Nice Package! (Bikkuriman World, PC Engine)

Over the years, I've "come around" to loads of games I initially found underwhelming (or worse).

A few examples I've written about as part of my on-again, off-again "Second Chances" series: Bubble Bobble Junior for the GameBoy, Don Doko Don for Famicom, Magical Taruruuto-kun for Game Gear and Valkyrie no Densetsu for PC Engine.



Why I've yet to publish a "Second Chances" entry on Hudson Soft's Bikkuriman World is beyond me. After all, while my first experiences with this PC Engine reimagining of Sega's Wonder Boy in Monster Land left me feeling unimpressed, my opinion of it improved substantially following subsequent playthroughs.

That's not to say my negative early impressions of Bikkuriman World weren't warranted. The game features tiny character sprites, a rather intrusive HUD (status bar, basically) and controls that are equal parts slippery and stiff.

Later jaunts through its adorable environments were far less annoying. The complaints I just leveled at the game remained true, of course, but some of them slowly, but surely, morphed into aspects I either accepted (its controls) or appreciated (its graphics).

A few things I didn't have to come around to regarding Bikkuriman World are its HuCard label and manual cover.

Both are showcased in the photos above. Even when I wasn't a fan of the game, I still liked the chibi character illustrations that are the focus of its cover and cart-label art. I've always long loved the bubbly Bikkuriman logo, too.

Sadly, the instruction manual packed inside copies of this side-scrolling platformer isn't quite as visually impressive as that booklet's cover imagery. To see what I mean, check out my "Manual Stimulation" post about Bikkuriman World.



Also, if you're a PC Engine fan in general, keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months for more "Nice Package!" posts devoted to games made for NEC's console.

In the meantime, enjoy the ones I've already published about Dungeon Explorer, Pac-Land, Parodius Da! and Son Son II.

Manual Stimulation: Bikkuriman World (PC Engine)

A little warning before you start scrolling through this post: Hudson Soft's Bikkuriman World was one of the very first games released for the PC Engine.

Keeping that in mind should help you appreciate, or at least accept, the generally ho-hum nature of this 1987 game's instruction manual.



Given the title's pedigree, you could be forgiven for thinking it's a bit strange that Bikkuriman World's booklet can be described in such a way.

Specifically, Bikkuriman began life in the 1980s when Japanese candy-maker Lotte introduced a chocolate-and-peanut snack of the same name. Each package included a Bikkuriman sticker that children could use to play a tag-like game.



The stickers, especially, became a big hit--so much so that both manga and anime series featuring the Bikkuriman characters followed. As did, of course, the PC Engine game discussed here.

Hudson Soft didn't create Bikkuriman World from the ground up, by the way. Instead, the company took Westone's Wonder Boy in Monster Land and altered some of its sprites (the bosses, mostly) to look like figures from the Bikkuriman franchise.



Some of those figures can be seen on Bikkuriman World's cover art, above. Others can be found on the first couple of pages of its manual.

Oddly, that's all the space the Bikkuriman cast are given in this booklet's handful of pages. Most of the rest of its acreage is devoted to black-and-white screenshots and explanatory text.



We do get a few nice illustrations of weapons, armor, items and power-ups near the end, at least. Still,  would it have killed Hudson Soft's artists to crank out a couple of enemy drawings? I guess so.

Oh, well, at least Bikkuriman World's old-school platforming gameplay is strong enough to make this little slip-up a lot easier to take in stride.

See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts about Dungeon Explorer, Parodius Da!, Son Son II and Valkyrie no Densetsu

Five favorites: PC Engine platformers that don't involve Pithecanthropus Computerus

At first, coming up with a list of favorite PC Engine platformers that don't feature the third wheel in the race of the 16-bit mascots--that would be the "Pithecanthropus Computerus" mentioned in the headline above, who also goes by "PC Genjin" and "Bonk"--seems like a daunting task. After all, when most folks think of NEC's pint-sized system (the Japanese one, at least), the first games that come to mind are Hudson's PC Genjin trio (otherwise known as Bonk's Adventure, Bonk's Revenge and Bonk's Big Adventure in North America).

Think about it for a bit, though, and it becomes apparent that this "little console that could"--because it ably competed with the Genesis/Mega Drive and the SNES/Super Famicom despite the fact that it wasn't a full-fledged 16-bit system--was home to a number of top-shelf run-and-jump (or hop-and-bop) titles.

The five below are my personal favorites. Notice I'm not saying that I think they're the best platformers to grace the PC Engine. Although a couple of them are sure to fit that bill, others are too flawed to be so highly considered. Still, I can't help but like them more than a few of their closer-to-perfect counterparts.

One last thing before I get on with the show, so to speak: I'm not including single-screen platformers--games like Don Doko Don and Parasol Stars--in this post, mainly because they differ pretty substantially from the side-scrolling affairs discussed below.

Bikkuriman World--What a way to start a post like this, eh? I say that because many PC Engine fans likely consider this game's successors, Adventure Island and Dynastic Hero (they're all part of the Wonder Boy series), to be far superior efforts. Although I'd agree with those folks in some respects, I've spent a lot more time playing Bikkuriman World than I have playing either of its follow-ups over the years. I can't really tell you why that is, sadly, although if I had to guess I'd say that it's because I actually like the rather antiquated look--yes, even the Kewpie doll-esque protagonist--and feel of this particular HuCard. Also, I'm a bit of a masochist, which is a must for anyone who wants to tackle this tough-as-nails title.

Mizubaku Daibouken--You certainly don't have to be masochist to enjoy this Taito-made title, which was released outside of Japan as Liquid Kids. That's because this platformer is as cute as can be, what with its bubble-tossing protagonist, adorable enemies (I especially like the ones that look like tottering strawberries) and colorful stages that take players from a lush forest, to (what appears to be) a water-filled cave, to a sandy pyramid. Just because it's cute, though, doesn't mean it's a cake walk. In fact, I've yet to see the end credits of Mizubaku Daibouken--despite spending quite a bit of time with it. My favorite part of this game: Tossing "water bombs" (yeah, I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean either) at anything and everything. Believe me when I say it's addictive.