Kiddy-Crack Card Dispensers

Which queue do you join?

The blue lane is for Dori Fes; the pink for Puri Para.

Dori Fes (actually “Data Carddass Dori Fes”) is the arcade incarnation of the mixed-media idol-based franchise, Dream Festival. Dream Festival launched as a mobile game in 2016, and was followed by a TV anime and then a Data Carddass incarnation.

Carddass machines have ransacked the IP of a whole bunch of popular anime and manga including big names like Gundam, Drangonball and Digimon. In this case, Bandai Namco created the IP specifically for ransacking.

Data Carddass works as a trading card game, reading and dispensing collectible cards. Although the machines look like videogames and you can find them in arcades, Bandai Namco takes care to bill them as vending machines – perhaps helping to get them stationed in supermarkets and departments stores, too.

Dream Festival isn’t just about the cards, though: it’s also a rhythm game. Or whatever. Just gimme the cards.

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Puri Para, meanwhile – the pink option – is a compelling and thoughtful opus in Takara Tomy’s culturally important Pretty Series.

The game genre is music-slash-fashion, and it’s aimed at young girls – cute, smiley young girls. Cute, smiley young girls, giggling, mischievous, round-shouldered, male, about 40, wearing blue checked shirts.

It doesn’t matter what it’s about or who it’s for. It’s all just cards. Kiddy-crack cards. Just one more go; one more card; one more coin.

They need chains to control the queues.

Ka-ching.