If you don't already know what Game Center CX is well, I'll tell you: a Japanese T.V. show which started out being about Japanese arcades and retro games, with a "challenge" featuring Shinya Arino, a Japanese comedian with meagre gaming skills. The series has had its own DS game (released in the west as Retro Game Challenge) and a sequel has just been launched in Japan, too.
The segment featuring Arino has ballooned in popularity and is now the centre of the show. Possibly his most famous challenge has been playing through Takeshi's Challenge (the infamously worst/hardest Famicom game ever) in one sitting. If you haven't seen it before it's well worth it:
The latest offering is a two part special on the Japanese Nintendo Channel and is basically just Arino-san playing a few games from the Virtual Console wherein the words "Game Over" appear with regularity. With any luck this will get subtitled by someone in the near future and put on You Tube. In the meantime just enjoy the visuals and Arino-san's "unique" playing style:
[youtube:IQcV_SsEIVQ]The games featured include:
- Yōkai Dōchūki (PC Engine, a port of a Namco arcade game never released outside of Japan)
- Ninja JaJaMaru-kun (Famicom, available on NA/EU VC thanks to a Hanabi Festival in 2007)
- The Super Shinobi (Megadrive, known as Revenge of Shinobi outside of Japan)
- Kaizou Choujin Shubibinman (PC Engine, an action platform game from NCS)
- Alex Kidd in Miracle World (SMS, yet another action platform game. I'm sensing a theme here...)
- Golden Axe (Megadrive)
- Super Gussun Oyoyo (Super Famicom, a puzzle game where you need to build blocks to help a baby get to an exit -- like one of the modes in Tetris Party)
I've gotten some more ideas for future Virtual Console purchases; hopefully you'll be inspired too!
Comments 13
Epic, Arino is like a Japanese gaming hero.
Arino owns and I say we should just skip the whole "video games as art"-debate and admit that the act of playing them is art, regardless of whether the games themselves have any artistic merit or not.
I still think his best work was the DVD special, where he played Transformers: Mystery Of Convoy. Unlike Takeshi's Challenge, he failed to complete that one. And the way the narrator kept insulting him was just awesome.
Don't forget his Star Force escapades!
1. Famicom Star Force (subs)
2. Virtual Console Arcade Star Force (no subs)
Why does the guy on the Game cart Look Like Vic Romano from MXC?
It's the same guy. If you didn't know, MXC is known as Takeshi's Castle in Europe.
@TwilightV: considering that entire game had to be played through like three times, I don't blame him for giving up, lol
@theblackdragon: He only had to give up because he had a schedule to keep. Still, he didn't really make it that far.
@toddr do you mean the show MXC with japanese doing crazy things
Awesome! I got hooked on the show after finding a bunch of episodes on Veoh (although they had no subtitles). I hope they'll get around to putting it on DVD over here eventually; that little teaser on the back of the Retro Game Challenge manual is becoming sort of painful to look at.
Yeah, that one with the ridiculously odd dubbing.
I tried watching those videos, I didn't really find them very funny...
I don't know what exactly is considered worse: Takeshi's Challenge or Action 52... XD
Still, I know that Beat Takeshi is a neat comedian (and yes, Takeshi's Castle was an AWESOME TV show), but I never would have guessed he'd pin ideas for one of the oddest videogames made for the Famicom.
Seriously, waiting an hour for a map to show? You ALREADY get more than enough with Earthbound, waiting just 3 minutes to open a waterfall hideout up. So yeah... "why DO you take this game so seriously?"
Anyway, pressing on, I'm keen to see what he can do with the VC and its tougher game library. The Virtual Console should be full of insane wonders
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