Work rush

Hitoshi Susumu is a salaryman who’s running late. You might think that he’s running late for an important meeting, or maybe a big conference call or something. But that’s not the case.

No, he’s running to get to dance party! It doesn’t make sense, but this is the premise of Tomena Sanner, a game about a man who is running.

Running is entirely what Tomena Sanner is about, actually. In order to go to the dance party, Susumu must run. As the player, you must press the A button so he avoids obstacles. I guess it makes sense he’s going to a dance party, because he likes to show off his moves while on the fly.

Picture a pixilated, cel-shaded version of Mad Men’s Pete Campbell running through crazy landscapes with the sashaying and tumbling of Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain and Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” video and you’ve basically got the right idea.

The game’s design is based around its simplicity, much like Namco-Bandai’s recent homoerotic-charged Wiiware gem Muscle March. The only difference is that Tomena Sanner is 2-D and features a lot of dancing and contextual actions (all of which are done with the A button) taking place while Susumu runs across Japan, China, the moon, a prehistoric jungle, Hades—you get the idea.

The game is basically a rhythm game, minus any onscreen prompts (except when Susumu celebrates clearing a level, at which he likes to get down!). This isn’t a hard game to beat, but beating it isn’t the point. The real point is to master each level, getting as many scores as possible.

It’s entertaining to watch what Susumu will do when you press A. He may jump kick a hapless pickpocket, stop for a few steps with a group of schoolgirls, vault over a triceratops or grind down the rail of a staircase (in banker shoes, no less). This is part of the fun of Tomena Sanner—seeing what’s coming next.

Not that it’s the easiest thing to do. It takes a little bit of getting used to when learning to time your actions correctly—basically, you just have to use logic to know when Susumu is close enough, generally—but once you do, the gameplay speeds up pretty fast. The better you do timing-wise, the faster your speed goes. Once you learn how to pace out the rhythm, the game’s simple design actually works pretty well.

Of course, there are the prerequisite speed-up and slow-down items in the game, usually balloons that Susumu can contextually jump up to if he’s coming off a sweet string of dance moves. There are also New Super Mario Bros.-esque items that will temporarily make Sususmu either really tiny or dwarf the screen. But you never stop moving, really.

Unless, of course, you’ve gotta stop and dance! That happens frequently here. It’s kind of counterintuitive for Susumu, since he’s the one that’s running so late, but, damn, this guy likes dancing. He does everything from break and robot to the moonwalk and the worm. And others. When he does stop to dance, it only takes a few seconds, so let him have his fun.

Like Muscle March, this game isn’t worth more than its asking price. For $5 you get nine levels, which last about a minute each. You can literally beat this game in under 10 minutes, probably, if you’re good enough. However, there’s also a turbo mode, which is amusing (and challenging).

Tomena Sanner also has versus and multiplayer modes, where up to four players can compete. As is the case with a lot of multiplayer modes, it’s all about screwing your friends over, this time by obstructing their view. So with all the added modes, the game’s a pretty good deal if you’re into silly Japanese games with dance-y soundtracks.

For a simple game about a man running, Tomena Sanner has a lot of quirky Japanese charm. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, in one form or another, but that’s probably not why you’re playing it to begin with.

So, Muscle March and now this…maybe Wiiware will make a habit of putting out these $5 crazy Japanese games? I think that’s something I could support.