The Triathron

The Triathron is a sports simulation game developed and published by K Amusement for the Famicom towards the end of 1988. It simulates the three events contained in a traditional Triathlon including swimming, biking, and running. The spelling of the word triathlon in the title is only the first and most glaring in a series of examples of “Engrish”; including the use of “dush” in the player selection screen to indicate the athlete’s dashing ability, and describing their nationality as their “nature”. The game contains six different athletes to choose from, all with their own variety of strengths and weaknesses, and it contains four official courses based on real world competitions (Chicago, Japan, Paris, and Hawaii), and one “special” course which contains more fantasy elements than the usual courses. After winning a triathlon, the player can invest some points into their chosen competitor’s stats and move onto the next.