Attack Of The Friday Monsters Arrives On 3DS eShop

If you didn’t get enough of massive monsters in Pacific Rim, then maybe you’ll want to check out Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale on the Nintendo 3DS this week. While you won’t be piloting giant robots and dishing out metal-clad knuckle sandwiches, you will be enjoying a laid-back story about a young boy’s life and interactions with friends. That’s like practically the same thing, right?

For fans of Japanese games, it’s a great week for gaming on Nintendo consoles. The Wii U launched the much-loved and extremely tricky to find SNES classic Earthbound on the eShop today while 3DS gamers are getting the chance to tackle Attack of the Friday Monsters.

If AotFM looks like something famed Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli would come up with, that’s actually somewhat appropriate. The game was developed by Millennium Kitchen and Level 5, the team best known for their Professor Layton series and recent Ghibli collaboration, Ni No Kuni.

In Attack of the Friday Monsters, the player takes on the role of Sohta, a young boy living on the outskirts of Tokyo in 1971. Every Friday, real kaiju (giant monsters) appear out of the blue and then disappear just as suddenly. As Sohta, you’ll explore your small town, interact with fellow residents and play a collectible card game to progress the story and maybe even discover the mystery behind the kaiju.

A big name in Japan, this is actually creator Kaz Ayabe’s first game to get localized for the States.

“Kaz Ayabe has been an innovative part of Japanese game development for more than two decades,” said Level 5 President and CEO Akihiro Hino. “An avant-garde game designer, his rich and compelling storytelling has excited and entertained millions of fans for an entire generation.”

And that entertainment, of course, will come in the hopefully as touching as it appears Attack of the Friday Monsters.

“Back [in 1971], kaiju appeared routinely on a specific day of every week in Japan—that is, the world inside the TV shows ‘came to life,’” said Ayabe. “For children of the time, it was an invaluable extension of everyday life. I tried to create the childhood dream of living in this world as a compact game with a certain level of satirical poignancy. We created this game so players can relive that wonderful time where no one questioned the values of those innocent years of your childhood.”

With the release of Attack of the Friday Monsters, Level 5 officially wraps up its special trilogy working with famed Japanese directors, including previous games The Starship Damrey and Bugs vs. Tanks. You can grab it off of the 3DS eShop starting today for $7.99.