Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (29th Aug. – 4th Sep., 2023).
The 1990s marked a transition for the Japanese arcade market, as the historical business model was no longer viable. Technological developments by the various home console manufacturers brought fierce competition to the arcade industry, while the success of medal machines and other purikura – state-of-the-art photo booths popular with teenage girls as part of the kawaī culture – pushed the various arcades and shopping malls to target teenage and family audiences, more lucrative demographics [1]. While games such as Virtua Fighter (1993) and beatmania (1997) set trends in the arcade's last golden years that the various publishers tried to capitalise on, SNK failed to achieve structural success with its various titles, which all too quickly went out of fashion. Cool Cool Toon appeared to be one of the last attempts to stave off the bankruptcy looming after the failure of the Hyper Neo Geo 64 and Neo Geo World, combining rhythm gameplay, motion capture and a colourful aesthetic for the Dreamcast.
The Story mode places the player in the role of Amp or Spica, whose campaigns feature exclusive tracks. Cool Cool Toon aims to create a highly tactile relationship between the player and the game, making full use of the Dreamcast's joystick. Moving it to reach the different notes mimics the protagonist's dance steps. The player is constantly invited to indulge in this fantasy, just as the character immerses themselves in a kawaī world. The soundtrack contributes to this impression with its slightly dated quality: the title alternates between sweet and burlesque tracks, city-pop, disco and funk flourishes [2]. Cool Cool Toon combines, with a certain humour and a touch of melancholy, the spectacle of the boy bands and dance divas of the 1990s [3] with some musical genres that were losing ground among young people. As a swan song, Cool Cool Toon tries to conjure up an unexpected success with the home console audience, but seems to be haunted by the ghost of the past and suffers from a lack of legibility – especially during the complex sequences with sliders and half-tilts – despite some good ideas, such as modulating the difficulty during a song.
Yet there is something particularly touching about the title, which shines with sincerity through the childish speech and naive attitude of the characters. More than a story for chūnibyō, the game expresses the frustrations of a lost generation: Amp and Spica transcend class hierarchies through their talent at flitzing, while 1990s Japan is marked by growing inequalities between the winners and losers of modernisation. Contrary to the image of an atypical niche game that still persists in the West, Cool Cool Toon had positioned itself as a synthesis of Japanese popular culture at the turn of the century, without the expected success – in line with previous attempts such as Koudelka (1999) and Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life (1999). Perhaps Cool Cool Toon failed because it was released on the Dreamcast, because it was connected to the Neo Geo Pocket, or because it was too difficult for the average player. Anecdotally, the game's concept has been carried over into The Rhythm of Fighters (2014), although simplified by touch controls. It is difficult not to see Cool Cool Toon today against the backdrop of its context; perhaps it is this singular magic, so wistful despite its sugary colours, that makes it such a delightful game.
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[1] Other factors explain the market shift. On the console manufacturers' side, technological progress and the new distribution structure – with the major studios abandoning the toy distributors and setting up their own systems – meant that costs could be cut. For the arcade, the 1984 extension of the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act (Fūzoku eigyō torishimari hō) to include game centres, the bursting of the economic bubble, which multiplied the costs of electricity, rents and machine maintenance, meant that the risks of arcade-type services were no longer sustainable when safer alternatives were available. In general, the number of game centres has declined since the mid-1990s and their average size has increased, as the lucrative medal and prize machines take up too much space for small venues. On this topic, see Yuhsuke Koyama, History of the Japanese Video Game Industry, Springer, Singapore, 2023 [2016, 2020], pp. 109-135.
[2] It is worth noting that one of the only tracks that openly embraces a more modern feel is 'Grown Up World'.
[3] The choreography and set design of Cool Cool Toon bear a striking resemblance to the kōhai groups of Johnny's jimusho (KinKi Kids) or the idols promoted by Tetsuya Komuro (Namie Amuro). The game is also reminiscent of the very 'visual' bands and performances of the late 1990s, such as Yūwaku (1998) by GLAY. On this topic, see Fabienne Darling-Wolf, 'SMAP, Sex, and Masculinity: Constructing the Perfect Female Fantasy in Japanese Popular Music', in Popular Music and Society, vol. 27, no. 3, 2004, pp. 357-370 and Carolyn S. Stevens, Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity, and Power, Routledge, New York, 2008, pp. 53-58.
