Sony cat Toro finally headed stateside in Toro! Let's Party!

8:30 PM on 07.20.2009   |   Topher Cantler

20 comments

You may not know it, but in Japan, Sony has a mascot, much like what Mickey Mouse is to Disney. Chances are you've seen this little white cat before -- maybe as a PSN avatar or on a piece of merchandise. His name's Toro Inoue, and I'm probably his biggest fan outside of his native country. If you're fan number 2 or 3, you'll be happy to hear that after ten years, he's finally coming to the US.

Toro's newest game is called Toro to Morimori (which translates to something like Toro with gusto!), and is actually being localized for North America by SCE Hong Kong. The international release will be called Toro! Let's Party! and is a collection of minigames featuring my homeboy and all his friends from the franchise. Japan will get their version of this new party title on Thursday, and ours isn't too far behind, with a release scheduled for sometime next month.

Like Toro's daily-updated, free Japanese PSN game Mainichi Issho, the new Toro! Let's Party! uses Nyavatars -- player-created cat avatars that can be upgraded and customized. No word yet on how this will work, considering the game you'd use to make them isn't officially available outside of Japan, but I'm guessing a stripped-down version of the Nyavatar editor will come built-in for anyone who doesn't already have one.

It's not Mainichi Issho (which I have reportedly argued to be the greatest videogame ever made on several drunken occasions), but it's a Toro game and I'll take it. Hit the jump for a peek at the story mode and minigames from the Japanese trailer.

[Via Siliconera]