San! Ni! Ichi! Hajime!!!

Hurdle barrels, outrun Shiba Inu and dive out of the paths of bicycles - all while chucking fruit at your opponents and dashing across planks precariously balanced over waterfalls - in an unreal experience that must be played to be believed.

This latest update includes two brand new stages and unlockable boss characters!

In Store Game

The in-game store is now open! Unlock new characters and bonuses - like new race-affecting extras. Want a fair (but surely NO FUN!) ‘No Items Mode’? How about a Turbo mode? These unlocks will make the race more personal to your taste!

The points you earn at the end of a race can now be converted into sweet, sweet Yen which you can spend in the in-game store! ‘Capitalism, ho!’ as, er… I believe someone once said.

Unlockable Boss Character

Unlockable Boss Characters are here! Handsome Hazuki, Shiro Hideko, KG Park, Felix Arizona join the party! If you’d like to know more about these not-so shadowy figures, then stop by our website for their full character bios! Or if you prefer your Boss characters spoiler free, you’ll find their individual stories in the upcoming Story Mode.

Nothing comes for free though! The bosses will vary in cost in the store. KG Park at a cheerful ¥107,987, Handsome Hazuki proves good looks come with a price with the most expensive unlock of ¥902,714. Moustache grooming doesn’t come cheap.

And wait… wait… this just in! Onion Soup Interactive will give you, for this update only, enough in-game currency to buy at least one boss from the store!

New Prefecture YAMA-DORI

As previously reported there’s now a new area, YAMA-DORI, featuring two new attractions - Unsafe Sake Facility & Steamy Steamy Monkeys

UNSAFE SAKE FACILITY

From the rice paddies to the facility itself, the making of Sake is a fine art – though we wouldn’t recommend a tasting session right now. Weave your way thought the backpackers to find a distilliary on the brink of collapse. Falling bridges and exploding barrels? Someone call Health and Safety!

STEAMY STEAMY MONKEYS

You can’t come to Japan without experiencing a traditional Onsen in the mountains! But this is no time for a bath, not if the Snow Monkeys have any say in the matter. The Snow Monkeys love using their smart phone to livestream the marathon. So don' be surprised if a Snow Monkey starts livestreaming mid-slide! The Snow Monkeys also love to throw bananas and jump on your back (or straddling your face!) Remember folks - mischief maketh the marathon!

..AND SOME FINAL FIXES!

Tweaks to the fruit machine minigame

We’ve update the UI and fixed a bug that sometimes resulted in the minigame not showing. Items are now dispensed once the minigame is complete. Carp and Shiba now appear in place of the fruit machine objects.

Resolution and Options

The bug where the screen resolution was interpreted the wrong way around has now been fixed. Hurrah!
The options menu and saving system has also been updated, though this still requires further improvements.

Additional features and upgrades include: 

• The in-game store is now open! Unlock new characters and bonuses - like new race-affecting extras. Want to level the playing field with ‘No Items Mode’? How about a Turbo mode? These unlocks will make the race more personal to your taste!
• The points you earn at the end of a race can now be converted into sweet, sweet Yen which you can spend in the in-game store!
• The new unlockable bosses will vary in cost in the store. KG Park at a cheerful ¥107,987, Handsome Hazuki proves good looks come with a price with the most expensive unlock of ¥902,714. Moustache grooming doesn’t come cheap.
• As an extra bonus, Onion Soup Interactive will give you, for this update only, enough in-game currency to buy at least one boss from the store!

What’s Coming Next?

The much hyped Trolley Minigame is still currently in development. All I can say is that you won't want to be doing this in your local Super Ichiba, the staff would not be pleased.

Key Features:

• Four-player madness!: You can't spell Nippon Marathon without ‘P', ‘A', ‘R', ‘T' and *checks letters* ‘I', we suppose… Solo play is supported, but grab up to four pads and enjoy the supreme silliness of gaming's greatest marathon.
• See all of Japan!: Cross the entirety of the land of Nippon in a series of creative courses spanning busy city streets, village lanes, bustling markets, mountaintop shrines, supermarkets and even unsafe sake distilleries! Four courses will be available at the launch of Early Access, with more being added on the road to completion.
• Wacky characters!: Go toe-to-toe with some of the coolest contestants who ever did, er… contest! Lobster-man J DARWIN, onesie-obsessive Elizabeth Nishibori, school uniform fan Zenbei “Xen Bae” and the completely normal Snuguru Maestro are among the challengers vying for the podium!
• Epic pratfalls!: Swinging poles! Giant face-slapping fish! Cyclists! Shiba Inu! Panes of glass! Traffic! False doors! Barrels! Rolling beams! Wobbly planks! Flying fruit! More Shiba Inu! EARTHQUAKES!!!!! Dodge and dive over the lot or suffer the painful and embarrassing consequences of physics-based collisions…
• Tons of surprises!: You never know what will happen next in Nippon Marathon. Perhaps you'll find time for an impromptu spot of slot machine fun? Maybe a news anchor will jetpack in to interview you on the racetrack? Heck, anything is possible…
• Drop-in/drop-out play!: Need a bathroom break to squeeze pineapple juice out of your foam lobster claws? Random pedestrian passing by your couch and wants to play? Whatever the cause, hop in and out for the ultimate, flexible party get-together!

Currently available on Steam Early Access, Nippon Marathon will launch later this year, complete with extra courses, contestants, party modes and a full single-player story campaign, will charge onto Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac.