WTF: Work Time Fun [PSP]

As if you couldn't tell from the title, WTF is banking on sheer weirdness. But WTF doesn't stand for what you think it stands for, at least not officially. 'Work Time Fun', as it supposedly means, is a collection of PSP minigames that was published in Japan under the title Beito Hell. "Beito" means "part-time job", so the unifying concept is that you're doing a collection of jobs.

By playing minigames, or jobs, you earn paychecks. This unlocks new minigames - there are a total of 35 - and gives you money for gumball machines that will randomly give you collectible trinkets. Among the more than 400 trinkets are toy airplanes, fish sausage rings, and Judo Priest skulls. In addition to trinkets - no, they don't do anything - you'll sometimes get utilities for your PSP. These include a world clock, a Bingo number picker, a restaurant bill splitter, and Eye Spy, which lets you play with various pairs of eyes. Look around with the analog stick and blink with the shoulder buttons. There are robot eyes, cat eyes, and eyes of different genders and ethnicities.

But to really get a sense for WTF's weird vibe, you'll want to get the Ramen timer. You set the timer and then are treated to a full screen video of a man wearing nothing but a Speedo and cheap jewelry. "My Ramen muscles twitch," he says, badly dubbed. "Flex, flex." It makes no sense, but it will help you steep your noodles. That's not a euphemism.

The actual games are distinct, strange, simple, and sometimes disconcerting. Lumberjack has you chopping wood, trying not to hack bunnies, dolphins, and teddy bears into two bloody halves. Happy Bullet gives you a list of targets and then a sniper view of a bustling apartment building. You have to shoot the right victim with your "happy bullets". Cliff Racing 2000 pits a horse against a moose, each driving cars towards the edge of a cliff, Thelma and Louise-style. The closest to the edge without going over wins.

Drunken Mayor has you maneuvering a pair of scissors to cut a ribbon at a statue dedication. Between each ceremony, you have a drink, making the scissors maneuvering increasingly difficult. Hello, use of alcohol. There goes the E10 rating, as if the bloody animals halves weren't enough. Bishop's Game involves stabbing an ice pick as fast as you can between splayed out fingers, which begs the question: Will Fox allow Sony to make an unlicensed Aliens reference?

Some of the games are variations on classics. William Hell is an artillery aiming game, but you're shooting an arrow at some poor sod with an apple on his head. Pollination is Lunar Lander, but you're a bee navigating foliage. Demonstration Round Up is a variation on the snake games you can play on your cell phone. You control a tiny man in an overhead view of a city. You run around to different buildings and gather a line of squeaking happy protesters. Then you have to avoid marauding cops to lead your protestors to the park, where you'll score based on how many you've gathered at once.

Some of the games are simple to the point of being ridiculous. In Three Count, you're a wrestler who's been pinned. You have to press the button to free yourself as close to the end of the referee's count as you can get. It's a matter of tenths of a second. Run Like Heck has you slapping the button to escape a drooling demonic dog.

The PSP already has a collection of minigames with Ape Escape Academy, but WTF seems much more in line with Nintendo's unsettling Wario Ware games. On October 17th, this collection of sheer weirdness can be yours for the eminently reasonable price of $29.99.