A 2002 Sega-developed PS1 obscurity released only in Japan has just gotten an English translation two decades later, and more than anything it serves as the gateway to an incredible selection of trivia about turn-of-the-century Japanese pop culture.
That game is Mini-Moni. Shakatto Tambourine! da Pyon!, and as the one English word in the title implies, this is a rhythm game that optionally allows you to play using a custom tambourine controller. The track list is largely dominated by the work of the titular J-pop idol group Mini-Moni, who are likely most notable for their regular appearances in '00s Hamtaro anime films, where they appeared in hamster form as the Mini-hams.
Yes folks, this is a perfect storm of 20-year-old otaku goodness. The game's made even more interesting by the fact that it was the one and only game that Sega developed exclusively for the PS1 - though it's worth noting that the company also ported a Puyo Puyo arcade title to Sony's original platform. Either way, it's a fantastic little historical curiosity, since Sega's decision to go multiplatform came well after the PS1's time in the sun had ended.
Now, all these years later, the wonderful Hilltop has released a translation patch for the game as "a little bonus English patch we made pretty quick while working on our bigger projects." You can download it for free on Hilltop's Patreon, though as always, you'll need to provide your own copy of the game to apply the patch to. Hilltop previously brought us translations of the lost Mega Man Legends chapter and the outstanding cozy game Boku no Natsuyasumi 2.
There's never a bad time to dig into the best PS1 games of all time.
