Shown at Tokyo Game Show’s Sense of Wonder Night, Kineo & Usuko is designed to be played by two people on a single controller, each person using an analog stick (thanks IndieGames).
It’s based on mochi-tsuki, the traditional Japanese custom of pounding boiled rice into rice cake, and so one player controls the pounder while the other controls the mortar. The idea is to pound the rice as many times as possible before the time is up and doing this requires that they move in synch with each other.
“The players do not ‘beat’ or ‘finish’ the game; they play it just to see how strong their bond is,” the creators explain. “They can also choose to play a match in which they each hold a pounder to compete on how many times they can pound the rice.”
Kineo & Usuko is meant as a way to encourage face-to-face interaction with people as so many people these days restrict communication through phones and computer screens. It may also be considered sexually suggestive and intended to increase a couple’s love for each other.
