Game review - Pen Pen's Trilcelon

Alright people, this is a weird one. Pen Pen's Trilcelon is a game for the Sega Dreamcast. It has one of the weirdest titles I've ever seen. I first thought Pen Pen must have been the main character or something, but what is a Trilcelon? The CD case also greets us with three of the most bizarre looking characters I've ever seen. It doesn't help to know that those are the "normal" characters. Without further to do, let's start this game up.

We're introduced to the game by a bizarre video introducing all the characters. After that, you are treated with one of the craziest - and trippiest - title screens ever. From what I can tell, Pen Pen's are somewhat like Penguins...sort of. You have characters like Sparky, a young energetic Pen Pen, Tina, a snob who's Sparky's rival, Jaw, a shark-type freak, Back, a creature loosely resembling a walrus, Sneak, an octopus, Mr.Bow, who looks like he has a serious mental handicap, Ballery, a strange creature somewhat resembling a hippo who tries to be cute, and Hanamizu...no idea how to describe him.

From what I can tell, this trilcelon is supposed to be some Tri-athelon in the arctic. Being in the arctic, one must wonder why sharks and hippos are around. You have three basic types of races: running, which is where you waddle toward the finish, swimming, where you, er...swim underwater to the finish, and sliding, where you slide to the finish. In both sliding and swimming, you have to tap buttons rhythmically to move, while in running/waddling, you just use the analog stick. The gameplay isn't really that bad, but it's probably the most simplistic racing game I've ever played. Because of this, you'll lose interest very quickly. There's only four race tracks, and there's no real reward for winning a race. It has a 4-player mode, which means you can show off this drug-induced game to your friends - otherwise there's not much of a reason to replay this...thing.

The only thing noteworthy about this game is how incredibly weird it is. Instead of a "Quit game" screen, you get a "good night" screen. The music is, well...just plain weird. The title screen is one of the trippiest I've ever seen. In fact, the whole game is trippy.  I don't know how else to describe this game. It's just...a huge pile of weirdness. Whoever designed this game must have been on drugs - strong drugs even.

Two word review.

Just...weird.