By Joel Smart (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: November 1, 2011
Print Edition: October 26, 2011
Imagine if going to the bathroom was no longer just a menial task, but an opportunity for fun and adventure. This is general premise behind Toylets (Toy-Let’s) or “playground toilets” as one roughly-translated Japanese website called them. Toylets, an invention of Sega Games, are urinals that let you play games as you pee… with… your pee.
That’s right; this new venture in gaming comes from the very company that brought the world games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe, and the 1989 game-changing home console, the Sega Genesis. While it seems like a bit of a strange choice for the company, it does promise to solve one of life’s great problems – messy public bathrooms. If men were competing for high scores that required accurate aim, perhaps they would be more likely to hit the mark (instead of the floor). If it works, it might not be long before playing with your pee catches on with the mainstream (no pun intended). While it has potential as a business strategy, it does have the downside of immediately ruling out half of its potential audience – well, unless women get really creative.
In its current form, Toylets look like ordinary urinals but with a small blue target at the centre that measures speed and accuracy, and translates those inputs towards a game on the eye-level screen above. Think of the carnival game where you shoot the water gun into the clown’s mouth to make the various avatars (race horses might be a good choice in this example) travel from one side of the exhibit to the other; this is the nature of the Toylet games that will be made available. However, some of the games show that innovation in pee-gaming isn’t far behind. In one game, players battle against a computer-controlled (I hope) contestant, in a classic 2D fighting game – the strength and duration of the urination determining if you are able to defeat your opponent or not. At least one of the games allows you to compete against the person who last used the urinal, and it’s even possible to save your results to a USB stick!
While the device sounds like it could be a bit of light-hearted fun, not everyone will appreciate their presence. For men already self-conscious in public bathrooms, it’s likely such games could really increase their performance anxiety, especially if the games have sound. One “weak effort” or “you lose” in a crowded bathroom might be enough to put some timid souls into therapy. Well, maybe not, but it is an interesting ethical question that games have never before had to ponder. Consequently, establishments that keep Toylets in their bathrooms may see a spike in beverage sales.
Sega is not actually the first to come up with the idea of mixing gaming with peeing. The You’reInControl (get it?) system is a urinal with 16 sensor points that correspond to the screen above. It comes with a single Whack-a-Mole-style game that awards 10 points for each time players hit a hamster as it pops out of its hole. The device also claims to help potty train young children. That’s the same reason mother-of-three Joanna Haymes and her husband Daniel designed the “Wee Target” – a circular object adhered inside a toilet bowl that displays a picture with heat-sensitive ink when hit. Designer Marcel Neundorfer went even further, inserting a “pressure sensitive display screen” into a specially-shaped urinal; he claimed the design, featured in a museum, was inspired by the “fake fly” target that the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam uses to encourage aim.
Sure, it’s a bit of a gross idea, especially if you imagine the logistics of sanitizing a display screen inside a public urinal, but Sega’s venture into the market is gaining steam. The devices are already being installed at 40 Yoronotaki restaurant chains across Japan, with further distribution in the works. If it’s a hit, expect more elaborate games and controls to follow as other companies jump into the pee-game market. Don’t expect Toylets to find their way into North American markets any time soon.
