E3 06: WTF Hands-On

LOS ANGELES--One of the best things to come out of GameSpot's most recent trip to Japan was a copy of Baito Hell 2000 for the PSP. We never would have expected this completely ludicrous game to make it to North America, but then again, its particular brand of "crazy" is so good that it really ought to be in every household. So when publisher D3 picked up the rights to release the game on these shores, there was much rejoicing. A sample of the English-translated version's lunacy is on display here at the E3 show floor, and we were more than happy to give it a whirl.

WTF, or Work Time Fun, is basically an absurd collection of minigames. Some are funny, some are purposely mind-numbing, and others are just weird. Playing the minigames earns you money, which can be used to unlock more stuff. There are four minigames being shown at E3, each aptly named: chick sorting, cliff racing, wood chopping, and burping contest 2. There's also one "tool" called eyes. Eyes is one of the game's many unlockable bonuses and basically turns your PSP screen into...a cartoon set of eyes. Then you can hold the PSP up to your face, facing outward, to amaze and impress your friends.

Chick sorting asks you to move chicks (as in, baby chickens) into one of three piles: boy, girl, or heaven. You can identify the girl chicks by the ribbons on their heads. Sickly chicks sometimes appear, and these are the ones to send out to pasture. Or just kill them all. It doesn't matter.

Cliff racing is like a game of shuffleboard. You basically just need to stop as close to the edge of the cliff as possible.

Wood chopping tasks you with chopping wood logs. Just don't hit the babies that are occasionally put on the block for some strange reason.

Burping contest 2 is like the pattern-memorization game, Simon, except with burping trolls.

Most WTF games require just one or two buttons, so they're extremely simple, yet surprisingly compelling in their pure, numbing purity. While sorting chicks at the bustling E3 show floor, we felt a little better about the world for a little while. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more WTF.