Kuukiyomi ('Reading the Situation') is a series of games developed by G-Mode. Each game is a collection of minigames that require the player to read the situation and react accordingly. Basically, this is a differently-paced WarioWare game.
The first few games were released only in Japan:
- Kuukiyomi, released for mobile phones in 2008, with ports to iOS and Android in 2011.
- Kuukiyomi DS, released as DSiWare in 2009. Watch the trailer here
. - Kuukiyomi 2, released for mobile phones in 2010-2011, with ports to iOS and Android in 2012.
- Imadoki no Kuukiyomi Summer Version, released in 2011 and featuring questions based on power saving.
- Yoshimoto no Kuukiyomi and Yoshimoto no Kuukiyomi 2, released in 2013 and featuring questions based on entertainers from Yoshimoto Creative Agency. This includes some situations where the player protagonist "You" is involved in entertainment shows from Yoshimoto.
- Senkyo no Kuukiyomi, a limited edition game which was released in 2013 and featuring election-related questions.
- Kuukiyomi 3, also released as Joshi no Kuukiyomi, focusing on female-related questions.
- Uranai Bakyu~n! Kuukiyomi Edition, a Dolled-Up Installment based on Uranai Bakyu~n, which is made by the same developer. Watch the trailer here.
The series then took a break for some years before returning on the Nintendo Switch. Most of these games were translated into English and published worldwide.
- KUUKIYOMI: Consider It! (Minna de Kuukiyomi), released for Switch in 2018 and ported to PlayStation 4 in 2019 and Steam in 2020. This is largely based on the first game, but includes a two-player mode.
- KUUKIYOMI 2: Consider It More! - New Era (Minna de Kuukiyomi 2 ~Reiwa~), released for Switch in 2019 and ported to Steam in 2020 and PlayStation 4 in 2021. Largely based on the second game.
- KUUKIYOMI 3: Consider It More and More!! - Father to Son (Minna de Kuukiyomi 3), released for Switch and Steam in 2021. This game has a stronger narrative than the previous games, with most of the questions being focused around a female protagonist as she grows up, finds work, gets a boyfriend and eventually gets married.
- KUUKIYOMI: Consider It! ONLINE (Kuukiyomi Online), released 2022. This game has the players rate each other on their actions in various minigames from the series.
- Minna de Kuukiyomi: CoroCoro Comic version, released exclusively on Switch in Japan in 2023, featuring situations based on the manga properties published on Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic magazine.
This game provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: 3 has the "Virtuber" Z-ko (Z.Z. in the English version), who greets her audience with "Hai domo!". The situation comes into play when technical difficulties reveal that Z.Z. is, in fact, a wrinkly middle-aged man (and yes, he's the player protagonist's boss too, as you can see his suit hanging on the background), a common speculation directed at the "cute anime girl" type of Virtual Youtuber.
- All in a Row: One situation in 2 requires the player to follow behind the rest of their party.
- Anti Poop-Socking: The game lets you stop every 5 situations.
- Art-Style Clash: Lots of random characters with different sizes and artstyles appear in the same universe, such as: cartoonish and round-headed ones like "You", the player protagonist from the seriesnote , middle-aged men, B.B.'s dance teacher, who has Funny Afro hair, and "bald" bystanders; semi-animesque ones like "You"'s girlfriend C-Ko, Idol Singer B.B., and other female extras; fully animesque ones like a Playboy Bunny girl action figure and Z.Z. the Virtuber; oval-headed ones like the rock member trio, etc.; both regular animals and anthropomorphic animals; even a number of semi-realistic ones like cowboys, the troubled woman from the third game or even a realistically scary Oni (But only his legs).
- Bait-and-Switch: A question in the first game asks the player to clap after the call "Yoooooo". A later question starts the same way but ends with "When I say that, clap your hands". Then in 2 another question starts the same way but the player has to cheer instead.
- Bowdlerise: Question 88 in 3. In the original Japanese, the situation involves the player blocking a Pachinko signage and turning it into "chinko"note should they not move aside (on the other hand, blocking the letter "Chi" on the sign becomes "Panko", which means "breadcrumb" in Japanese). In the translated version, the background is changed to a door of an open shop. Also doubles as Lost in Translation.
- Carnivore Confusion: One of the situations has 'you' go on a date with a cow. In deciding where to go on a date, one of the places 'you' can go is a butcher shop.
- Censor Box:
- Seen whenever the pair of lions show up.
- Question 80 requires the player to move one over the witness's eyes.
- In CoroCoro Comic version, the character Gordon (from the manga series A Penguin's Troubles) is usually seen naked and have his private part covered by censor. Player who take control of Beckham (The manga's titular penguin) can take the censor off Gordon, only to reveal yet another censor underneath.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Most of the time, the thing that you are supposed to control is colored red. In the Co-Op mode, the 2nd player is colored blue.
