Genre: Contemplative Walking Simulator
Release date: September  12, 2013

On March 11, 2011, an undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.03 created a tsunami that crashed into northeastern Japan, killing 15,891 people with over 2500 still missing. Damages were estimated at over 25 trillion yen or about $300 billion.

Numbers, numbers, numbers. What about the people?  What about the lives that were disrupted? What about the lives that were ended? Too often we hear only the numbers and never stop to think about the human toll. 9.03m attempts to bring us back to reality.

The game takes place on Bakers Beach, San Francisco, CA two years after the tsunami hit and debris from Japan started washing up on shore.

Gameplay is very simple – just follow the trail of bread crumbs to an artifact. Rotate the artifact until you find the image of a butterfly. Click on the butterfly and it flies away, leaving a trail of bread crumbs to the next artifact. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

And that is it. There are no backstories for the artifacts. There is no voice-over from the owner of an artifact. Just simple trash collection.

The graphics are minimal. That is a kind way of saying that they don’t look like a lot of effort went into them. Frankly, the whole thing has a slapped-together feel to it.  I did not find it moving.. 

 But remember, this is charity. Think of this game as the little sticker they give you at the mall for dropping a dollar into the bottle – a small thank-you for a small donation.

 Personally, I recommend that you donate to this worthy cause and then play the game if you like. Just don’t expect very much from it..

+ Cheap + All proceeds go to charity + Reminds us to think of the human cost of tragedy   – Short – Not much game play – Not as moving as it could be