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[ Techno music ]

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Alright folks, it's Dr.Sparkle again

3
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Geez, It seems like forever 
since the last episode.

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Well anyways, sorry it's so late 
but here we are again.

5
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The PC engine schedule 
seems to get a bit more hectic

6
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as we get closer to the 
1989 holiday season.

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Today, we're gonna finish up July and
blast through all of August and September.

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We're gonna' see a number 
of arcade ports today,

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as well as some obscure 
(and rather shitty) original titles.

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[ Techno music ]

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We ended last episode with a 
classic shooter, Blazing Lasers,

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and we begin this episode with a 
not-so-classic shooter, Side Arms

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(or Side Arms: Hyper Dyne, 
as it's officially called in Japan)

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This is the second port of a Capcom 
arcade game for the system

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(the first being SunSun 2)

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and, once again, this is published 
by N.E.C., not Capcom themselves.

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However, in the U.S., this was one of the very 
few TurboGrafx games not published by N.E.C.

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Rather, it was by a small company 
called Radiance Software,

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which seemed to have 
very close ties to Capcom.

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They were also well known for 
their involvement in the canceled, ah,

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Nintendo Entertainment System 
California Raisins game.

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The guy who ran Radiance, 
Christopher Riggs,

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actually lists himself as being a Product 
Developer at Capcom in the early 1990s.

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Prior to Radiance, he apparently 


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co-founded a company called 
Pacific DataWorks, with, uh, Troy Lyndon

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(who was an interesting guy who much later, uh, was behind the, uh, the infamous Left Behind computer video game.

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Pacific DataWorks mostly did 
DOS and Commodore 64 ports

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for Capcom (including Side Arms!).

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Riggs also had a company called Riggs Interactive 
which did, uh, computer ports for Capcom.

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So it's no surprise that the first Radiance 
game is, of course, a Capcom port.

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Anyhoo, 
Earth got blown up or something, and

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your little robot mecha dude is out there, 
uh, to kill lots of aliens.

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Mechanics are moreorless like similar 
shooters of the era (such as Gradius).

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Enemies drop power-ups, speed-ups, 
and other types of, uh, special weapons.

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Nothing too new or exciting, here, 
but there are a couple interesting ideas.

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The main one is: you can turn around 
and fire in the opposite direction

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by hitting the second button

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(making Side Arms kind of a 
predecessor to Forgotten Worlds).

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Now, Side Arms was originally 
an arcade game from 1986.

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Aside from the ability to fire, uh, front and back, 
a big feature of Side Arms was that two players

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could occasionally combine into 
a single more powerful form

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(with one player controlling the mech and 
the other controlling his special attack weapons).

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The home version dropped this 2-Player mode, 


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(meaning that your combined form is 
basically just a temporary upgrade).

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It lasts until you get hit.

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The other cool feature is the ability to select your... 
which weapon you wanna lose from the Start menu

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(as opposed to losing your current weapon when you 
pick up a new one, like in most other shooters).

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You can actually carry a whole 
bunch of weapons at once.

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Now, this is actually very helpful, since certain types of 
weapons are more useful than others in some spots.

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In fact, certain weapons are pretty much vital for some areas.

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And this leads me to one issue that so many Shoot-em-Ups have. 
If you die once, you are pretty much screwed.

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Side Arms is even much worse than many other similar games.

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When the action gets hectic 
and you screw up and get killed,

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you'll be brought back to life with, like, 
a single random underpowered weapon,

55
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generally with enemies, like, 
closing in on you from all sides.

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So, get killed and odds are good that you'll 
get killed again within a second or two.

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And there are so many damn enemies 
(like missiles, et cetera) that home in on you

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and follow you around, as you try to avoid them.

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And when you have, like, a very basic weapon that only shoots in one direction, it's pretty difficult to pick these guys off.

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Also, like Gradius, picking up too many speed power-ups will make you move, uh, too fast and be hard to control precisely.

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Overall, it's actually a pretty hard game 
(harder than Gradius or R-Type, in my opinion)

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but it actually, uh, looks great and I liked it 
better than the Genesis port of Forgotten Worlds.

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[ Techno music ]

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We exit July with a real stinker. 
From AICOM, it' s Takeda Shingen.

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"Aha!", you say, 
"We've already seen this game on Chrontendo.

