Cell Phone Mascot Plays 2D Savior?

Ya know, I think the last 2D platformer I really got into was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, and that was two years ago. So I’m not surprised that seeing these first colorful shots of Boing! Docomodake DS this morning has me hankering for some new jumping and coin grabbing action.

He may be hard to recognize outside of Japan but Docomodake is the mascot for the country’s largest mobile provider, NTT DOCOMO and while that may initially be off-putting, just look at it! This is no lame Maytag Man Adventures, DOCOMO’s mascot is a bizarre mushroom man with arms, legs, and a face who has the ability to pull mini versions of himself out of his head and use them to progress through the stage. Pluck the little guys out and use them to create platforms, weigh down elevators, or climb them like a ladder. There’s even the added strategy of managing how many minis you pull out of yourself as Docomodake shrinks in size as each one pops out.

It looks like the game will get an August release in Japan and Europe but it could be a long while before anyone brings it stateside. If it has one thing going for it it’s that it doesn’t feature a single mention of the cell phone company and could easily be rechristened as Mushroom Men… oh wait, that’s already taken. Check out a few persuasive gameplay trailers (unfortunately I couldn’t embed them here) at the official Docomodake site.