I Survived a Japanese Game Show: Shooting Balls, Breaking Faces

This week’s over-the-top I Survived… challenges didn’t have as much gadgety goodness as usual, but were strangely satisfying nonetheless. First, Velcro-clad contestants were dangled in front of of a teammate, who would try to pass them Velcro balls to catch. The objective was for the dangler, manipulated by two other contestants, to collect as many balls as possible without getting hit too many times by their opponent, stationed behind a cool pneumatic ball cannon.
Sort of boring, right? Well the second challenge was way better. Fans of MXC (Takeshi’s castle, for non-Americans) will recognise the false door game, where contestants have to get through a series of doors, some soft and fake, some real and hard. ISJGS takes it to the next level, forcing contestants to swing – not run – into the doors.

This whole concept of this show depends on humiliating its participants. The producers, though, must have caught on to something more: everyone on this show is pretty annoying. Shrewdly, then, ISJGS smashes them into wooden doors. Thanks, ABC!