Kapital Koopas: Experience Beijing Waimai Delivery for Yourself and Join the Bilibili Dance Challenge

Press F to pay respects to all the fallen goombas. It's time for a deep dive into China's gaming culture in our column, Kapital Koopas.

Experience the life of a Beijing delivery driver

How much do you know about the familiar strangers who show up at your door with a hot meal? Yuxin Gao, a student from NYU Game Center recently released "Out for delivery," a "playable documentary" that gives players a glimpse of the waimai life. Best of all, it's free to download. 

The game is filmed with a 360-degree camera that allows you to rotate your perspective in any direction you like, making it perfect for VR. Throughout the experience, the player can hear the delivery drivers speaking Chinese, but English translations appear above the speaker's heads. Players can also view their cartoonish cell phones with information about the deliveries. To be sure, this is an unorthodox game, but it is a laudable attempt at broadening the horizons of players, and all in the comfort of Beijing no less.

Pokémon Center rumored to hit Shanghai

Recently, The Pokémon Company, the Japanese firm responsible for branding the Pokémon franchise, registered a branch in Shanghai, sparking rumors that a Pokémon Center will be opened in Mainland China. If true, this would mean fans won't need to travel abroad to get the newest franchise merchandise and may even have the chance to attend the official Pokémon World Championship held annually by the company. Plus, it would help to clear out the counterfeiters that have been flooding the market with fake Pokémon plushes for years. 

Just Dance launched in Nintendo Switch E-shop China

Motion tracking technology has brought the Millennial’s favorite dance mat games to a whole new level. Containing the hottest dance music hits, “Just Dance” is a real-time dancing game released by Ubisoft every year, and has helped countless gamers stay fit during their quarantine this year.

Now, Ubisoft has acquired the rights to sell the game in China. Alongside regular musical numbers across the game's franchise, this version will add more songs that are popular among Chinese folks. You can now download the demo from Nintendo Switch E-shop China and enter a competition hosted by Ubisoft and Bilibili by uploading a video showing off your smooth (or not so smooth) moves to a pre-determined song.

Chinese Parents is removed from Steam China

Games don’t always have to do with magic and dragons and fighting giant robots. Case in point: Chinese Parents is a simulator produced by Moyuwan Games where you can step into the shoes of an average kid from the day of birth until the end of high school, culminating in the first life-changing trial of many Chinese teenagers’ lives, the gaokao. You can even continue your family tree by nurturing new generations in the latter part of the game.

Unfortunately, the game was recently removed from the Steam Chinese region. While the developers claimed that this maintenance will provide better service for gamers in China in their announcement, the situation seems a bit more complex since they also indicated that it may be offline for months. Some netizens surmised that the developers are applying for the coveted ISBN to release the mobile version of this game, thus requiring them to suspend the sales on Steam. Others, however, worry that it may have been reported by some real Chinese parents, which is relatively common in China.

Read: Kapital Koopas: New Rules for Games in China's App Store, Pokémon and Tencent Announce First Game Collaboration

Images: Veewo Games, Next Games, the Pokémon Company, Ubisoft, Bilibili, Atlus, Moyuwan Games