the game's city, picking things up and dropping them experimentally, triggering various humorous responses from the parser, and doing all you can to save a nondescript love-interest from the clutches of a giant mutant chicken. There should be more IF games like this.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Monster mayhem in downtown Tokyo! Short, with two perspectives, April 8, 2016

This game has an interesting opening; you are in a movie theatre, watching a giant monster movie. The game is in third person, with the main character's actions being narrated by the observer in the audience.

The actual action has a brief intro, followed by the actual puzzle. You move in 3d on a map with a ton of fake locations and some (labelled) real locations. This puzzle seemed really hard, but it turns out that there are 4 different solutions.

This is the only giant monster attack game I have played, and it was really fun in its sphere.

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Downtown Tokyo, Present Day on IFDB

Recommended Lists

Downtown Tokyo, Present Day appears in the following Recommended Lists:

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Polls

The following polls include votes for Downtown Tokyo, Present Day:

No map necessary by Divide
Pieces which can be fully enjoyed without drawing map, ideally without taking any notes whatsoever. Ones which you could play on a bus, on a break, laying on bed, etc. with nothing but a portable player. Games for which you don't need...

Lost Treasures of the IF Comp by Molly
It seems that for every Comp game that's still talked about today (e.g., Slouching Towards Bedlam, Shade, Photopia, etc.), there's ten or so that have been almost completely forgotten; some of them even placed in the top ten or higher....

"Camp" Games by Pinstripe
Games which have, or might be considered to have, a camp aesthetic or sense of humor. "Camp is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon. That way, the way of Camp, is not in terms of...

See all polls with votes for this game




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