in the States, but back in Japan the House that Sonic Built (and Alex Kidd�s Kinda

Miffed About) has been pounding out child-friendly games for years and years, stretching all

the way back to the Kids Gear series for the Game Gear. This is an edutainment force so

grand that they managed to pull Pokemon into their event horizon, so it�s no shock at

all that Doraemon, the robot cat who rules Japan with an iron paw, wound up in here as

well. And... well, like many edutainment-flavored licensed games, it�s a minigame collection

featuring events like Memory or connecting lines or riding a cat or somesuch. Fortunately,

though, it does offer a rudimentary backbone of a story, one that kicks in when Nobita...

that maniac... HE BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN HIM! DAMN HIM ALL TO HELL!

Anyway. For reasons you�d presumably have to be on Children�s Tylenol to understand,

this explosion results in his friends spinning off fantasy worlds of delusional self-fulfillment,

and it�s up to you to bring them back down to reality by... um... deflecting bullets

with a cape. Awright. So despite the story, it doesn�t make a lick of sense anyway.

But, that doesn�t mean that the games themselves aren�t at least moderately interesting.

Take, for example, this tin-can-phone game. Normally, you�d move Doraemon so that he

could progress through the correct wire and obtain his beloved dorayaki. But instead,

you have to change the pattern of wire-crossings in the middle of the playfield. WHAT A TWIST!

That memory game? Select the wrong panel, and Shizuka or Jyaian have to bust out the

hose. Regardless of the game, the tightness of the timing involved is nothing to sneeze

at, as the delay between the camera�s monitor and the screen itself was enough to screw

me on a couple of the challenges.

So it�s just a collection of minigames with decent audio, decent graphics, and a marketable

franchise character. And by getting it into the hands of kids, Sega have unleashed their

plan to... um... improve hand-eye coordination, and/or teach kids how to balance on animals

and negotiate jumping cats. My primary gripe is that, in the story mode, I was getting

a heck of a lot of repeat games despite a seemingly-random roulette. Perhaps it�s

just the numbers getting to me; I mean, heck, Mario Party got a bit samey after a while,

and that had forty games or so. Also, by flinging the game into Free Mode, you can practice

any of the games you so desire, at eight - count �em - EIGHT difficulty settings! That�s...

awright. It�s barely Strange Anime License Friday because Doraemon is ALWAYS relevant.

But it is Strange, and it is an Anime License, and it is the will of our fell overmistress

Felicity in Worcestershire. Hey, hamsters come at a price.