You might remember, not too long ago, I reviewed Retro Game Challenge(click here to read it, as I’ll make reference to it a few times). Retro Game Challenge was actually a translation of Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou, which came out almost 2 years over here after the Japanese release. Well, a bit over 2 years after Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou, we get a sequel! Sure, it’s in japanese, but why not review it now instead of waiting another 2 years?

Well, my experience with the original is fresh, considering it came out just a few weeks ago. Now, keep in mind, I can’t read japanese, so I can’t do a 100% complete review of the game. I don’t know what the characters are saying, I can’t read the magazines or instruction booklets, and I can’t play some of the games in there at all with a step-by-step guide. And of course I either have to improv my way through challenges or check guides.

So let’s go and see if the second Retro Game Challenge is actually a challenge this time around(yeah, the first game was easy… yet really fun!).  

Looks and Sounds

The game takes on the same look as its predecessor. The character models are the same, though mildly better animated, and the rest is the same. You do go in another area than just Kid Arino’s room though… though it’s just a store. There is one difference though: Game Master Arino looks badass! He gets a cape, a better crown, he’s remodeled and his animations are a lot better. He looks awesome.

 

As for the games, they look mostly like in the first game: They’re made in styles similar to the time the games are supposedly made in. So the 8-bit games look great, and you have one 16-bit game which could look just a bit better. But there’s no doubt that the games were made in old-school style. 

As for the sounds, well they’re reused. Pretty much all of them, and the music is the same. When Kid Arino speaks, he seems to have more phrases than in the first, though I can’t exactly tell since he’s speaking in japanese. It just feels like there’s more things he can say when he reacts to the games.

Games

Again, this is a compilation of old-school style games. None of them are ACTUAL old-school games, they’re just made as such. They’re all based on something I’ll go a bit over each of them. 

 

Like in the previous game, you have 4 challenges to complete in each before going to the next game, which brings you later in the time line. This time it’s from around 1982 to 1992. 

Wiz-Man
Pac-Man. Pretty much. But with a twist. There are 2 colors of dots to collect, and you can only collect dots of a certain color if you’re weilding a rod of said color. Getting a rod also gives you an attack: Ice or Fire (blue and red respectively). Some enemies are weak to one of them, strong to one of them, or weak to both. As you pick up dots, eventually big point bonuses appear, there’s various ways to score extra points, and sometimes an orange rod appears. The orange rod gives you an attack that can kill any enemy and you can pick up any color of dots. You can also pick up multiple copies of each rod, to get multiple attacks and move faster. When you get all the dots, you need to get to the door to end the level.

This game is pretty fun. If you want an original take on pac-man, this does it very well. Fun, kinda fast-paced. The challenges are really easy though. Not that it’s surprising, but a bit of normal playing will get you through most challenges, except the second which might require a guide to know what to do exactly.

Muteki-ken Kung-Fu
A take on the NES classic Kung-Fu… As if the title wasn’t obvious about that. It’s very easy. You have, a punch, a kick, and you can crouch and jump (so you have both jumping and crouching attacks). Doing 2 consecutive attacks fast enough makes the second attack “shoot” the enemy either horizontally if the second attack was a punch and diagonally if the second attack was a kick. If you hit and kill another enemy that way, you get a muteki emblem, and when you get enough, you get a power up which lasts a few seconds. That’s… pretty much it. Each stage has a mid-boss and a boss. ALSO this has a 2-player version, but it’s only against Kid Arino.

The game is really easy. Only the bosses offer a bit of challenge. But it looks nice though. The animations are really smooth. The challenges are a piece of cake and you don’t need a guide to accomplish them, just playing normally 4 times will get you through all the challenges.

Demon Returns
A fun take on Super Mario Bros. With the story from Ghosts n’ Goblins (but not the difficulty). You just proposed to your girlfriend, a wizard comes in, kidnaps her and turns you into a demon. The basics of Mario are there, though a bit changed. You start small and can get power ups to become big and shoot tornados. You can jump on enemies. You can find souls (instead of coins) and 100 of them give you an extra life. There’s 2 ways to die in the game: get hit when you’re small, or get an empty “apple meter”. Over time, apples in the apple meter go down and you can replenish those by picking up apples on the way. You can jump on enemies then kick them when they’re turned over to kill them, but you can also use your attack on them, which makes them spin, then you can ride them. This gives you extra speed, acts as a shield, and gives you a one-time-only double jump.

This game is really fun. Fast-paced platforming, riding enemies is fun. The challenges are stupidly easy though. Perform a double jump, get the second power up and destroy a block with it, get 100 souls and beat the first boss.

