TGS 2008: Pingu no Wakuwaku Carnival Hands-On

TOKYO--The happy penguin family from Antarctica has finally migrated to video games. Pingu was a clay-animated television series that focused on a mischievous young penguin of the same name. What made the show memorable was the incredibly cute cast of penguins who went about their daily lives as though they weren't really penguins--and they spoke penguinese. Since the language consisted mostly of indistinguishable noises, part of Pingu's charm was his wild gestures and facial expressions. At the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, we first saw the trailer at Square Enix's booth and then ventured over to their kiosks, where Pingu was playable.

The trailer had penguins dancing in the South Pole, and it looked like the game consists of winter-themed minigames such as snowboarding. The not so wintry games included mundane tasks like doing chores around the house. Pingu and his family have a pretty nice setup in that igloo of theirs. Also, if you've never seen a juggling penguin, here's your chance. It was a bit more challenging figuring out the menus once we got to the actual game. We used the touch screen to drag Pingu in and out of the house since the D pad was reserved for Pingu's expressions. We were able to get him to clap, squat, and dance as well as do his signature move of turning his beak into an elongated tube, which he uses to voice his opinions.

We took a tour around his home and noticed that it was more or less well kept, but icons would pop-up on the touch screen in various locations to indicate that you could probably do something there. If you walked up to a penguin at the stove, you'll go into a menu that looks like an organizer for ingredients. For an igloo, there were certainly a lot of rooms. The bathroom looked like it had a regular toilet (it seems that they haven't upgraded to a bidet yet). After the tour we decided to head outside and see what the weather was like.

When we got outside, we noticed that the top screen displayed numerous igloos with Pingu's face on one of them. There were other igloos we could have checked out as well. Our home was rather quaint; it even had a snowman by the door, as well as clean laundry hanging out to dry right next to it. For a DS game that is obviously for a younger audience, there's a lot of character and detail in Pingu that will make you smile. You don't even have to like penguins all that much--but then, how often do you get to see a fully furnished igloo with penguins that vacuum it?

Pingu no Wakuwaku Carnival looks to be a delightful DS game that will be released in Japan November 6. We'd like to see it come to North America as well, because there are certainly Pingu fans on the other end of the pole.