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It was, like, a strategy game, 
published by HOT-B."

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Well, no. This is actually a completely 
different and unrelated game called Takeda Shingen.

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Now, Takeda Shingen (the real person) 
was a 16th century warlord, known for

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(among other things) 
having a badass set of armor

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(which is, uh, sort of 
semi-accurately depicted here).

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Rather than being a Strategy game, 
this is a rather dull Beat-'em-Up

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And it's a painfully slow affair.

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You have exactly two moves 
(at least at first).

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There's Attack with a sword slash 
and Jump.

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You'll be, uh, taking enemies head-on, 
uh, just sort of hacking at them until they die.

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They block a lot, so normally 
you'll just, sort of, walk up to them

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and start repeatedly slashing at them.

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They'll block a few times and then you'll get a hit in.

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This was a port of a Jaleco arcade game 
(which looks a lot nicer).

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The game isn't exactly hot shit,

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but your character moves much faster 
and there's a bit of action.

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This is hardly top tier stuff, as of 1988, 
but it seems reasonably bearable.

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There's even, like, bonus rounds 
where you can get on a horse and do some target practice.

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The horse stuff got completely stripped 
out from the PC Engine version

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and the result is just 
so damn monotonous.

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You know, I got a good way through this game 
and there were a pretty limited number of enemy types.

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There's basically dudes with swords 
(who are just like you), 


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dudes with a long flail on a chain 
(and these guys are annoying),

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and dudes with a long spear.

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Boss battles are at the end of each level, 
though each level looks about the same,

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so there's really not much to 
distinguish one level from the other.

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Bosses are really nothing exciting. 
This guy is just a big version of the swordsman.

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Post-boss fight, you visit a shop 
where you can refill your health

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and buy some critical of...
offense and defenseive upgrades,

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such as the war fan.

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Now, in real life, uh, Takeda's 
often depicted with his war fan.

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There's a famous story about how he 
deflected an enemy blade with his fan, once.

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So this game, naturally, has him, 
you know, carrying it around.

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Takeda Shingen isn't really a fun game to play, 
especially in comparison to contemporary

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Beat-'em-Ups like Golden Axe or Final Fight.

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Later, you get some better attacks, but the 
lack of variety really kills any excitement.

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It just feels like you're fighting the 
same fight over and over and over again.

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Your health bar is pretty long 
and health refills are pretty frequent

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so there's not much challenge at all 
for the entire first half of the game

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(until you get to this boss, who's, like, 
ten times harder than the last one).

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So, overall, Takeda Shingen 
is a bummer of a game.

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[ Techno music ]

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So, we enter August with Maison Ikkoku 
and a new publisher, Micro Cabin.

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We've heard their name come up 
a few times before in Chrontendo.

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They were actually a pretty prominent 
publisher of, uh, games for Japanese computers,

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back in the '80s.

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Like a lot of other sort of dodgy PC Engine games, 
this one has some pretty decent music.

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Right. So, Maison Ikkoku is one of these 
inescapable menu-based adventure games.

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Luckly, for us, we have an English translation 
by Dave Shadoff and Matt LaFrance.

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You play as one Yusaku Godai:

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a down on his luck student, living in 
sort of a rundown boarding house.

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The manager of the boarding house 
turns out to be (of course)

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a beautiful young woman who was 
recently widowed, named Kuyoku.

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This was based on a popular manga, by the 
famous manga artist, Rumiko Takahashi,

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who you might know from such comics as 
Uruse Yatsure and Renma One Half.

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It basically chronicles, uh, Godai's desire to express his love for Kuyoku, as well as the wacky residents of the boarding house.

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Eventually, of course, at the end of the series, 
the protagonists get married.

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This first appeared on the M.S.X., 
back in 1987.

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It looks pretty similar to this port, actually!

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It also wound up on the F.M. 7 and few other computers.

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Now, the first console appearance of this game was on the Famicom, which we saw very briefly in Episode 33.

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At the time, I'd pretty much said, 


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"Well, we'll check this out in more detail 
when we reach it in ChronTurbo."

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and now, my dear friends, 
that day has arrived.

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It turns out to be a reasonably normal adventure game.

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Uh, this character, here, is some kind of weird pervert dude who builds tunnels and peepholes in the walls between the rooms.

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Uh... You find a porno mag, 
which contains "pretty radical stuff".

