Yukawa did actually have a cameo appearance in What's Shenmue too, but Treasure Hunt was his own game...if you can call it that. The whole Yukawa saga is pretty interesting if you look into it, and it's not the first (or last) time a member of a company's board/management staff has been used as a figurehead for an advertising campaign. Look at Richard Branson's almost ubiquitous presence in Virgin's advertising, or Sir Clive Sinclair's appearances in the marketing for the eponymous Sinclair Spectrum or Sinclair C5. Actually, the less the said about the latter, the better.
I guess what I'm saying is that using a familiar face to flog stuff to the masses can be a good idea, provided the character is likeable..and Mr Yukawa is nothing but. So what's all this Treasure Hunt business, then? Well, during a three week window between 20th March and 11th April 1999, Sega Japan ran a promotion where Dreamcast owners could win an array of Dreamcast branded tat. However, entry to the promotion wasn't via a quiz or postal entry...it was via Yukawa's Treasure Hunt.
The 'game' is a fairly basic piece of software where you simply walk around a rudimentary landscape as Mr Yukawa and dig up buried tiles that make up images of Dreamcast merchandise (and other random things - more on this in a moment). Using a trusty shovel, you must guide Yukawa around and have 100 attempts to dig up as much buried stuff as possible and once all of your 'digs' are used up, submit your claims to Sega via an online component. These items appear to range from key rings, VMUs and money boxes, to Dream Passport discs, keyboards and Dreamcast consoles.
Formar Managing Director Yukawa's Treasure Hunt is a strange title, but one that represents a glimpse at the inventive nature of the Sega of the dreamcast era. To create and launch a physical game just for a three week competition is probably indicative of the type of activity that opened the door to financial losses that were never recovered, but it also serves as a reminder that not a single fuck was given back in those days. I've said it before, but I always think of Stratton Oakmont from The Wolf of Wall Street whenever I think of the Sega of the 1990s...and Former Managing Director Yukawa's Treasure Hunt goes some way to confirming my perceptions. Here's a little video I put together showing the game in action:
Do you have any of the merchandise depicted in the game? Did you win the ¥10,000 prize and spend it all on booze and drugs? If so, let us know in the comments or in our Facebook group. Lastly, if you want even more info on Mr Yukawa, check out Giant Bomb's profile of the great man here.
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