Manual Stimulation: Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World (Famicom)

No joke, the English version of Taito's Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World, called Panic Restaurant,  is one of my favorite side-scrolling platformers around.

Which isn't to suggest it's one of the best side-scrolling platformers around. It's not. It's probably not even one of the best platformers released for the Famicom or NES.



Still, I adore it. Why? For starters, I've never been shy about admitting I love games that feature food. Well, that's pretty much all you encounter while playing Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World, which is set in and around a restaurant ("Eaten").



Food's about all you encounter while flipping through the Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World instruction manual, too. Food and people who make food (like the cute chef showcased on the manual's cover and on pretty much every interior page), I mean.



Thankfully, the Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World manual follows in the glorious footsteps of many other old Taito game manuals and depicts all of the above-mentioned food and food-making with the most brilliant of illustrations.

The illustration that serves as the backdrop of this booklet's "story" page (see above) is a perfect example.



None of the other drawings that fill the Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World booklet are as massive as the one that sits behind its story text, but most are just as adorable.

Aural Gratification #1: 'Salad' from Panic Restaurant (NES)

Along with Great Greed (GameBoy) and SaGa Frontier (PlayStation), I've spent a good amount of time playing Panic Restaurant for the NES in the last week or two.

This isn't my first experience with Taito's food-centric platformer, mind you. In fact, I've been a fan of the erstwhile Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World for ages--since the year or so after its release.

Although I like many aspects of Panic Restaurant--its spot-on visuals, thematic dedication and pinpoint controls among them--I think its soundtrack may be the best of the bunch.



At the very least, the tune that plays throughout Panic Restaurant's third stage, "Salad," stands out for boldly bucking the trend of cheery, boppy tracks that support every other level.

In particular, I love how this track complements the nearly barren kitchen that serves as the stage's setting. It's echo-y and lilting and even kind of chilly--all of which go hand in hand with the cool hues that coat the surrounding environment.

Are any of you also fans of this piece of game music? Or maybe you're fans of the title that contains it? Either way, share the love in the comments section that follows.

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.

$3,600 for a sealed copy of Panic Restaurant?

I've played a lot of games the last few days. Among them: Taito's Panic Restaurant (aka Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World in Japan), released for the NES in late 1992.

For those of you who have never heard of Panic Restaurant: It's a cute platformer which puts players in control of a chef named Cookie ("Naughty Kokkun" in the Japanese version) who has to make his way through a cursed restaurant. (See part of it in action here.)

Anyway, I've been playing the game using an emulator because, well, it's pretty darn expensive. Case in point: One eBay auctioneer is trying to sell a sealed copy of it for $3,599.99. (Another is selling a similarly pristine copy of the game for just $1,799.99.)

Opened copies of the game are cheaper, of course, although I'd hardly call them cheap. Loose copies, for instance, commonly command prices above $100.