Manual Stimulation: Daichi-kun Crisis (PC Engine)

A few of the things that surprised me when I first flipped through this Japanese PC Engine game's instruction manual:

1. It's surprisingly short. If you include the page that tells you not to bend or pour water onto your HuCard, the Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural manual consists of six whole pages. That surprised me because this game is made up of a few components. One part of it is a simplistic life sim; another part leans toward the tower defense genre. I can't imagine all of that is easy to explain in just five small pages of text.



2. I imagined it would feature a lot more cow illustrations than it does. Seriously, the main characters in Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural are anthropomorphic cows--as well as a bear and crow with similarly human-like characteristics. Given that, I assumed its instruction booklet would be heavily weighted toward adorable depictions of said wildlife. In reality, besides the examples that are slapped across the manual's front and back covers, only a couple can be seen on its interior spreads.



3. It doesn't offer up a single screenshot. Some might say this is for the best, as black-and-white screenshots from this era tended to be the opposite of eye-popping. Even if that weren't true, they probably wouldn't have properly portrayed Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural's colorful (if a bit rough-hewn) landscapes. In other words, I probably should be happy this booklet sticks to text and the odd illustration.



4. As much as I like the second-to-last page's item art, I would've preferred drawings. Seriously, it would be difficult to argue that the folks at Salio took the easy way out while producing the Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural manual. Granted, the company may have had just a handful of staffers when it made this game, so maybe my criticism is out of line. Surely its in-house or even outsourced artist could've whipped up some item doodles in just an hour or two, though?



All that said, I'm still pretty fond of the Daichi-kun Crisis instruction manual. It's not exactly stellar, but it's also not a total dud. Speaking of not-duds: if you've got the time and interest, I'd highly recommend checking out my "Nice Package!" post on this game. That write-up does a better job of explaining its gameplay and is filled with photos of its packaging.

See also: previous 'Manual Stimulation' posts about Don Doko Don, Hana Taaka Daka!?, KiKi KaiKai and Parasol Stars

Nice Package! (Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural, PC Engine)

I have a bit of a roller-coaster relationship with this HuCard, a bizarre PC Engine strategy game that was made and published by a company called Salio in late 1989.



After seeing its cover imagery for the first time a number of years ago, I quickly added it to my "buy this game as soon as possible" list.

Why? I guess I'm just a sucker for game box art that features anthropomorphic cows and exploding volcanos. Also, the "Do Natural" portion of this game's title intrigued me.



Daichi-kun Crisis' spot on my aforementioned wish list came into question after I encountered a few screenshots, however. Video footage of the game in action made me feel even less certain I'd enjoy playing it.

As for what caused me to change my mind once again--to the point that I picked up the copy showcased in this post--that would be this extensive YouTube tutorial of the game.

If you don't have the interest or time to watch it, the gist is that it shows Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural to be an oddly compelling mix of arcade-y action, life simulation and tower defense.

Oh, and you control a cow--the eponymous Daichi-kun--during all of the above.

Those other cows shown on the front and back covers of the game's manual? They're Daichi-kun's family members and they help clean up volcanic ash (one of your tasks while playing this HuCard) as well as defeat the monsters that rise out of it.

Two other creatures aid in Daichi-kun's battle to secure "Moo Cow Island," too--a crow named Alice and a bear named Goro.

I don't know all of this because I've played the game, mind you. Some of the details were gleaned from the YouTube video I linked to earlier, while I learned others thanks to this intriguing Daichi-kun Crisis FAQ.

I hope to experience the game for myself soon enough. In the meantime, though, I thought some of you might enjoy checking out its colorful packaging.



You also might enjoy checking out the Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural instruction manual, the entirety of which can be seen in this "Manual Stimulation" post.

See also: previous 'Nice Package!' posts about Bikkuriman World, Dungeon Explorer, Parodius Da! and Son Son II