Five VSpo Members Haul Junk and Lose Limbs in Staff-Made Game PICK A BOO

VSPO — Toto Kogara and four fellow VSpo members spent about two and a half hours on Thursday playing PICK A BOO, a roguelike escape-action game made by VSpo’s operations staff, carrying loose objects back to a truck while their own arms and legs kept falling off. Kaminari Qpi, Sendo Yuuhi, Amayui Moka and Ginjo Saine joined Toto, and all but Saine streamed it from their own channels.

Toto, who had put out the call for players, told the others at the start that she had invited them to try the game, and the group worked out the rules as they went. Each character’s arms and legs come off and can be reattached or swapped, so the first minutes went to sorting out whose limbs were whose. Players gather items around a stage and bring them to the truck before time runs out. Heavy items take several people to lift, and the more the group collected, the higher their level rose: something that needed three players at the start could soon be carried by two. One large piece of cargo needed six players, one more than the group had. Rampaging vehicles that could not be beaten, enemies and mimic chests got in the way.

“I’d like to do this again if everyone can get together.” — Toto Kogara, closing her stream

After the first successful run back to the truck, which the players called a getaway, they found they could change their skins and draw their own faces. Moka’s face came out pink enough that other players and chat compared her to Kirby. As the stages went on, the haul grew faster than they could pack it. Furniture and parts spilled back out of the container, a stack collapsed into a heap, and a late shove finally got everything in. Rewards followed: a bigger container, and arms and legs to buy, among them a ballerina arm that allowed a spin attack, fire arms and rocket-man arms. A fusion room let them combine two matching parts into a higher-level one.

Loadouts grew stranger by the last stage, with ballerina legs, doubled fire legs and flames that set one player alight, and the group joked that simply walking past enemies killed them. Moka kept losing her way home, and the others called out directions, telling her to follow the truck icon, while chat urged her to check the minimap. With time left for one more stage, they filled the container, and a yellow color option that unlocks after two hours of play appeared as they finished. They found no save button and guessed that the game saves on its own.

In her closing remarks, Yuuhi called it a good party game, likened its haul-and-pack loop to Katamari, and said the clatter of the piled objects could be quieter. She also said carrying a pile into an enemy usually means death, and that she would like to see bosses placed where players cannot enter while carrying things. She said she wanted to play again and was looking forward to updates. Toto, who said she had enjoyed the last push of shoving cargo in, said she hoped everyone could get together again.