Good evening everybody, it's programmer Takenaka here.

As our director Maeda mentioned previously, in this issue of Future Lab News I'll be giving you the sequel to Maeda's report on the Wangan tournament in the Philippines!

The Philippines are a group of islands in the southern hemisphere, 3000km from Tokyo.
Before I went, I couldn't imagine what kind of Wangan Maxi players lived there...
But one thing's for sure - they were all pretty excited.
The atmosphere was just like Japan, China, England, - I guess that computer games bring out the same emotions all over the world.

Thinking about things like that, I headed along to the tournament.
The venue was buzzing with participants, groups of supporters, and hundreds of people who'd come to watch.

The tournament was a major event, with Philippino idols appearing as special guests.
The tournament was held on a stage specially built at the venue, and the rules were that players competed in a 4-player battle to decide one winner to move on to the next stage, with the courses drawn out of a hat by Wangan Director Maeda and myself.
(the photo below shows Director Maeda drawing lots to choose the course for the race)
You can also see Philippino National Television, who were there to cover the event. (!)

There are apparently lots of teams of Wangan Maxi players in the Philippines, and there were players and supporters at the tournament wearing identical team uniforms.
There was a really nice ambience right through the tournament, and during the intermissions, food was served and commemorative pictures were taken of Maeda and myself along with all the Wangan fans.

The photo below shows the final game of the tournament. The match was decided in the midst of the surrounding excitement, the players received commemorative gifts, and the top players were presented with a cup.

After the tournament ended, there was an autograph session with Maeda and myself. Despite wondering "Is there anybody on this planet that actually wants our signatures??!!", our fears proved unfounded and loads of players gathered round to get an autograph!! Thanks a lot!!
In a spirited moment (?), Director Maeda even wrote his signature on the specially made stage!

And so, the Philippine Tournament, exciting from start to finish, came to a peaceful close.
What left the biggest impression on me were the local players, enjoying Wangan Maxi from the bottom of their hearts.
The players were all gracious in both victory and defeat.
Seeing gamers simply enjoying playing Wangan Maxi was a wonderful spectacle for the Wangan development staff.

Thinking about it, all you Wangan Maxi Series fans all over the world are kindly playing our game. Thank you so much!
We promise to work as hard as we can to develop more Wangan games so that we can live up to the expectations of all you Wangan fans.

OK, that's all for today, see you later!

(Original article in Japanese released on 4.30.2008)