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Simple 1500 Series Vol. 57 - The Maze

This article is part of our Japanese Obscurities feature. We put out a whole book about them, which is available as both a full color hardcover and a Kindle ebook from Amazon! If you’d like to see more of these features, please check out the book and if you enjoyed it, leave a five star review so we can do a follow up with even more interesting, offbeat, or historically important Japanese games!

As the name implies, the 57th volume of the Simple 1500 Series is an original game that takes place entirely within randomized mazes. Consisting entirely of 1v1 battles, each player is tasked with grabbing three keys and making it to the exit before their opponent can. The keys are color-coded and players need to grab the ones that correspond to their color in order to unlock their respective exit. However, one of the keys a player needs is always held by the opposite player at the start, forcing them to interact in every match. To aid in their mission, each player has melee attacks, a bazooka for slow ranged attacks, and an item menu that lets them place traps and use/drop items they’ve found. It’s possible to knock out the other player, especially if you can lure them into an explosive trap, but doing so is only a minor setback, so traps that waste their time like sticky slime puddles generally have more impact.