The truth about this week’s “Real or Fake?” has been revealed! Remember how I tried to say this game where a kid has a butt buddy originally appeared on the PlayStation 2? Well, I was not lying to you! This is from an actual PlayStation 2 game! It is even a PlayStation 2 Sony actually made! How crazy is that?
These images all come from Poinie’s Poin, which only appeared in Japan. In the title, a little boy named Poinie gets caught up in an odd adventure. His world is filled with poins, these orbs that essentially contain emotions. In the midst of helping a young woman in trouble, a sentient poin gets attached to his butt. It also really does have a voice that sounds like South Park’s Eric Cartman.
Poinie’s Poin is a platformer, where the goal is to make it through various stages and deal with enemies using poins. While you can use a poin as a platformer to reach a new place, their primary function is to change the emotions of the characters around you. By making people happy, sad, mad, or so on, you can access new areas or do new things. For example, one lake area involves making its inhabitants cry, so you can fill up spaces with water. A boss fight might have minions roaming around a giant, requiring you to use a certain sort of poin on them so they will attack the boss instead of you.
Here is the really interesting part. Remember how I said Poinie’s Poin was a Japan-exclusive PlayStation 2 title? Well, that doesn’t mean it isn’t in English. This is one of those rare games where the Japanese title has both an official English voice track and translation on the disc! All you have to do is choose the language option when you begin the game, and you can start playing! If you have a modded PlayStation 2, imported system, or some sort of boot disc, that makes this a fun option to import and play!
So, there you go! Now you know! And, if you are board, you can see the results of past “Real or Fake?” episodes. One involved Roundabout, another peeked at Potato Thriller, and we also met the young ladies of Miko Gakkou Monogatari: Kaede Episode.