Have you heard of Pui Pui Molcar? It's an incredible Japanese-made stop-motion animated series, with short, two-minute episodes that explore the lives and trials of Molcars — gigantic guinea pigs that also happen to be automobiles.
"What possible narratives can you write about a guinea pig who is also a car," you might be thinking — and the answer is, plenty. Sometimes they run out of carrots (which is basically petrol in Molcar world). Sometimes they get stuck in traffic. Sometimes they get unwillingly embroiled in crimes as a getaway car! And sometimes, as in Mol Soccer Online, they play soccer. (Football, for those of you who are Britishly-inclined.)
Mol Soccer Online is basically Rocket League — you control a Molcar, and play against friends online to score goals by butting a giant ball into a goal with your car-face.
Sadly, much like tie-in game Pui Pui Molcar Let's Molcar Party!, this game appears to only be coming to Switch in Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, although you could arguably just create a Japanese eShop account if you really want to watch guinea pigs play the beautiful game. You can download Mol Soccer Online Lite for free if you want to give it a go, but for the full version, you'll need to purchase Let's Molcar Party! — or download the free update if you already have it. There's also extra, optional in-game purchases for cosmetics.
But even if we can't play the game, we can appreciate the trailer, which shows the lil guys in all their fluffy glory, plus emotes, accessories, and titles that you can use to customise your molcars.
What is your guinea pig's name? I had a class guinea pig in kindergarten called Daisy Fudge. Or maybe she was a hamster. She was some sort of small fluffy oval, anyway. Tell us in the comments!
Comments 20
may be japan only but at least it's in full english
My guinea pig is named Nutmeg!
He will surely be excited to play this game.
@CharlieGirl Awwwwww 😄
3 years old Rocket League....
Kirby Mouthful Mode now has a new rival to deal with.
this looks interesting. if it comes to the west, i'll Definity try it.
It was also released in Korea and Hong Kong.
It supports Korean and Chinese.
The closest we get to a Hamtaro Soccer remake...
I love molcar! Haha this came up on my daughters netflix and we have binged the whole series about 3 times. She would love a game of it I'll have to try and get an import.
The full Pui Pui Molcar serie is up on Netflix. It's absolutely terrific.
This game is a need. I know just the relative who would love to play this with me!
@Specter_of-the_OLED Omg someone bring Hamtaro to the Switch!!
online sadly does not work but has free play with cpus to mess around with and 3 difficulty levels easy, normal, and hard
This has to be the most bonkers thing to come out of Japan in at least the last three hours.
I'm not going to be posting my guinea pig's name for reasons, sadly, but he was a precious friend who I'd like to believe I did right by over his well-lived life.
@CharlieGirl Great picture! I can't figure out how to post a picture but we have Terraby and Iona. Considering they live in the same room with the tv and switch, they have experienced many many games. They would love this game, I am sure!
So the trailer is in English, yet the games only in Japan? How does that work lol. I don't see why you can't just buy the game since switch is region free and there are no Japanese language barriers I can see.
@Travisemo007 Yeah, Cave Story's Secret Santa was like that - Japan-eshop-only, but it did support english. Absolutely baffling that it wasn't available for english regions.
If you do have a japanese account set up, Pui Pui Molcar Lite is free to download from japanese eshop, and it does support english. I downloaded it this evening and played it for a bit. Side note, you can't find the game searching for the title "pui pui molcar", I discovered. But, the game is right there in recent releases.
@sdfkj213 Thanks for the heads up! I couldn't find this info myself
@WoomyNNYes
I downloaded the Lite version from the japanese eShop too. But unfortunately the soccer minigame isn't available.
@Tisteg80 Really? Pui Pui Molcar Lite works here in the US, for english. It only has soccer. I hit Play Game, then press Y for game mode(all soccer modes), and you can play training, or play against ai. I hadnt' tried online play yet.
I think there's more than one Pui Pui page on japan eshop. If you open japan eshop, you can find the game in most recent releases, second row down at the moment. Here's a link to show you the Pui Pui Molcar Lite eshop page, so you can see what it's picture looks like - picture shows the MOLs with a soccer ball. It says MOL SOCCER ONLINE Lite in the top of the picture (small print). Hope that helps.
https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000049809.html
@WoomyNNYes
Thank you so much! I wasn't able to find that version on the eShop on Switch. Had some trouble when trying to log me in on my smartphone since the mail adress I used for my JP account has been deleted/changed. But I finally managed to log me in.
Again, thank you very much!
I played 5 online matches of Mol Soccer last night. I won 4 of those matches, and it placed me in Bronze rank. Makes me wonder if I'd still get bronze if I won all five matches.
The gameplay is acceptable? Not the most precise game, but it's not terrible, and it's pretty amusing/charming, I think. Especially for a free game. I'm probably going to play again. I've played for at least 2-3 hours. It's a fun distraction for now.
And so far, this free-to-play Lite version is still rewarding me with new Molcars & customizations with each match I won. I'm getting rewards/customizations without having to grind really. SO FAR, that is. There's a "DLC" menu out of the way, to buy customizations, but it's not needed. This plays like a paid game so far. I can play offline against bots or online. I dont have another person to try splitscreen multiplayer, to comment on that aspect. *Note: my Platinum/Diamond 1 Rocket League skill puts me at an advantage.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...