How do you turn a search engine into a game? Ask Nintendo and Google. The two companies have joined hands, just this once, to craft a Wii game that has players battling to produce top search engine results.
Sound weird? So does the title, And-Kensaku. Maybe that’s why it’ll be released exclusively to Japanese Wii owners for 4,900 yen (about $52 USD) on April 29.
How it works: Players compete by attempting to guess the popular web search terms. The player with the most correct guesses wins. The hook: It uses Google’s search engine, and while you can play it offline with some 10,000 pre-stored words and phrases, go online and you’ll be able to download additional challenges based off current Google search trends.
The game ships with over a dozen variant modes and supports up to four player simultaneous play. One version apparently involves predicting which combinations of words will ratchet up your hit count, while another involves fiddling special items and stats. A few others incorporate mechanisms like collapsing stairs and fizzing bombs.
But a search engine game? Really GoogleNintendo? (Okay, so it’s technically not the first.)
Oh, and check out the theme song. The first time or two through it’s annoying, but by the third of fourth it kind of grows on you.
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