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Later, you can actually, uh, give it back to him... 
sort of, uh, win his favor.

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Much of the game takes place inside the titular Maison Ikkoku.

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Uh... Maison is simply the French word for "house", 
which (I think) is being used ironically

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(in the sense that calling this place "Maison" you know, 
sort of, tried to, like, give it a touch of class.

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Um... Ikkoku, I believe, means 
hotheaded or tempermental

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(perhaps referring to the 
various nutty residents here.

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In this game, you actually save 
by going to the bathroom.

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There's naturally all sorts of goofy sexual 
innuendo going on between the characters.

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And this, so far, seems to be the first 
PC Engine game that actually shows

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nipples in one of its human characters 
in an obviously sexualized way

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(as opposed to nipples on a 
statue or a monster or something).

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Um... For the most part, you go around 
talking to people, collecting items,

145
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and using them in sort of unintuitive ways.

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Here's your love interest, though you actually call 
her by the rather formal name, um, Kanrinin-san,

147
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rather than her real name.

148
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You can't interact with her too much yet. 
Um... You actually have to get on her good side first.

149
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A lot of the game involves, uh, talking to people and 
getting on their good side by giving them things.

150
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Among the other things, uh, you find, uh, her bra is 
up on the roof and you have a daydream about her,

151
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um, once, uh, you found the ladder 
that allows you to climb up on the roof.

152
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Aside from the house, you can travel to a 
couple locations nearby, such as this store.

153
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The cashier is meant to look like Lum from Urusei Yatsura. 
Ya' buy things here to bribe the residents with.

154
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Um... A great deal of time is spent, you know, 
sorta' dealing with these annoying housemates.

155
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Just like in the comic, Godai tends to fantasize 
about putting the mack on his landlord,

156
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but he's too scared to do anything.

157
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The main goal of the game revolves actually 
around trying to look at that picture you see

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on the left hand side of the screen, 
believe it or not.

159
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And, you know, like a lot of these sorts 
of things, your goal is kind of vague

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and you make progress 
in seemingly random ways

161
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but the art is good, the music is decent, 
so it's still a lot better than some of the awful,

162
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uh, the other awful Adventure games we've seen.

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[ Techno music ]

164
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Hudson was, of course, the 
co-creator of the PC Engine

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and they published all the console's 
games in Japan for about the first year.

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But by this point, they are outnumbered 
by third party publishers (at least in Japan).

167
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This is the first of three Hudson-published 
games today, Power League II

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a baseball game, of course, and the 
sequel to the first Power League game,

169
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which was released about 
14 months before this one.

170
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There are a plethora of modes here 
- typical stuff:

171
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Single Game mode, a Penant Mode, All Star 
(nothing we haven't seen before).

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Now, the first Power League game 
got a U.S. release, under the name

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"World Class Baseball".

174
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Power League II was never 
released outside of Japan, though.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In fact, there are six 
Power League games on the PC Engine

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and the first one was the only one 
to get a non-Japanese release.

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Naturally, this looks and feels a lot 
like the first Power League game.

178
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If we look at the two back to back, 
we see the sprites have been changed a bit,

179
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but both games look very similar 
(with one exception).

180
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In the first game, after the batter got a hit, 
it showed the outfield straight down,

181
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with the uh, camera's line of sight 
being perpendicular to the ground,

182
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
much like the, uh, Sega Genesis', uh, 
sports games, like Tommy Lasorda Baseball.

183
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Power League II uses a much 
more traditional 45 degree angle

184
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
(looking sort of down and out over the field).

185
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As always, playing against the CPU is tricky.

186
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's certainly a way to strike 
out the CPU, but I didn't find it.

187
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Generally the CPU would get a good powerful 
hit against anything I would throw at it.

188
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When I was at the bat, I'd get lots of fly balls

189
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(and, uh, the computer would actually 
catch these with absolute 100% accuracy)

190
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as well as tons of foul balls

191
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(like, about 4 out of 5 hits would 
be a foul ...or just really weak hits).

192
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Of course you have to play these things for a 
little while to sorta' get, you know, the feel to them

193
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and I didn't play it long enough to actually, 
you know, get very good at this thing.

194
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, Power League II is 
(just like its predecessor)

195
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a sharp-looking baseball game that 
doesn't really stand out in any way,

196
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
other than its, you know, 
nice looking graphics. 


