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Mento

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Octurbo: Minesweeper

By Mento 1 Comments

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No doubt a veritable jeopardy (the appropriate collective noun) of questions is flooding your mind right now. Allow me to employ my heretofore concealed telepathic powers and publicly reveal a few of them:

  1. Why is Mento talking about that old Windows game that's on every PC?
  2. Wait, why did Minesweeper get a Turbo-CD release?
  3. Why is it Japan only?
  4. Why that boxart?
  5. Why anything?
  6. Oh god I just woke up and I'm covered in blood. Nothing makes sense any more! Why did I kill them?!

I can help with the first four, a little. Minesweeper is an adaptation of the famous built-in PC game with a few, let's say, "fun" additions. Despite the inherent weirdness in this package, I've seen this happen enough times to a somewhat similarly-themed game by the name of Battleship. Many video game adaptations (and one movie adaptation, but let's not dwell on that) have tried over and over to glam up and intensify the Battleship format, presenting the armed naval conflict game in as many varied realistic and dramatic ways as possible. Sometimes the original board game ceases to be recognizable after the changes, becoming interchangeable with any number of submarine torpedo sims. With that frame of reference, a slightly more elaborate take on Minesweeper is explicable enough.

Then again, we are talking about a Japan-only CD-based adaptation here. I'm convinced that some of the more interesting games in the TGCD library were the odd PC game conversions (@arbitrarywater and the weird Dungeon Master remix I recently Octurbo'd helped sell me on that), but it's possible I might've just skipped ahead to the weirdest case of them all with this one.

I Was Saving This One For Sweeps, But

Welcome to Minesweeper! That beefy arm looks really good, coming out of the bow of the ship there.
Welcome to Minesweeper! That beefy arm looks really good, coming out of the bow of the ship there.
This game has modes of course, because there's so many ways to play Minesweeper. Most of these modes still involve mines and sweeping for them, though. Well, all of them do.
This game has modes of course, because there's so many ways to play Minesweeper. Most of these modes still involve mines and sweeping for them, though. Well, all of them do.
The play mode just lets you assign the difficulty and have at it. Yep. Basic ol' Minesweeper.
The play mode just lets you assign the difficulty and have at it. Yep. Basic ol' Minesweeper.
I dunno if you know the rules to Minesweeper, but in order to win you have to mark the... oh, you already knew? Cool.
I dunno if you know the rules to Minesweeper, but in order to win you have to mark the... oh, you already knew? Cool.
Let's try this voyage mode instead. Already I appear to have messed up. They haven't let me see a board yet!
Let's try this voyage mode instead. Already I appear to have messed up. They haven't let me see a board yet!
The Great Voyage is more of a story-based mode, where you move from one region of the world to the next solving ever more complex Minesweeper grids.
The Great Voyage is more of a story-based mode, where you move from one region of the world to the next solving ever more complex Minesweeper grids.
It also has this neat nautical theme. Instead of flags, you leave little skull-and-crossbones.
It also has this neat nautical theme. Instead of flags, you leave little skull-and-crossbones.
What's weird is that they changed the mines to explosive barrels. I mean, the original mine icon already looked like the nautical
What's weird is that they changed the mines to explosive barrels. I mean, the original mine icon already looked like the nautical "spiky ball" type of mine.
Anyway, The Great Voyage starts getting serious fairly quickly. Let's try out those other modes.
Anyway, The Great Voyage starts getting serious fairly quickly. Let's try out those other modes.
This... I'm not sure this is cool, game.
This... I'm not sure this is cool, game.
Cook gives you a long exposition in high-pitched Japanese about why he's (she's?) risking his life for treasures. The singular video I managed to find of this game translates what he's (she's?) saying, if you want to check it out at the end of this article.
Cook gives you a long exposition in high-pitched Japanese about why he's (she's?) risking his life for treasures. The singular video I managed to find of this game translates what he's (she's?) saying, if you want to check it out at the end of this article.
Cook's Quest is kind of a dungeon-crawler with multiple paths using standard Minesweeper rules. Instead of clearing out each screen, though, you just want to reach the exit (that little door) as quickly as possible. That big boulder at the top of the screen is inching ever closer to poor little Cook, so time is of the essence.
Cook's Quest is kind of a dungeon-crawler with multiple paths using standard Minesweeper rules. Instead of clearing out each screen, though, you just want to reach the exit (that little door) as quickly as possible. That big boulder at the top of the screen is inching ever closer to poor little Cook, so time is of the essence.
Specifically, we're looking for five gems (actually Dragon eggs). There's not nearly enough time to do so, even if you're the greatest Minesweeper ever to have (cautiously) walked the Earth, so you need to take the occasional detour for these timer reset power-ups.
Specifically, we're looking for five gems (actually Dragon eggs). There's not nearly enough time to do so, even if you're the greatest Minesweeper ever to have (cautiously) walked the Earth, so you need to take the occasional detour for these timer reset power-ups.
This mode presents a lot of interesting puzzles with the way it shapes each room. For instance, this one seems impossible until you think about it a little.
This mode presents a lot of interesting puzzles with the way it shapes each room. For instance, this one seems impossible until you think about it a little.
Might as well show Edit Mode. This one just lets you set the perimeters, giving you a sense of how big the final grid will be and how much of it will be filled with mines.
Might as well show Edit Mode. This one just lets you set the perimeters, giving you a sense of how big the final grid will be and how much of it will be filled with mines.

Well, I can't say they didn't try to do something interesting with this ubiquitous little puzzle game. Oh right! I forgot to say who developed this game. It was Arc System Works, the developers behind Persona 4 Arena and Guilty Gear. Yeah, those guys. We all had to start somewhere, I guess (though this is like their tenth game). The Japan-only version that was released on Game Boy was made by the same team too, though it had fewer modes.

It's all pretty weird, but I guess the addictiveness of Minesweeper explains why it's been added to every version of Windows, and I suppose it's natural people would want to play it on other systems. Hell, you can get Tetris and Solitaire on almost everything with a microchip in it. At least the Cook's Quest mode made a Tobal 2 RPG-type stab at an alternate way to play the game.

Did I really just write an Octurbo entry for Minesweeper?

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