- Creative Closing Credits: Situation 99 is set up in a way that implies a romance drama, credits playing in the top screen. Those are actually the credits of the actual game you are playing. Situation 100 has you drag out one of the logos of the game per a final credit.
- Crossover: The Japan-exclusive Minna de Kuukiyomi: CoroCoro Comic version featuring various situations based on works published on CoroCoro Comic, such as Mysterious Joker, Duel Masters and Dash! Yonkuro to name a few.
- Deliberately Monochrome: All the graphics are in black and white, except for the red characters that you control.
- Dull Surprise: Done deliberately. The player character is almost emotionless in some situations, probably because of their unique nature. Especially the 14th situation in Kuukiyomi: Consider It!, where one of the possible outcomes is the player character jumping with a flat expression when the ghost appears. There are some situations where the player character is able to express their emotions.
- Dying Confession Of Love: Situation 99 of the first game.
- Fractured Fairy Tale:
- In the 40th situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! -New Era-, there's Pinocchio. You must lengthen or shorten his nose when he tells either Blatant Lies, truth or vague lies (read:lies that don't appear in his era).
- In the 60th situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! -New Era-, Snow White is cursed to sleep eternally after eating a poisoned apple. The player controls Snow White to either move her head side to side or to wake up while being kissed by a prince, who happens to be a thin and gonky nerd.
- In the 85th situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! -New Era-, this situation is based on a Japanese short story The Spider's Thread. Except Kandata (or Mr. Rogue in the global version) decides to stop climbing the spider thread and goes back to Hell to ask the rest of the damned souls to climb one by one first and not all at the same time. And then you control the Buddha to either to intentionally cut the spider thread or not.
- In the 55th situation of Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!!, there are the Tortoise and the Hare, who decide which one is the fastest by having a Mario Kart-like race. The player character behind them has to decide to throw the shell either to front, into the sky or behind her.
- In the 91st situation of Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!!, the whole plot is based on the Honest Axe story, except his axe is stuck on the goddess's head.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
- In one situation of Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!! — Father to Son, you (a female character) and your boyfriend get lost in the middle of a snowy field and you have to slap your boyfriend many times (but not rapidly) to keep him awake.
- Parodied in another situation from the same installment, the same scenario you have to slap your boyfriend awake, but with Freddie Mercury and a concert stage appearing while the song beat "We Will Rock You" plays.
- Gratuitous English: ...in the concert situations. This is downplayed in Situation 99 where the word 'And' is used in the credits.
- Guide Dang It!:
- The game never explains anything about specific scenarios (apart from the messages for each scenario in the chapter mode). Some of the goals are far from obvious, and you only get a rating every five questions, making it difficult to determine whether you got any particular question "correct".Tips
- Due to its crossover nature, CoroCoro Comic version requires player to read manga that were serialized on the magazine in order to understand the scenarios included in it. Some scenarios also have hidden Coro Dragon (The mascot of the magazine) in it, but it is hard to notice unless you dig around the area and fiddle with the control.
- Honest Axe: Situation 91 in 3 is based on this but your axe is embedded in the goddess's head.
- Interspecies Romance: One of the situations has 'you', a human, date a cow. Another has 'you' date a robot.
- Inventional Wisdom: In the 69th situation of Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!!, the player character is in the toilet and there are three buttons available (from right to left): big flush, little flush and "?". The third one creates a "hee..." sound when pushed. Seriously, that button is unnecessary.
- Japanese Politeness: Practically Japanese Politeness: The Game. The basic concept is selecting what would be the most appropriate and polite behaviour that is fitting for the situation. You can either play the politeness straight, or act like a Jerkass for hilarity.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Big Bro and his sister, who are nameless and live in povertynote . They look exactly like Seita and Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies. These two are in some situations to judge the morality of your player character. The only difference is: they're alive and well in Kuukiyomi, but not in the original movie.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Being a Gag Series Minigame Game, it isn't surprising that it has both anthropomorphic and regular animals existing in this world.
- Kuukiyomi: Consider It:
- There's a situation where the player protagonist, who is a human, dates an anthropomorphic cow.
- Another one is a situation where the player protagonist eats at the sushi bar while an anthropomorphic chicken is also in the same place. There's a type of sushi which the anthropomorphic chicken shouldn't eat.
- In the Co-Op mode. There's a school specially for anthopomorphic animals.
- Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! -New Era-: There's a situation where a human woman dates an anthropomorphic reindeer. However, there are also some situations involving regular animals with their human masters.
- Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!! -Father to Son:
- In the 55th situation, there's an anthropomorphic hare and a talking regular tortoise from The Tortoise and the Hare.
