Manual Stimulation: Pizza Pop! (Famicom)

As a youngster, I regularly turned up my nose at Jaleco's NES offerings.

For me, they were way too rough around the edges. I preferred comparatively "cleaner" games like the ones made by Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom.



That's not to say there weren't exceptions. I bought and played the hell out of the company's Racket Attack, for example. (Don't take that to be an endorsement; it's not. The game's terrible, even if I have a soft spot for it.)

And I remember renting and enjoying its home port of City Connection on a few occasions, too.



Despite my anti-Jaleco bias, I'm sure I would've given Pizza Pop! more than a second look back in the day had it not been a Japan-only release.



Sadly, that wasn't the case, and so I had to wait until a few years ago to finally experience this wacky platformer (via emulation, of course).



Was it worth the wait? In some ways yes, and in some ways no. On the positive side, Pizza Pop! looks and sounds great. I particularly love its cartoonish aesthetic, though its boppy, poppy backing tunes are a ton of fun as well.

On the negative side, though, there's the fact that this game seems to revel in being annoyingly cheap (from a difficulty perspective).



Something that was without a doubt worth the wait, or at least worth what I spent on it, is this game's instruction manual. Why? For starters, it's full of color. This is especially true of its story spread (pages two and three, above), but it's also true of the ones that follow.



Sadly, that's one of the only places you'll find any unique illustrations in the Pizza Pop! booklet. You will encounter a number of screenshots throughout, however. They don't really make up for the lack of drawings, but in this kind of situation you've got to take what you get.



This manual's biggest missed opportunity, as far as I'm concerned, is that its pair of "character" pages (12 and 13, below) feature in-game sprites rather than line-art depictions of the game's enemies.

Oh, well, at least the baddies that fill the Pizza Pop! stages are a good-looking bunch.



What do you think of this latest entry in my "Manual Stimulation" series? Also, if you've played Pizza Pop!, what did you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

See also: some photos of Pizza Pop's packaging

CIB Sunday: Pizza Pop! (Famicom)

It's Sunday once again, and you know what that means: it's time to share a photo of a complete-in-box copy of some video game or other.

This week, I’m going with Jaleco’s Pizza Pop! By most accounts, this Famicom title, released all the way back in 1992, is not a great game. Still, I've long been a fan of it due to its colorful graphics and old-school platforming gameplay.



OK, so it's also due to this import's vivacious packaging, which is on full display in the snapshot above.

Want to learn more about Pizza Pop! or see more photos of its box, cartridge or instruction manual? Check out this old post of mine.

See also: 'CIB Sunday: Hyakumanton no Bara Bara (PSP)'

Acquisition Time with The Gay Gamer™: Pizza Pop! (Famicom)

No one's ever accused me of having an altogether level head with it comes to buying games--especially Japanese ones from the 8-, 16- or 32-bit eras.

Case in point: the recent-ish pick-up seen in the following photos.

The pick-up in question is Jaleco's Pizza Pop! for the Famicom, of course. While most people consider this side-scrolling platformer to be of questionable quality (at best), it's always held a special place in my heart.

Why? I'm not entirely sure. Yes, I like its "totally '80s" graphics, and I'm also pretty darn fond of its colorfully cartoonish packaging, but I'm not sure that tells the whole story.

Regardless, I like the game quite a bit--which is why I nabbed this particular copy as soon as I came across it on ebay a few months ago.

I've only popped it into my lusciously red Twin Famicom once since then--mainly so I could make sure it's in full working order--but I'll return to it sooner rather than later, there's no question about that.

In the meantime, I invite you to take in the photos published throughout this post and the walkthrough video that can be found here.

The photo below highlights a particularly interesting part of this game's box, by the way--specifically, the advertisement that appears on its top "flap."

Have any of you played Pizza Pop! before--either using a real cartridge and Famicom or via emulation? If so, what did you think of it?

See also: previous posts about the Famicom

Five more favorites: Famicom/NES platformers that don't involve a fat, Italian-American plumber

Just over a week ago, I published a similarly titled blog post featuring five of my favorite Famicom/NES games that didn't star Nintendo's famously mustachioed plumber.

As I'm sure you can tell from the headline above, this post covers five more such titles. Do I put them on equal ground with the games I mentioned in the last one? Not really. Still, they're all great and well worth playing, especially if you've yet to experience them.

1. Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun--Often called Kid Dracula by North American heathens like myself, this Konami-made title is the platforming equivalent of the company's Parodius series of shoot 'em ups--only in this case, Castlevania, not Gradius, is the game being parodied. Anyway, thanks to its focus on projectile weapons, this one's always felt like a mash-up of Castlevania and Mega Man to me--which of course means it's a winner. Additional reasons to give this one a try: Its jaunty soundtrack and its brilliant, cartoon-ish visuals.

2. Gimmick!--My first thought upon discovering this Sunsoft-published gem a few years back was that it was some sort of Kirby rip-off. Although it definitely shares Kirby's Candy Land aesthetic (to a degree), Gimmick! plays nothing like that HAL Laboratory-developed classic. In fact, Gimmick! plays more like a Mega Man game than Kirby's Adventure, if you ask me, what with the adorable protagonist's projectile weapon (a star that spawns above his head) and propensity to bounce. Gimmick! differs from Kirby's Adventure in another important area, too--that being that it's far more challenging. In fact, it took me more than a few attempts to make it past this game's first stage. Don't let that keep you from giving this cart a try, though; tough as nails or not, this is a top-shelf platformer that should be experienced by everyone who knows their d-pad from their start button.