The 1990s marked a transition for the Japanese arcade market, as the historical business model was no longer viable. Technological developments by the various home console manufacturers brought fierce competition to the arcade industry, while the success of medal machines and other purikura – state-of-the-art photo booths popular with teenage girls as part of the kawaī culture – pushed the various arcades and shopping malls to target teenage and family audiences, more lucrative demographics [1]. While games such as Virtua Fighter (1993) and beatmania (1997) set trends in the arcade's last golden years that the various publishers tried to capitalise on, SNK failed to achieve structural success with its various titles, which all too quickly went out of fashion. Cool Cool Toon appeared to be one of the last attempts to stave off the bankruptcy looming after the failure of the Hyper Neo Geo 64 and Neo Geo World, combining rhythm gameplay, motion capture and a colourful aesthetic for the Dreamcast.
The Story mode places the player in the role of Amp or Spica, whose campaigns feature exclusive tracks. Cool Cool Toon aims to create a highly tactile relationship between the player and the game, making full use of the Dreamcast's joystick. Moving it to reach the different notes mimics the protagonist's dance steps. The player is constantly invited to indulge in this fantasy, just as the character immerses themselves in a kawaī world. The soundtrack contributes to this impression with its slightly dated quality: the title alternates between sweet and burlesque tracks, city-pop, disco and funk flourishes [2]. Cool Cool Toon combines, with a certain humour and a touch of melancholy, the spectacle of the boy bands and dance divas of the 1990s [3] with some musical genres that were losing ground among young people. As a swan song, Cool Cool Toon tries to conjure up an unexpected success with the home console audience, but seems to be haunted by the ghost of the past and suffers from a lack of legibility – especially during the complex sequences with sliders and half-tilts – despite some good ideas, such as modulating the difficulty during a song.
Yet there is something particularly touching about the title, which shines with sincerity through the childish speech and naive attitude of the characters. More than a story for chūnibyō, the game expresses the frustrations of a lost generation: Amp and Spica transcend class hierarchies through their talent at flitzing, while 1990s Japan is marked by growing inequalities between the winners and losers of modernisation. Contrary to the image of an atypical niche game that still persists in the West, Cool Cool Toon had positioned itself as a synthesis of Japanese popular culture at the turn of the century, without the expected success – in line with previous attempts such as Koudelka (1999) and Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life (1999). Perhaps Cool Cool Toon failed because it was released on the Dreamcast, because it was connected to the Neo Geo Pocket, or because it was too difficult for the average player. Anecdotally, the game's concept has been carried over into The Rhythm of Fighters (2014), although simplified by touch controls. It is difficult not to see Cool Cool Toon today against the backdrop of its context; perhaps it is this singular magic, so wistful despite its sugary colours, that makes it such a delightful game.
__________
[1] Other factors explain the market shift. On the console manufacturers' side, technological progress and the new distribution structure – with the major studios abandoning the toy distributors and setting up their own systems – meant that costs could be cut. For the arcade, the 1984 extension of the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Act (Fūzoku eigyō torishimari hō) to include game centres, the bursting of the economic bubble, which multiplied the costs of electricity, rents and machine maintenance, meant that the risks of arcade-type services were no longer sustainable when safer alternatives were available. In general, the number of game centres has declined since the mid-1990s and their average size has increased, as the lucrative medal and prize machines take up too much space for small venues. On this topic, see Yuhsuke Koyama, History of the Japanese Video Game Industry, Springer, Singapore, 2023 [2016, 2020], pp. 109-135.
[2] It is worth noting that one of the only tracks that openly embraces a more modern feel is 'Grown Up World'.
[3] The choreography and set design of Cool Cool Toon bear a striking resemblance to the kōhai groups of Johnny's jimusho (KinKi Kids) or the idols promoted by Tetsuya Komuro (Namie Amuro). The game is also reminiscent of the very 'visual' bands and performances of the late 1990s, such as Yūwaku (1998) by GLAY. On this topic, see Fabienne Darling-Wolf, 'SMAP, Sex, and Masculinity: Constructing the Perfect Female Fantasy in Japanese Popular Music', in Popular Music and Society, vol. 27, no. 3, 2004, pp. 357-370 and Carolyn S. Stevens, Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity, and Power, Routledge, New York, 2008, pp. 53-58.