197
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And we will get to see four more of 
these during the life of the console.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[ Techno music ]

199
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Our third PC Engine game, 
from Naxat (a.k.a. Taxan)

200
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who had previously released the, uh, 
great pinball game, "Alien Crush"

201
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as well as a golf game. 
Now, we have a pool game from them.

202
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Break In, featuring 
Simulation, Action, Technique

203
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Geez! is this an instructional sex game?

204
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Simulation is sort of a tournament mode, 
Action is just like one-off, uh, playing a game,

205
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and Technique is like a 
tutorial practice mode deal.

206
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Break In is pretty generous with 
the types of games you can play.

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For example, you have, uh, Yotsudama 


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(a four ball game that's played 
on a table with no pockets

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and doesn't really resemble 
normal pool that much)

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and "Bowliards", which appears to be 
a, uh, (actually is misspelled here)

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is sort of a hybrid between 
bowling and billiards.

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Hmm! Yes, I would like some nice shiny oranges and a glass of... orange soda? ...or maybe a big glass of [???]?

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Man, we're gonna' get f---ed up 
on that [???] there.

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Lots of options, here. 
Choose singles versus doubles,

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who is controlled by computer 
and who is controlled by... "Man"

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(Sorry, ladies! This is a man's game.)
Pick a character,

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(choose from either seven 
men characters or "Woman")

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"Dragon"!? Come on! 
This guy's hobby is golf?

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I'm surprised it's not... 
you know... Billiards.

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Actually, I'm kidding. 
There are seven female characters as well.

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Hmm! I like Emmy's dumb '80s fashion and, 
uh, Sophia's, sort of, adorable geek chic

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but really, uh, Sigrid, the boozy 
actress seems like the coolest to me.

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So picking a card determines who breaks.

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Now, when you actually get ready to 
shoot a va... shoot the ball, here,

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you have a great deal of control, much 
like the typical golf games of this era.

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You have this image ball concept 


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(not something I've seen 
in pool games prior to this)

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CPU players are generally 
decent but not 100% perfect,

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which is a nice switch from the 
various baseball games we've seen.

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Franky's pretty cool, but I 
think that mustache is fake.

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Like a lot of other PC Engine games, 
Break In has some pretty chill music.

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Now, this is the Technique part.
(I'm trying to learn trick shots.)

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Good luck.

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We've only seen a few pool games 
throughout the Chron series.

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I still kinda like Compile's nutty "Lunar Pool" 
game the best (which was on the N.E.S.)

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but among sort of like regular serious pool 
games, "Break In" is definitely one of the slickest.

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[ Techno music ]

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Whoa-hoa! Did I load up a Famicom 
game by mistake? What is this?

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Well, it's yet another Capcom arcade port 
(and we're not really getting top tier Capcom

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stuff here).

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The MegaDrive gets "Ghouls and Ghosts" 
and the PC Engine gets "F-1 Dream".

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There's a bit of a story here.

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F-1 Dream is one of those 
career type racing games.

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Alright, so let's fire up 
some F-1 racing action.

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Wait. What's going on, here? 
These are not F-1 cars.

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This is apparently kind of a prologue 
to the main F-1 racing game.

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Your car is super lame 
(and I'm sure there's no way to win).

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Anyway, the original F-1 Dream was a 1988 
arcade game, which used the likenesses of

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real Formula 1 drivers in the intro.

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It's a pretty basic top-down racer.

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I guess there was still, like, some sort of 
demand for this kinda thing in the late '80s

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(I don't know why.)

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One funny touch was, if you smack into the 
guardrails near spectators, they all go running

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hysterically.

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Right, so I'll fill you in on the basics of F-1 Dream.

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This is one of those racing games where 
you collect money for racing and then

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use it to buy upgrades for your car 
(which starts out super shitty).

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First, you actually need to 
hire guys to work on your car.

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Here, I'm, uh, hiring a tire guy 
and an engine guy.

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After paying these dudes, I have enough 
money left to put some better tires on

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my car and then it's off to the F-1 race!

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(Well, this is technically the tr... time trial 
but the actual race is up next.)

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So, you just sorta cruise around the track
and, uh, (in order to qualify for the race)

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however there's a couple things about this 
type of game that drives me crazy

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(namely the controls).

