‘Walkabout Mini Golf’ Launches All-New Tokyo Course Where ‘Neko Atsume’ Cats Await
The bustling streets of Tokyo are yours to explore as the vibrant, iconic city becomes a sprawling mini-golf course. Tokyo is the latest course developer Mighty Coconut is bringing to Walkabout Mini Golf, recreating its melding of traditional and modern Japan in VR, where you and your friends can see whose putting chops are tops.
In Passport: Tokyo, you’ll putt through the brightly lit streets of the Shinjuku district, visit the shops of Yanaka Ginza, and step into the past as you make your way through the alleys of Omoide Yokocho and up the steps of Hanazono Shrine.
Tokyo captured the Mighty Coconut team’s attention as its next destination because it felt so different from Venice, the Passport series’ first course, Level Designer Laura Krause tells us.
“Venice seemed an obvious first location for a Passport course, and Tokyo felt like a good contrast in environment, color palette, and culture,” Krause says. “Ultimately, we hope to recreate what players expect to see when visiting a specific place in the world and act as an hors d’oeuvre, representing what they imagine a trip to these places might feel like. For those that love Tokyo and wish to one day revisit, we hope we have given them a taste of what they love about this amazing city. And of course, capybaras.”
This is Walkabout Mini Golf’s 35th course, and it features both the standard Easy Mode track of 18 holes and another 18 on Hard Mode to put you through your paces. You can also take part in a themed foxhunt to earn a Tokyo putter—and even ride a train around the course.
“Tokyo’s Hard Mode takes place during the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” Krause explains. “It’s an over-1,000-year-old Japanese folklore depicting the night when all of the supernatural creatures, known as yokai, parade through the streets of Japan. Some yokai are often believed to possess forgotten or broken objects, while others are spirits of specific emotions or luck. They each have their own characteristics and lore that made for a fun foxhunt, guiding you around the course as you find them.”
And while you can play Walkabout Mini Golf alone or with friends, even when you’re playing solo, you won’t be alone in Shinjuku. Capybaras await to be found throughout Tokyo, and Mighty Coconut has teamed up with developer Hit-Point to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Neko Atsume series with cute kitties taking over the course. You can find cats all over as you play and discover even more of them at the neko jinja, or cat shrine, where the loveable furballs like to hang out. You can photograph both the cats and capybaras with your CocoVision Camera in the game, and even snap selfies with them.
Recreating cities as mini-golf courses means Mighty Coconut isn’t capturing Tokyo and Venice literally, and that’s part of the fun of designing these levels, Krause notes.
“The Passport series of courses have been, from the beginning, an opportunity to both create a tranquil environment (internally, we call these Zen courses) and to act as ‘wish-fulfillment’ for players,” she says. “Although they’re grounded in a physical location, we look for elements that breathe life into a city and add whimsy. We focused on distinct areas that make a city like Tokyo visually unique but also magical enough to give it a home in VR.”
Passport: Tokyo is available now in Walkabout Mini Golf, so you can start your trip today—and if you haven’t already, you can grab the game on the Meta Horizon Store for $24.99 USD.
