The Old School Otaku Lounge

My favorite Japanese TV show is Game Center CX. The premise of the show is somewhat similar to that of MST3K: Manzai comedian Shinya Arino is stuck in a room for a day and must clear a retro video game at the expense of losing his energy and/or wits (he even wears a jumpsuit). He plays games on the Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine, Mega Drive, and occasionally a Playstation game. Many of the games are great classics, like Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Super Fantasy Zone, etc. Some of them are kusoge, or "crap games," such as the legendary Takeshi's Challenge, Paris-Dakar Rally Special, and Transformers for the Famicom. Some of the games are legendary in their difficulty, such as Rockman 2, Makaimura (Ghosts & Goblins), and Prince of Persia.

The great thing about the show is that Arino always plays with a smile. When he gets frustrated, he puts a cold press on his forehead to stay cool and he never loses his smile or his sense of humor. He is certainly different from the Angry Video Game Nerd, that is for sure. Whether he wins or loses, he does so with grace.

The show is wildly popular in Japan, as it celebrates retro gaming nostalgia and good sportsmanship. Media stores have displays of Game Center CX books and DVDs. There are even two Game Center CX games for the Nintendo DS, which are a compilation of retro-style games. The first one was released in English under the name Retro Game Master. Discotek/Eastern Star released a DVD box set of this show, which I bought over the weekend. Unfortunately, both the Japanese DVDs and this domestic DVD only contain the main part of the show in which Arino sets out to clear a game. Much of the broadcast TV show features Arino interviewing game developers, testing out obscure game consoles such as the Sega Mark III (Master System) and 3DO, and checking out game arcades that cater to the retro gaming crowd based on recommendations from letters sent in by fans of the show. You can find many episodes translated with English subtitles on YouTube.

This domestic DVD is a nice buy. As I said, it doesn't contain the full episodes, but neither do the Japanese DVDs, so it's not like Japanese viewers are getting something on DVD that you aren't. The show is presented in Japanese with English subtitles, and the narrator can either be the original Japanese or an English narrator. I watched an episode with the English narrator at the insistence of my daughter, and I must say he does a pretty good job at it. (Except for whenever he says Arino... "Areeeeno" yuck). The show has been on TV for many years now.

That show is great, I found out about it after the announcement from the Discotek/Eastern Star DVD set. I have watched a few episodes of the show online and would like to pickup the DVD set at some point. One of the first episodes I watched was the NES Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! challenge, man was that hilarious. He really got annoyed by some of the levels, but he pressed on like a champ. When he did beat a boss that took dozens of attempts He really got super extincted. I liked watching him play that game because it is a non Japanese cart and they didn't understand a lot of the non Japanese cultural references.

We used to have game type shows on before 2000 and G4 runs stuff like that but the Japanese show sounds interesting. Any episodes out subtitled so we can understand what is going on? One of the big let downs with Japanese DVDs and Blu Rays that have the main feature subbed is that the complementary material isn't subbed.

UPDATE:

Checked Youtube and the episodes there are subbed. Might check this out later...

Yes, the episodes on YT are fansubbed and they are the complete broadcast episodes. Of course the main part of the show is playing through the game, but the supplemental stuff is very fun, too. Arino is rather cute and youthful, and the subtitles do a good job at bringing forth his playfulness and his Osaka dialect.

I've been meaning to check out this show, the premise sounds really fun. Kinda lame the DVDs don't have the full eps but I suppose it's better than nothing, eh?

I just checked out the show via YouTube. This is really neat! Thanks for sharing, Greg!

The episode I saw was the one where he re-challenges Super Mario 3 after a few years. (or, at least I watched the first few minutes of it) I was surprised to see the guy really having a difficult time...

Does anyone have any favorite episodes? I guess that your favorite episodes might correlate with your favorite games...

I really liked the Prince of Persia episode, and I've never really played the game. Clock Tower was cool too (too scared to play that one). Other ones I really enjoyed were Flashback, Out of This World, and the infamously terrible kusoge "crap game," Paris-Dakar Rally Special.

Mammoth GameCenter CX 10th anniversary project underway

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/06/04/m ... -underway/