Katamari Damacy creator returns with "silly party game" and its bespoke 16-button arcade controller
It's a "coming-of-age" game called Tenya Wanya Teens.
Forget boring control pads: there's a new game coming that has its own bespoke arcade-style joystick with 16 illuminated buttons on.
It takes a special kind of bonkers to have your game require a beefy one-use controller like that (hello, Steel Battalion). And in this case, that bonkers belongs - at least in part - to Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi.
His Uvula team joined forces with Venus Patrol and Wild Rumpus to create a "silly party game" called Tenya Wanya Teens.
It's "a coming-of-age tale about love, hygiene, monsters and finding discarded erotic magazines in the woods", quoted Venus Patrol on its website.
"It's a game about trying desperately to not say or do the wrong thing at the wrong time - that universal struggle to maintain the façade of normality during the awkward transition from child to adulthood."
Yes, those hormones pop up at all the wrong times.
The amazing controllers (pictured) are prototypes made by Wild Rumpus. The final touches are being put on "the real deluxe custom joysticks that will make their debut alongside the game".
How you actually play Tenya Wanya Teens and what it will look like is something you'll have to wait until next week's Game Developers Conference to find out. Judging by Takahashi's previous work, and by the game's first piece of art, there's a strong chance it'll be bright and colourful and cartoony.
No platforms are announced, but there's a laptop in the picture with the controllers, which suggests PC.