- In the 95th situation, the player controls the human baby to look at the player protagonist and her spouse while the baby is on the baby bed in the hospital. And there are anthropomorphic baby animals between the baby, who are sleeping on their beds.
- Minna de Kuukiyomi: CoroCoro Comic version: Since the game features manga works published on Monthly CoroCoro Comic and Weekly CoroCoro Comic, it features some anthropomorphic characters from some of those manga works, namely Beckham Kinoshita from A Penguin's Troubles and Worcester from Croket!.
- Kuukiyomi: Consider It:
- Morton's Fork: In the 19th situation of Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!!, the player opens and closes the slide window while the player character and other students are studying at the school and sweat due to broken air conditioners. The problem is: opening the window completely will let the cool air enter the classroom so the students can feel it, but at the same time they'll be disturbed and the teacher's explanation will be overshadowed by a loud announcement by a waste collection truck outside. Close the window, the students can focus on the teacher's explanation, but they'll suffer from the high temperature. The answer? Just open the window when there's no outside sound, but partially close it when the announcement speech bubble from the waste collection truck appears, and make sure the speech bubble size from the waste collection truck is smaller than the teacher's speech bubble.
- Never Trust a Trailer: This trope is averted if you know Japanese but played straight if you do not. The situations played in the trailer have 'you' talk with someone else on an elevator while blocking someone's way, 'you' sitting down while others are standing up and clapping, and 'you' taking too much room in the bus while a couple looks on (though 'you' eventually move out of the way, letting the couple sit). If you do not know Japanese, you may think that this game is supposed to teach you manners. In reality, the game is supposed to teach you how to react according to the situation. Some of the situations are about etiquette, but a number of them are unrealistic — such as figuring out the correct response to some Little Green Men's Confusing Multiple Negatives, or taking all the tamago sushi on a conveyor belt so a rooster man sitting downstream from you doesn't see the egg-based food.
- Pair the Spares: One situation has 'your' companions talk with some of the girls except one. 'You' are supposed to talk with the remaining girl.
- Porn Stash: Played with in the 81st situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More! -New Era-. The player controls the bassist from the punk rock band, who also takes a new part time job in the moving company. The situation takes place when there's a female worker behind him and he has to pick up either a big box of books or a small box of father's DVDs (which is implied to be this).
- Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony:
- In the 45th situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More!, the player character is one of the people who are involved in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. You must cut the ribbon when the announcer says "Begin". However, you have to make sure the announcer is actually saying "Begin". Because sometimes the announcer says "Being", "Boring" or "Benign" to trick the player.
- In the 48th situation of Kuukiyomi 2: Consider It More!, the player character has to drop the confetti ball when all people who are involved in the ribbon-cutting ceremony have cut the ribbon.
- Slapstick: Some of the worst possible actions involve bumping into others. Collide enough times and you and/or others would be bumped off the screen!
- Soundtrack Dissonance: At least in the original cellphone and smartphone versions, the Snow White situation from Kuukiyomi 2 has an ominous rap music plays during story narrations/cutscene, until the current situation where you controls Snow White to move her head side to side or wake up, while being kissed by the prince.
- Stealth Prequel: Kuukiyomi 3: Consider It More and More!!, which seems to be unrelated to previous games, turns out to take place before Kuukiyomi: Consider It. In the 100th situation, the player controls the son of the player character (who has become a mother) so unknown train passengers, who happen to be a father and a daughter, can sit down together. Their son and daughter are heavily implied to be younger versions of the player protagonist and his girlfriend C-Ko (or C.C. in the global version), respectively, from the first two games.
- This Loser Is You: The character you control that cannot see the situation is even called 'omae', a very informal, borderline rude form of 'you'!
- Toast of Tardiness: In question 6 of 3 the player is running late for school with toast in her mouth, and two boys are passing through the intersection. You'll achieve a Hidden List achievement "Forgotten Things" if you make the player protagonist go back to her home.
- Too Long; Didn't Dub: For some reason the game leaves the term "boke" untranslated when in Inconsiderate Mode.
- Unexplained Recovery: "You"/player character's girlfriend C-Ko (or C.C. in the global version) is heavily implied to be dead, as the flatline sound appears after the screen fades into white in the 99th situation of the first game (where "You" visits C-Ko when she suffers a fatal illness in the hospital). However, in the second game, C-Ko is alive and well, implying that she survived the illness despite the flatline. This is most likely because Kuukiyomi is a lighthearted comedy with a plot Minigame Game.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: 'You' risk this if you fail a few situations.
- Virtual YouTuber: 3 features a Kizuna AI Expy named Z-ko (Z.Z. overseas) in a few situations.
Progress Update
The previous 5 questions
