A Game You've Never Played

If you've played video games, and find yourself playing them even today, you probably love playing them, don't you? They sure have an interesting history, one of the most popular games is made by Nintendo. You know, Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, that kind of stuff.

They made the Game & Watch, the most historic handheld video gaming "experiment" ever made. It revolutionized gaming more than the Nintendo Entertainment System. In fact, the Game & Watch pretty much made the NES. If it had failed, the NES probably would never have been made.

There was one Game & Watch game that was never released. Many Game & Watch games had very simple titles, "Ball", "Fire", and "Judge". This one was no exception, except it's name was "Ritual". It was a rare piece of gaming history made by Nintendo Research and Development 1, Nintendo's oldest development team. It was intended to be released in the Gold series in 1981.

Nintendo's director at the time, Hiroshi Yamauchi, released a statement on February 18, 1981 that a new game called Ritual was going to be released in March. No one heard anything about it after that. Nintendo would deny anything asked about the game soon after the statement. No one knows the reason why it's information was completely wiped off the face of the Earth, even in Japan they didn't know why.

Now what not many people know, is that there's a very specific reason behind the wiping out of "Ritual". Why did Nintendo stop mentioning the game after it's original statement? Well, it all started with Yamauchi's statement. Soon after he released it, lower Nintendo employees were secretly testing the games to see what the name was for. It is said that about 98% of them went missing 2 days later. Most of the remaining 2% went insane and killed themselves in the Aokigahara forest, or had to get checked into a mental hospital.

After they went missing, search parties from the employees' families were everywhere trying to find them. All of them failed, with one family recalling that they could hear someone screaming in pain, followed by what sounded like a spear passing through someone's skin. No one could find anyone, so, one search party member, Aoto Yokoyama, went into the local forest to find his friend. He never came out.

In 2001, local lumberjacks found a skeleton impaled through where the heart would be with a spear. They commented on how the skeleton had its mouth wide open, and it looked very... broken. Arms were disjointed, and one leg was partially tore. According to a former employee of Nintendo who happens to be one of Yokoyama's friends, this was exactly how the ritual was like in the Game & Watch game. You had to perform a sacrifice ritual to please your god. Except, the sacrifice would get more and more violent the more you would do them.

Before the sacrifices, you choose your victim. On the first sacrifice, you break the neck of your victim and send him or her out. On the second sacrifice, you grab a spear and throw it at him or her, impaling the victim. On the third sacrifice, you crucify them and tear the leg off of your victim by rapidly pressing the button that shows the action. On the fourth and final sacrifice, you have to pull their mouth open until their mouth skin starts to tear, then you break their arms. Now you have to rip their leg off, like the last sacrifice. If they are still moving, grab your spear(s) and stab the victim's hands. Keep them there, if you remove the spears or the victim escapes. Your entire village is set on fire, possibly by your god. If you are able to keep the spears there for 2 minutes, the game cuts.

The ending is not what anyone expected. It shows realistic depictions of very bloody human sacrifices. Pictures of cannibalism and impalings are shown in a slideshow. Along with the pictures, it also had a congratulatory screen saying "Congratulations! You completed Ritual!". It then would say "The ritual hasn't been completed..." for half a second before completely shutting off. The game can never be played again after it shuts off, it is gone forever.

It is said that if you listen hard enough, you can still hear the screams of the victims in the Aokigahara forest.