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I never thought that a Steam "Minesweeper" game developed by a domestic development team could invade the Japanese market at an almost crazy speed. It even occupied the computer and mobile phone screens of players in the birthplace of "secondary culture".

Since the game was released, the headlines of major Japanese gaming media, Vtuber live broadcast rooms, and website homepages have all been "taken over" by this "classic gameplay of the last century". This game called "Let's Sweep Mines" did not become popular by relying on gimmicks such as "selling meat". In 2024, when major manufacturers are rolling up game screens, "Let's Sweep Mines" has opened up a new track with its "most authentic" gameplay, and has become a "treasure game" that young Japanese people have been chasing after. It's like one day Chinese players suddenly put down their masterpieces, MOBA, FPS, and suddenly all clicked on Spider Solitaire, and became more and more addicted to it.

Even well-known Japanese gaming media such as Famitsu and 4gamer have reported on this incident.

But if we talk about what the developers have done, it is certainly not to copy the old Windows game. In addition to the basic gameplay, "Let's Minesweeper" also incorporates a very interesting feature - multiple people on the same screen.

In fact, even though Minesweeper is the most representative game among the Windows system’s built-in games, most people who have used computers know about this game. However, very few people really know the rules of the game. Before I started playing “Let’s Play Minesweeper”, I didn’t even know what the numbers in the middle of the grid meant. Because more than a decade or two ago, many families installed pirated Windows systems, and there was no set of content that explained the rules of Minesweeper in detail for players, which led to the phenomenon that even though many people knew about the game, there were still a large number of players who didn’t understand how to play it.

This is also the fundamental reason why "Let's Minesweeper" has become popular. Think about it carefully, when you are stuck on a game and don't know how to play it, if a barrage suddenly appears on the screen telling you "The number in the middle of the grid indicates how many mines there are in the 8 grids around it", wouldn't it suddenly dawn on you: "Oh! So that's how to play it!" This is also part of the "Let's Minesweeper" game experience.

Of course, the role of adding real-time bullet comments is far more than that. During the game, players can chat and interact in real time, and discuss the best minesweeping strategy together, or use the in-game prank function to cause trouble to the opponent. The speech content will float from right to left like the bullet comments of Bilibili or Japan's N station. Players will see all the messages sent by online players in real time, including treasure chests found by some players during the game, or small easter eggs made by the game author, and even some false information sent by players who like pranks. These elements together constitute the most important part of the game, which is also one of the reasons why it can keep players addicted.

After Japan experienced the financial crisis and the real estate bubble, socializing and overtime culture have become more and more mainstream among young people in Japan. Although there is no long period of time to spend easily, there is a lot of scattered time, such as on the way to work, on the subway, or when waiting for the bus. These scattered times have become the fundamental reason why "Let's Sweep Mines" can be widely spread among young people in Japan. After getting home from get off work, you can open the game and see the intense communication and exchanges between "mine friends" on the screen. This kind of real-time feedback is not available in stand-alone games.

Let's Minesweeper has seized on the fact that Japanese young people always focus on teamwork and social interaction. Through multi-player collaboration, players can build closer connections in the minesweeping process. This makes an originally simple game extremely social, which has also led to its rapid spread among Japanese players. At the same time, some of the popular memes in the game have been translated very realistically, which has also made some of the content in the game spread quickly among players, and even become a catchphrase for some young people.

Of course, the game also incorporates real-time rankings into its design. Players' scores will be displayed in the real-time rankings, and you can tell at a glance who has swept how many mines. This approach actually conveys the concept of competition to players in another way. After stimulating the players' desire to win, it provides players with a platform to show off. I think this is one of the important reasons why it has become popular.

Of course, "Let's Sweep Mines" is not limited to Japan. The game server allows players around the world to "sweep mines together". The author found that during the game, barrages in various languages ​​would float out from time to time. You can see the live minesweeping of players from all over the world. Among this group of people, there are minesweeping masters and newbies who don't understand the rules. This strong sociality can connect players from all over the world and let everyone focus on the "minesweeping" thing. I think this is why it can become popular. A Steam link for "Let's Sweep Mines" is also placed below this article, if you want to have a hearty minesweeping battle with this group of "crazy" Japanese players, or look for all kinds of cute "mine friends" around the world. You might as well go directly to Steam to see what this game is all about.