Mini-Moni. Shakatto Tambourine! da Pyon!, Sega’s one and only PSOne game, gets a fan translation

Bonus translation patch drop! Our English patch for SEGA PS1 rhythm game Mini-Moni. Shakatto Tambourine! da Pyon! is now available! pic.twitter.com/KRPBpgF9AR

— Hilltop 🇵🇸 (@HilltopWorks) August 18, 2024

No, this ain’t Samba de Amigo, but it’s not that far off. The only PlayStation game Sega has ever developed “Mini-Moni. Shakatto Tambourine! da Pyon! (2002)” has just been fan translated, opening it up to an English speaking audience. Of course, this only goes for written text in the game, and not the lyrics to the songs within. The translation comes courtesy of the team of fan translators at Hilltop Works.

The game is very similar to Samba de Amigo and has tambourine motion-based controllers that you can play it with, which were originally packaged with copies of the game. The game can still be played with a regular DualShock controller, which you’re much more likely to own.

For a link to download the translation patch, as well as a brief background on the game, come on down past the break.

For those unfamiliar, this is a conversion of Sega’s tambourine based arcade rhythm game Shakatto Tambourine! (2000), but not a straight port. This one is instead made in partnership with the Japanese pop idol group Mini-Moni. The game features the group’s likenesses and songs, as well as songs from another Japanese idol group of the day called Morning Musume, of which Mini-Moni was formed as a by-product of by the same agency. It also features the Mini-Hamus, versions of Mini-Moni styled after the hamsters of the anime and children’s book series Hamtaro, due to the group having appeared in several Hamtaro movies in that form. No other home versions of Shakatto Tambourine! were ever made and this particular version of the game never released anywhere outside Japan. As for why this was made for PlayStation instead of Dreamcast or even PlayStation 2, we don’t know, but budget was likely an issue since PSOne games, especially post-PS2, would be much cheaper to develop, produce, and sell, plus this is one year after Sega left the console race behind them. Mini-Moni as a group would disband two years later in 2004, but would briefly reform as an all new group with different members in 2009.

With all that said, you can download the fan translation patch absolutely free from this post on the Hilltop Works Patreon page. Consider funding them on Patreon to help them translate other games from Japan. (Just don’t do it from an iOS device.)

Once you’ve applied the patch to a digital file of the game, give it a try in your favorite PlayStation emulator or on an original PlayStation with an ODE. (I recommend either the xStation or the Phøde, as long as you know how to install it or know someone else who can.) Then you can tell us all about it in the comments below. Tell us also if you like Japanese idol groups like Mini-Moni or if you’ve heard of them before. We’d sure be surprised if you did.

Ad: