Nah, it's not one of those "Tragic Blog" entries in which the author feels compelled to make a public apology rather than just apologizing directly to whomever he or she has wronged. It is, in fact, a mini-review of a weird video game that I recently discovered.

The game is called I'm Sorry!. At first, the title mystified me, as did the gameplay. You play a macrocephalic Japanese man in business attire, running around picking up gold bars while trying to avoid what I assumed were Yakuza, wrestlers, hookers, Michael Jackson and the ever-popular Rolling Barrel. You can jump over them, or punch them with your Enormous Fist Of Doom.

If you don't punch or avoid them, they humiliate you in various ways. The "Yakuza" strips down to a black bra and panties, and whips you while you (now wearing a diaper) cry like a baby. Michael Jackson apparently takes you roughly from behind. And so on.

Once you've collected all the gold bars, you return to a building at the top of the screen, and do the Fan Dance Of Victory.

If you fear for your life, you can always return to your home base before you've collected all the gold, and stash your loot — but if you get killed, you still have to do the entire level over again.

There are other hazards, too. Apparently, you're such an important person that you've had statues built of yourself — and they're just as avaricious as you; your current "earnings" are contained in a balloon that floats above your head, and if it grazes one of these statues, they spring to life and attempt to kill you and take your gold. Fire hydrants spew fire in this game, too.

A quick visit to the Killer List of Videogames put the entire game into perspective. Apparently, it's political satire, which is something you just never see with American videogames. "Sorry" is a pun on sori, the Japanese word for "prime minister". The enormous-headed player is Kakuei Tanaka, a corrupt former Prime Minister of Japan who was fond of taking bribes. The "Yakuza" is actually comedian and TV host Tamori. The black athlete is Carl Lewis, the white athlete is Giant Baba, founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling, and "Michael Jackson" is in fact Michael Jackson.

Still no idea who the hooker is supposed to be, but at one point I could have sworn that her lips detached from her face, grew to enormous size, and flew across the level to kill me. But I might have been hallucinating; I wasn't able to reproduce it for a screen shot.