Description

"Ai Iijima: Good Island Cafe" is a unique and intriguing title for the Sega Saturn, released only in Japan in 1997. Developed by Aspect and published by Tokuma Shoten, this game blends simulation with interactive elements, centered around the late Ai Iijima, a popular media personality in Japan at the time. In the game, players take on the role of managing a cafe on a tropical island, which is tended by Ai Iijima herself. The gameplay mainly involves interacting with Ai and other characters, managing the café’s resources, and ensuring the business thrives, all depicted through richly animated sequences and pre-rendered backgrounds that showcase the Sega Saturn's graphical capabilities.

Significantly, "Ai Iijima: Good Island Cafe" stands out for its use of an actual celebrity's likeness, which was a novel concept at the time. Ai Iijima's involvement added a layer of realism and celebrity allure, which was meant to attract her fans and general audiences alike. The game featured voice acting and digitized video clips of Iijima, making it one of the early examples of integrating real-world media personalities into video games. Despite its niche appeal, the game remains a curious artifact of its time, reflecting the cross-media experiments in the gaming industry and the unique use of celebrity culture within video games during the late 1990s.