Detective Arino
A text adventure game, with images so you can tell who you’re talking to, pretty much. Similar to classic text-adventure games like Shadowgate. That’s really all I can say though. Japanese knowledge is a MUST to actually play this game. For me though, I had to use a nicely done step-by-step guide in a Gamefaqs topic to get through it(THANK YOU swiegwo from GameFaqs for the awesome post, well done and helped a lot). It seems okay, but I’m not a big fan of this type of game.

There’s also a sequel you can unlock after playing GunDuel, but thankfully the sequel doesn’t have any challenges.

GunDuel
A vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up. Quite similar to Star Prince in the first game. This time though you get 2 powerups at the same time. One of the powerups will shoot vertically, and the other from the 2 sides of the ship, and you can change the order of the 2 power ups. One interesting thing here is the co-op mode. You can play together with Kid Arino. Actually it’s needed for a challenge. Playing 2-player enables a new powerup: GATTAI! This combines the 2 ships, and the player who picked up the powerup controls the ship. Fun stuff, huge powerup.

Overall it’s kinda fun. Nothing really special, but the 2-player thing is cool. The challenges are easy though… of course. None of them really require using a guide, just shoot your way through everything and do basic stuff in the game’s engine to pass the challenges.

Triotos
Tetris! Kinda… This is the portable game in the Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou games (played on a gameboy clone named ”Game Computer Mini”). And obviously it’s gonna be Tetris… Kinda. Instead of doing lines, you have to do lines of at least 3 blocks of the same color, either horizontally or vertically. A bit more like Tetris 2.

The challenges are pretty easy, though you might require a guide to know exactly what to do for some of them. I got them all by playing randomly though… There’s demonstrations in the game that explain some mechanics which can help as well.

Guadia Quest Saga
The first Retro Game Challenge has the Dragon Quest-like Guadia Quest, and now you get a sequel! But this time it’s not on the “Game Computer Mini”, but on the ”Game Computer Mini Color“. So basically the graphics and sounds and gameplay are exactly the same as in the first game. There is pretty much no difference. It’s a different game though… different story, different world map, different dungeons. The Guadia System seems widely different this time though, where you can talk to people, who will transform into Guadia, and will join you if you beat them. There’s other changes but sadly I have no idea what they are or what they do because I can’t read the text. 

But the game is super easy to play despite it being in japanese, and you definitely won’t need a guide for the first 3 challenges, and maybe even not the fourth. Just make sure to save from time to time (first item in your item menu). And keeping your equipment up-to-date is easy as well, you shouldn’t have any trouble with that.

Super Demon Returns
A sequel to the first Demon Returns, this time on the “Super Game Computer” keeping the SNES tradition of having “Super” in the title. This basically plays like the first Demon Returns. But there’s a lot more to do. More items to pick up, stages build differently, and you can do directionnal attacks (you can attack up and down O_O). Also, when you get the first powerup, you can hold X or Y and charge up a bigger attack around you. This can break some normally unbreakable blocks and kills enemies in one hit. In regards to the Super Mario Bros. series, this is a lot more like Super Mario World (Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan), as you have more exploration in levels, but slightly slower gameplay.

The game is very fun, like the first. The challenges are easy again, but you’ll probably need a guide to know what to do exactly.

Other Stuff

But all that is not all the game has to offer. You can get out of the house and go in a store to play special versions of games from the first Retro Game Challenge(except for one). There’s a shorter version of Cosmic Gate(16 levels, but different warps and a boss), the Koume version of the first Haggleman (same game but you control a girl), a Time Trial version of Rally King (enter a code to fight Game Master Arino’s ghost), a Score Attack version of Star prince and a console version of Triotos.

 

Added to that you get Daily challenges, which change every day(second menu option on title screen). I didn’t try them since I can’t read the challenges, but that gives a lot of extra gameplay. After finishing all the normal challenges you also get extra challenges. Speaking of challenges, if there’s somehow a challenge you just can’t go through, you can give Game Master Arino a call and skip said challenge, if you played the game enough times. I don’t know how that influences the game’s progress in general though.

There’s also a game and watch-style practice game, but I don’t know if playing it does anything. It’s on the title screen.

Overall

I talked about this long enough. Again, Game Center CX offers a really fun gaming experience with the sequel. It’s a good tribute to games of the old and, again, seeing new games made in old-school fashion is awesome. I might not have covered EVERYTHING in the game, but if there’s anything I didn’t cover, it’s because I can’t read japanese… The new games here are fun (except for the detective game). Could be worth importing, or you can wait 2 years for the game to come in America…

 

Is it import-friendly? Well yes. You’ll probably need a guide for some stuff, but overall it’s not really tough to navigate through the game. You’ll just DEFINITELY need a guide to complete the detective game challenges.

jobocan Games, Review