There are but a handful of reasons as to why a game does not leave the beautiful shores of Japan and find itself destined for this green and pleasant land. (Britain)

- It's crap. Primary reason. No point in throwing good money after bad converting a bad game to English.

- It's too Japanese. A persistent misguided myth that foreigners are just not Japanese enough to appreciate a particular game.

- Obstinacy. Gittish small mindedness. See Hideo Kojima and Policenauts for details* (*May not be because of small minded gittishness.)

So - which is Doraemons? A story of a blue robotic cat with a irrational fear of ear-eating mice. Doraemon is capable of pulling magical items out his Kangaroo style pouch and also, obviously, travelling in time.

This one might have scored a hat-trick.

Doraemons is an adventure game and looks and plays like the cartoon. Doraemon, the ear-less magical liquid drinking main protagonist, is off on a mission to find out why a small troop of international Doraemons have run amok rioting in the local town.

My natural gut reaction was because of a "World Cup" - but the lack of a British Doraemon swigging lager in a Burberry cap while hurling abuse at all the other Doraemons did not emerge - so, I'm open to suggestion.

Dorami-chan makes an appearance in the game. She is Doraemons sister from the 22nd Century. So does Nobita Nobi, Doraemons human nearly always hopeless persistent side-kick.

The entire game is in Japanese language.

It seems fairly slow going in terms of action and script. I base this on my in-house Japanese expert reciting, quite irritatingly, the entire Doraemon theme song, but only managing about 15 minutes of play once the game started. Siting 'boring' as the main reason for abandoning it.

The graphics are pretty and I'm reliably informed true to the cartoon.

Doraemon has never strayed in his 36 years far from a Japan. To be fair he has enjoyed some popularity in the USA - but is almost entirely unheard of in the UK.

In the 3DO rarity stakes - there is copy on eBay right for about now £7.00 but don't bother. It's crap, too Japanese and nobody could be bothered to translate it.

3DO Kid.

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