Co-developed by Nintendo SPD1 (Tomodachi Life/WarioWare etc) and Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem/Advance Wars etc), Atsumeru Egaocho (literally translated as Smile Collecting Book in English) is exactly that – a smile collecting book where you collect photos of people’s faces with your DSi/3DS camera and to google translate: “determine the face’s animal type, profitability, and capability” whilst holding your DSi/3DS horizontally as you would a book.
Released in 2009, Atsumeru Egaocho is hard to review before determining whether its inherent limitations from being five years old should apply or whether it should be looked at within the context of its initial release. Whichever answer Atsumeru Egaocho inevitability suffers from a game that by design demands to be social but by Nintendo’s content sharing policies (perhaps understandable after Swapnote) could never achieve the required amount of sociality.
Limitations aside from the DSi/3DS’s relatively poor camera, the lack of Miiverse integration (this could never happen even with a 3DS release) and the fact that the required social aspect plays more akin to playing two player with a friend on your Famicom as opposed to eight player with unknowns on the world wide webs, Atsumeru Egaocho is a very interesting release much like another (and even localised!) SPD/Intelligent Systems collaboration ‘Face Training’.
The game (well, photo app) begins with you taking a picture of yourself with your animal type then being determined (the possible types include donkey, monkey, raccoon, lion, koala, cat, elephant, rabbit and dog – and for your information I was most likened to an elephant?! Wtf?!). You can take photos of impressively up to 80 friends, family members, classmates etc and similar to Tomodachi Life, you get the most out of Atsumeru Egaocho with the more people you involve.
My other favourite uses of Atsumeru Egaocho include the love-o-meter (yes I made that term up) where it works as a ‘real-life’ Tomodachi Life compatibility tester (and yes, it appears to be heteronormative) and to where you (or any other face) can sit on a scale and with any other face added on the other side a hybrid image is formed of the two faces complete with comedy hat, wig and full schoolboy/girl outfit! Again only the camera image quality lets it down.
There really is very little else to Atsumeru Egaocho and whilst it has Nintendo’s Software Planning & Development Department’s fingerprints all over it with not only the excellent charm and presentation you come to expect from the division but also the obviously apparent links to their other output, the limitations due to the aforementioned low resolution of the camera and the inability to allow it to reach the necessary social conclusion this fun and novel photo app is exactly -but sadly only- that.
5/10
Review by Bri Bri. For more information on Atsumeru Egaocho go to http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/dsiware/kagj/
Japanese Nintendo 