Super Terrific Japanese Thing: BankQuest
American kids?hell, most American adults?don’t save money, and only a few of ’em realize that they should be savings money, lest they end up using a .45 as their retirement plan. Takara Tomy has come up with an innovative solution for Japanese kids by combining a piggy bank with an RPG, called BankQuest. The more money kids put in, the more fantasy money they have, meaning they can buy bigger, more powerful weapons as they explore a little LCD dungeon on the bank, fight monsters, and actually save some yen. If they save enough, they can level up enough beat the “Money Monster,” apparently. I find this thing awesome on about 18 different levels. (Via TokyoMango)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.