Back in 2023, we reported on the rather bizarre situation surrounding the obscure 1999 Japanese home computer game Cookie's Bustle.
Developed and published by Rodik, Cookie’s Bustle sees you assuming the role of a 5-year-old girl who believes she's a teddy bear. There are 200 NPCs to interact with, and the game features multiple endings. Its wacky charm has led to it becoming something of a viral hit in recent times.
Here's how Time Extension contributor Damiano Gerli explains the concept:
"The game was developed by Rodik, a small eight-person Japanese company, and directed by Keisuke Harigai. We control Cookie Blair, a New Jersey five-year-old girl who believes she is a bear. The girl lives in Bombo World, a fictional island where – a hundred years prior – aliens have crash-landed and established their own place to live in, Derocity. Cookie wants to compete in the regional Olympics, but after travelling to Bombo City, she discovers that the whole place is in a state of unrest and, in order to reach her grandma, she will have to develop "a pure heart"."
A recent campaign to remove the game from the internet only served to make Cookie's Bustle even more popular, and now, it's finally possible to play the entire game from start to finish in English.
A new patch (which actually went live in October and passed us by – apologies for that) has been released, which translates all of the Japanese text, so you can finally follow the unhinged storyline for yourself.