A Japanese-only point and click adventure for the N64, and sequel to a SNES game called Wonder Project J. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this, but N64 magazine gave it a 55% and said that the main character was “Pinocchio-esque”. Thankfully, there is a fan-made English translation patch available for this, so I don’t need to resort to other methods to try and read it.

You play as…yourself, a being from another world that the main character, Josette, can’t see. You communicate to Josette through a robot called “bird”, and can point at things, as well as say “yes” or “no”. Josette herself is also a robot, trying to learn how things work in the world. When trying new objects, she will try to use it (the first thing she usually tries is eating it), and you will need to let her know if this is right or wrong.

In order to solve puzzles, you will have to mess around with Josette’s teachings and moods. For example, in one objective, you need to teach her to be nasty to a cat, so she gets scolded and learns that harming things is wrong. Movies can be used to put her in a certain mood to help with certain activities. When out and about, Josette heads off on her own, giving you no direct input. It sounds boring, but it works really well, like trusting your kid to go out for the first time.

Wonder Project J2 also has a few 3D sequences. You can pilot a submarine and aircraft, with controls getting better the longer you stick with them. Underwater, you have to search for treasures and catch a lot of fish, while in the air, you shoot down unmanned aircraft of the oppressive army controlling the island. These segments are nice to begin with, but fulfilling everything is a bit tiresome.

Another 3D segment is a mine you can explore, trying to find some lost treasure, as well as mining for a special kind of stone – getting jobs and making money is a requirement to buy everything needed to teach Josette. Luckily, this part is quite short.

Through the wonderful animation, you can see Josette change throughout the game. She struggles at walking to begin with, falling over a lot, but slowly gets better and learns to run, dance, and much more. It’s subtle and works really well, and Josette herself is incredibly charming (although you can be mean and force her to be more serious if you really want to).

There are 25 tasks to do, most are lovely little stories. One in particular is quite annoying: you have to improve Josette’s strength to fight a member of the army, but you can’t see Josette’s stats for fighting, and losing is the only way to check if you’ve done enough. Everything else in the 2D style, however, is just incredibly charming.

You don’t need to complete all 25 achievements, but I did it anyway. A friend of Josette’s will get ill, and helping her will trigger the events leading to the end of chapter 1. Chapter 2 is unfortunately not great. You get a long cutscene followed by a maze segment as Josette loses her memories. You walk around in circles answering questions about what you’ve done in the game.

After another long cutscene, you get captured and need to escape in another 3D maze, this time with guards chasing you. There are handy markers on the ceiling that give you clues to the right direction. After this is done…well, sit back, because for the last 45 minutes or so of the game there's no player input.

The story gets a bit odd towards the end, but still interesting. It definitely needs some playable moments, though.

For not expecting much from Wonder Project J2, I ended up loving it, particularly chapter 1, which is the majority of the game. The translation is great (apart from a few uses of negatives in questions where I responded wrong), and has made the game playable for people that don’t understand Japanese. This is a very unique game, and I’m very glad that I’ve played it.

Fave

If your tastes run to the slightly esoteric and you’ve got far too much money it’s an intriguing little title that’ll probably never see the light of day over here

Wil Overton, N64 Magazine #1. Review Score: 55%

Remake or Remaster?

Considering they have new sprite work for the iPhone version, a remake with an official translation would be lovely – especially if they can do a bit more with chapter 2.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get Wonder Project J2.

Other versions

Wonder Project J2 got a mobile port at some point, but other than some screenshots, I don’t know when. The game was also released on iPhone in 2010 with redrawn graphics, but I can’t find any details other than the initial announcement.