Cookie’s Bustle, the most normal video game in the whole wide world, is not done with us yet. The ultra-obscure and hard to source Japanese PC game celebrated two milestones this year: A quarter century anniversary and liberation from a mysterious patent troll. The dreamlike odyssey has frequently raised more questions than answers, and it’s still got more to give. It seems that hardcore Cookie fans were invited to a secret party on Friday, including the select few who bothered to send in their registration card back in 1999.
“We hope that your adventure with Cookie was wonderful,” read one invitation from the ‘Official Cookie’s Bustle Team’ provided to me. “For certain reasons, Cookie’s Bustle was discontinued in 2001, and Cookie, along with Gray the rabbit, went into a long hibernation. And as the end of that deep slumber approaches, you, our most valued customer, will be the first to receive the news.”
一昨日ゲーム「Cookie’s Bustle」のタイムカプセルイベントでギターを弾かせていただきました🐻🎸
Ayasaさんとも一緒で心強く楽しかったです💜
25年の時を経て開催されたこのイベント、出演させていただき光栄でした✨ありがとうございました！… pic.twitter.com/nPy5on1iUF— Yuki -D_Drive / East Of Eden- (@D_Drive_Yuki) October 4, 2026
Over the weekend, posts emerged out of Tokyo from a function held by QualityTime Consulting, a Japanese technology firm. Despite being established in 2006, the soiree was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cookie’s Bustle (though it’s technically the 27th anniversary of Cookie’s Bustle). Described as a “25th secret event” by the merch and a “time capsule event” by others, the party had live musicians playing tunes from the game, exclusive swag, someone dressed as Cookie herself and cookies shaped like Cookie herself. While attendees were apparently instructed not to take photos, news of the event still traversed to the outside world.
Released in 1999, Cookie’s Bustle: Mysterious Bombo World is a surreal point and click adventure game. The game follows Cookie, a Jersey girl who believes she is a bear (and certainly resembles one) traveling to a remote island nation founded by space aliens to compete in their athletic games. There, Cookie is swept into a violent revolution, cutely.
While Japan had a PC gaming scene in the ’90s it was a microcosm compared to local console support or PC development abroad. As such, Japanese PC games are largely obscure and hard to track down. Like Garage: Bad Dream Adventure, Zeddas, Cosmology of Kyoto and others, Cookie developed a devout following over the ages. But its biggest infamy has less to do with the game itself and more to do with conflicting claims of ownership.
When videos began vanishing from ClassicsOfGame’s itemized YouTube page, fans caught on to an individual who seemed determined to erase Cookie’s Bustle’s entire digital footprint. The individual known as Brandon White bent copyright laws to order DMCA takedowns. While attempts to contact actual game creator Keisuke Harigai were fruitless, the Video Game History Foundation used their own lawfare to snuff out the patent troll in March. The ClassicsOfGame page complete. Justice.
It seems Cookie’s mysterious journey isn’t over. What QTC’s relationship with the big yellow teddy is unclear (and poking around the Wayback’s record of its website didn’t provide any familiar names), but someone in the planning committee must’ve had access to pre-Millennium mailed-in registration cards. Attendees didn’t mention any announcements for rereleases, remasters or sequels, but it certainly seems like this “long hibernation” is coming to an end. And god help us all when she wakes up.
