Created by Japanese digital artist, photographer, and composer Osamu Sato in the late '90s, the Roly-Polys series of educational video games is hardly the most famous of properties, but that doesn't make them any less interesting from a preservation perspective – and we're pleased to report that the second game in the range, Roly-Polys' World Tour, has been found and made available online.
The second game in the Roly-Polys series, World Tour is believed to have launched in Japan some time in November or December 1997 and was only available for PC and Mac. It was developed by OutSide Directors Company and published by Shinko Music Entertainment.
According to Lost Media Wiki:
Both games are targeted at children and feature a cast of colorful animal characters known as "Roly-Polys." They were designed to teach basic concepts like history and the alphabet. Although the games are meant for kids, the creator, Osamu Sato, believed that adults should be able to enjoy them as well.
The first game in the series, Roly-Polys' Seven-Downs Eight-Ups, was found and preserved in 2019. This game was shown off at Macromedia UCON in 1996 and was a finalist in the "Kidsware" department of the Macromedia Multimedia Awards. It was nearly released in the West under the title The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog.
World Tour wasn't featured in any conventions outside of Japan, and, as far as we can tell, there was never any talk of it coming to the West.