I'm Sorry (video game)
| I'm Sorry | |
|---|---|
 I'm Sorry title screen. | |
| Developer(s) | Coreland |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | 1985 |
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Mode(s) | Single player Two players alternating |
| Arcade system | Sega System 1 |
I'm Sorry, known in Japan as Gombe's I'm Sorry (ごんべえのあいむそ〜り〜, Gonbē no Aimusōrī), is an arcade game released by Coreland/Sega in 1985. This action game stars a caricature of former Prime Minister of Japan, Kakuei Tanaka. The title is actually a play on the Japanese word for Prime Minister, "Sori". The game satirizes Tanaka's greed by making the goal of the game acquiring gold bars. This arcade game made it into some of the United States arcades.
Gameplay
The goal is for the greedy protagonist to collect all the gold bars while jumping over or defeating various enemies and obstacles in each maze-like level. Some of these enemies are: Giant Baba (a Japanese wrestler), a moonwalking Michael Jackson, Madonna, Japanese comedian Tamori, Carl Lewis, moving statues (activated when passed by). Some obstacles include: Gates, "fire" hydrants, safes (making it difficult to gain access to the gold), a rolling barrel, conveyor belts, and a swimming pool with platforms ranging in size and strength. When you collect all the gold in a given level, you must cash it into a building (labeled "out" when the level begins and "in" once you retrieve all the gold) to beat the level. The player can only hold ten bars of gold at once. In later levels there are more than 10 bars of gold, so the player must make multiple deposits.
Enemies
Tamori, Michael Jackson, Carl Lewis, and Madonna can all be killed with one punch. Punching Giant Baba stuns him, more are required to actually kill him. The closer the player is to Giant Baba the faster he can be killed. Madonna has a range attack where she begins to jump and then launches a kiss at you. Carl Lewis jumps, so he can be walked under but he is more difficult to punch. When an enemy is killed it later respawns. The barrels cannot be killed.
If the player is caught by Tamori (the guy with the sunglasses), the player's clothes will change into a white diaper while the captor changes into a leather S&M bikini and lashes his whip on the crying protagonist's back.
Levels
The game has 4 maps. After every 4 levels the game returns to first map. However, the difficulty of the map is increased by adding one of the following:
- More enemies
- More difficult enemies
- Conveyor belts
- Gates
- Disappearing platforms
- More gold
- Safes
There are 32 distinct levels. Once level 32 is completed, the player returns to level 16.
Rarity
The Video Arcade Preservation Society conducted a survey and found that of about 800 arcade machine collectors and their nearly 20,000 games, there aren't any instances of an I'm Sorry machine owned by a collector.[1]