Suika Game (or Watermelon Game if you prefer) might look adorable, but there's a surprising criminal backstory to this cutesy puzzle game.

The version that has been tearing up the Nintendo eShop, which is also coming to mobile app stores, may be the version of the game that players in the West are most familiar with. This, though, is not the original Watermelon game, but rather a clone of an older title that once took the Chinese-speaking internet by storm.

There was just one problem with this earlier version of the game: Synthetic Watermelon (as its name directly translates) became mired in controversy among accusations of theft and fraud. Apparently, a small advert in the corner of the screen enticed millions of people into paying for what they thought was a small prize token; in reality (or so the accusations claim) they were duped, and their money and personal details were collected without the promised payout.

This video was meant to release in the first week of January, back when it was a) a little more timely, and b) filling a gap before 2024 in gaming kicked off in earnest and we had more high-profile topics to cover. As is happens, sometimes it takes us well over a month to make a five minute video. This is because of:

1. Day job work commitments,
2. Childcare needs, and
3. Oh yeah, our daughter spent a week in hospital with COVID-19. That was fun.

The moral of that story: wash your hands, people. It's weird that we live in a world where basic personal hygeine has become politicised.

Lots of love,
BretonStripes and Kotor (and two children of varying levels of health, seriously all I'm asking is that you wash your dirty hands!)

Sources for this video:
https://web.archive.org/web/202310102...
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https://g.fromgame.com/game/462/
https://www.kepu.net.cn/ydrhcz/ydrhcz...
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2021/...