Nintendo is giving their players a does of real life adventure on Enoshima, a little island near Tokyo, where Nintendo DS-toting players are participating in an island-wide mixed-reality treasure hunt. In “Treasure Quest: Enoshima – Treasure of the Dragon” competitors use their portable consoles to find clues around the island which eventually lead them to a hidden treasure. Anyone who is able to find a way to Enoshima (which sits 50 km south of Tokyo) can participate in the game for free, so long as they’re already a Nintendo DS owner. The game depends on the DS’s wireless capabilities, which players use to find clues and match their on-screen location with their real-life one. The winner must obtain all the missing clues and put them together to “solve the mystery” – which the game developers, Rush Japan, claim is hardly easy.
The game is a pretty ingenuous way to encourage real-life interaction between players, recruit new Nintendo DS gamers of all ages, and support tourism. Every day until February 19, all are invited to play from 10 AM to 4 PM, though you’ll have to reserve your spot on the Treasure Quest website to play.
[via PinkTentacle]
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I LOVE my Enamel Navy Japanese import DS as if it was my own child.
This application is sweet – but all these mixed media/augmented reality games are nearly always about looking for treasure.
I’d like to see Reality Enhancing Games (REGs) which are about doing physical things to enhance the environment as part of the game – a combination of Random Acts of Kindness and erm, World of Warcraft?
I’ve drank too much coffee…
February 1st, 2008 at 1:10 pm