InsideJapan News Network

A new computer game could soon be coming to a men's bathroom near you after Tokyo games computer company Sega launched its latest console, the 'Toylet'.

The Sonic the Hedgehog creator has developed the new urinal-based games machine for bars around Japan, encouraging men to play a series of mini-games while urinating.

With a screen mounted at eye-level above the urinal, the traditional games controller is abandoned with gamers instead using their urine to play by directing their stream onto a pressure sensor.

There are five games to choose from on the £1,266 machine; from the simple 'Mannekin Pis' where players have to see how hard they can urinate to the slightly more difficult 'Graffiti Eraser' which requires an image to be cleaned with a water hose.

The motivation behind the games machine is ultimately to encourage toilet-goers to view adverts on the screen, however, with Sega believing that men will pay more attention if there is a game involved.

In 2001 Sega abandoned the traditional games console market to focus its enterprise on games developing and the arcade industry.

Written by Susan Ballion