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I've seen this in other Japanese 
top-down racing games on the Famicom

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but it drives me nuts here as well.

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The controls are not from the perspective 
of the driver, but from the viewpoint of the

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game's camera (meaning that if you're 
pointed up and wanna turn right, you

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press Right on the directional pad - 
which makes sense so far - but if

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you're facing down (towards the bottom 
of the screen) and you wanna turn the

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vehicle right, you press Left, because the vehicle's 
right is towards the left-hand side of the screen.

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This tends to confuse me, since we usually 
think of, you know, driving from the driver's

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point of view, especially when I'm heading 
towards the bottom of the screen and drift

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towards the side of the road, trying to correct 
myself will usually result in me driving off the

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road, since it feels to me like 
the controls are reversed.

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You start bringing in money pretty quickly 
(even for doing poorly) and you will slowly

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be able to improve your vehicle.

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Among other things, if the car gets damaged 
too much, it'll explode in a rather cool fashion

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and you'll get a Game Over.

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Beyond that, there's really not 
that much to say about F-1 Dream.

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We've already seen a lot 
of games like this already.

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We saw a much more creative take on a 
career racing game last time, with Namco's

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Final Lap Twin.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Quite frankly, the most distinguishing thing 
about F-1 Dream is just how appallingly

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last-generation the graphics look.

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[ Techno music ]

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, after taking in that weird looking box cover, 
you really should pause this and take a moment

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to read this batshit insane intro, here.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's about, uh, finding mysterious fortunes 
and "Busters" (uh, "the name..." for "...people

291
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we call... fortune hunters".

292
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Their "historic journey" is to get "FISA" 
("called legend by the people"). Hmm.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The "one person..." who 
"...can make it real ...

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
has got to be billionet and radical, 
physically and mentally"

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and "Yes, you are the one!"

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One of the great things about doing a 
series like this is you find shit that

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doesn't seem like it has any reason to 
exist (for example, "Rock On").

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is the second game from publisher, 
Big Club and developer Manjyudo.

299
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They had released a game in June called 
"Jinmu Denshō Yaksa" (covered in

300
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Chronturbo 4) which took a character 
from a PC-88 game and stuffed him into

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a Space Harrier clone.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As far as I can tell, "Rock On" 
is a completely original game.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's a Shoot-'em-Up (and 
not a great one at that).

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In fact, uh, VG Den (a review site for the 
PC Engine and Super Famicom games

305
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
calls it the worst 
Shoot-'em-Up for the console.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't know if that's true, 
but damn, it sure ain't good.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If nothing else, you get a lot of power-ups!

308
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So, this looks pretty boring, huh?

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Well, I guess there's a couple 
things we can say about this.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
First of all, the power-up 
system is a little different.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You can carry three different special 
weapons at once, though none of them

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
display even the slightest 
amount of creativity.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's the three way shot, the laser 
(you know, the one where you shoot

314
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
both directions vertically, one where you 
shoot both directions horizontally).

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Use the Start button to move between them 
but there's no Pause feature in the game,

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
meaning you have to switch weapons on the 
fly (unlike in Side Arms) which is, you know, kind of a pain.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Rock On uses kind of like a cute pudgy design 
style; your ship looks a little bit like Opa-Opa.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One annoying factor here are these warps.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They actually send you back to the 
beginning of a level if you... if you

320
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
don't know what they are 
and accidentally go into one.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't know much about the developer 
Manjyodo, except they made a handful

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of PC Engine games and were mostly involved in importing/distributing arcade games.

323
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As of 1998, their website was still up, 
but all it had was listings of arcade

324
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
cabinets for sale, along with 
commercial boats (like, big boats).

325
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
For example, they were selling 
an 11 million cargo boat.

326
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There's really nothing interesting 
or exciting or creative here.

327
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
In fact, uh, this boss is ripped right 
out R-Type. (the nerve!)

328
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Instead of points, you get money, 
though I never did see a shop or

329
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
anything to spend the money in.

330
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I love the way the interface at the bottom 
actually gets covered up by background objects.

331
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I haven't seen this happen in other games 
on the console, so I assume it's a problem

332
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with the game, itself, not the emulation.

333
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So we're definitely scraping 
the bottom of the barrel, here.

334
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's a real puzzler, this one is, and I still 
have no idea why it's called, "Rock On".

335
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[ Techno music ]