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CocoIchibanya
goes vid |
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Virtual Curry Fare |
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Success in
feeding the masses |
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PS2
Curry House Coco Ichibanya -
New Import |
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Compared to Indian curry, Japanese curry tastes blander
and is easier on delicate palates unaccustomed to spicy
fare. While we haven't tested the Coco Ichibanya
restaurants in Japan yet, we have tried the one inside
the McCully Shopping Center in Honolulu. Once seated,
eaters are compelled to choose the serving size of the
meal - for example, the standard amount of rice for one
serving weighs in at 300 grams (0.66 lbs) and extras are
added to the curry sauce such as beef, pork, chicken
cutlet, fried seafood (scallops, oysters, shrimp, fish,
etc), spinach, kimchee, cheese, and many others. Each
item costs a little extra and its possible to build
up a $15 plate of rice and curry covered with a bunch of
seafood. As more extras are added, the amount of rice
may also be increased up to 1300 grams. There was a
perturbing challenge posted inside the restaurant where
anyone gluttonous enough would be able to walk away with
a free dinner if he/she/it ate 1300 grams of rice (about
3 lbs) and whatever curry and extras ordered along with
it.
There's two gradations of spiciness for curry at Coco Ichibanya -
mild and normal - with mild being completely innocuous.
Normal is not necessarily spicy either, as Japanese
curry is pretty much universally bland in terms of
spiciness. It's different from Indian curry, but good.
Visitors to Honolulu with a yen for Asian style cuisine
may also try Chinese, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese inside
the McCully mall. Of course, for diehard fast food
junkies yearning for a fix, there's a Taco Bell/Pizza
Hut franchise in McCully to save the day.
In the Playstation 2 game, players don the brown checkered uniform
of a Coco employee in order to participate in the operations of
a Coco Ichibanya restaurant and engage in mini-games to
serve ravenous customers their ration of curry eats.
When preparing a meal, a bowl sits underneath a roulette
wheel of ingredients and players drop the proper foods
into each bowl, made to order. Players also man the
register, clean up after messy customers and even make
delivery runs on a motorbike for phone-in orders. Some
of the mini-games involve ladling just the right amount
of rice onto 10 bowls, curry eating contests, and
customer seating memorization. There's even a quiz
section which tests players on Coco Ichibanya's food and
restaurants. |
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In our
copy of the game, there's a little prize ticket which
details a Coco Ichibanya promotion. The top prize (3
winners) is a Y50000 meal at Ichibanya. We didn't win. |
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