What in all that exists (or doesn't) is going on in this video?
The clip above is just one of several videos taken from a Japanese online game called Japan World Cup and uploaded to YouTube earlier this year. The game has since been taken down, per a message on the site, so unfortunately playing now is not an option. From a side stepping horse to a man atop a thuggish Yeti, the word "explanation" doesn't seem to apply.
Most obviously, this game seems really unfair. How are you to know when a Trojan Horse is really an elephant? Why is it legal for that seal to flop atop other competitors and then, uh, suddenly it's revealed it was a horse in a seal suit all along? And why does one horse have a horrifying hippo face? Questions!
As the Trojan Horse suggests, we might be wrong to chalk this up to all we see. But if it's an actual game, there supposedly are some actual rules, some strategy, right? How many animals are there to choose from? Do you get to pick their special powers? Are there stereotypical inferences we're missing out on for each nation? And doesn't Japan seem a little over-represented?
Metaphors!
Some clarity can be found for the above clip in a Reddit post from earlier this year, where commenters vu0tran and bluequail translated the names of the competitors and the countries they represent:
Haribote (fake) elegy, Japan Giraffe, UK Savanna Stripe, Kenya Burning Beef, Spain Hollywood Limo, USA Chokusen (straight line) Bancho (boss), Japan
Pink Pheromone, France
Ginshari (rice part of sushi) Boy, Japan
According to the website Geekosystem, players simply bet on the horse they think will win then watch the race to see the results.
Maybe it's just that easy, though there's the chance that this is one of those things that is so strange and inexplicable that it's better off shrouded in mystery.
Still, if anyone was lucky enough to play the game while it was still live, please, enlighten us in the comments. Meanwhile, we'll be hoping that the next reboot isn't too far off in the distance.