The Nintendo Power article that's responsible for my interest in Japanese culture and video games

Here's a piece of news that should shock no one who has visited this blog on a somewhat regular basis: I've been interested in--some would say obsessed with--Japanese culture and video games for a very long time.

How long? According to the filled-out-but-never-turned-in "Player's Poll" I just found in my well-worn copy of Nintendo Power's premiere (July/August 1988) issue, the answer is 26 years. (On the above-mentioned poll, I listed my age as 11.)

As for what the first issue of Nintendo Power has to do with all of this, well, if memory serves, the article above--which I just scanned from said issue--is what prompted me to fall in love with the Land of the Rising Sun in general and its video games in particular.

Seeing that throng of people standing in line, waiting for their copies of the just-released Dragon Quest III set my hear aflutter, as did the screenshot of the Famicom game's overworld. (For whatever reason, making all four party members visible while traversing said overworld completely blew my young mind.)

Assuming at least some of you have a similar fascination with Japan and its games, what pushed you in that direction?

Manual Stimulation: Painter Momopie (GameBoy)

Now that I've published a review of Painter Momopie--as well as a few photos of my recently acquired copy of this import-only GameBoy title--I guess the only thing left to do is share some scans of its adorable instruction manual.



Those of you who examined this game's cover art with a magnifying glass may have noticed that its character designs were created by someone named Gen Satou. Unfortunately, that name doesn't ring any bells for me, and Google has done little to clarify things, so I can only assume it meant something to the small community of Japanese folks who bought copies of this Pac-Man clone back in the day.

Regardless, the design he came up with for Painter Momopie's protagonist is pretty darn cute, if you ask me.



The right-hand page above shares the game's backstory, by the way. Sadly, I can't understand a word of it. Hopefully it explains why this little witch (I mean that literally) is painting the floors of someone's home?



Admittedly, these first few pages are far from exciting. At least they feature a couple of cute illustrations, though, right?

Haggar the Horrible

During my recent three-week stint in Madison, Wisconsin, I discovered the magazine below--Vol. 28 of Nintendo Power--while digging through a pile of old gaming publications sitting in the corner of my childhood bedroom.

That in and of itself isn't all that noteworthy, I admit--unless you're a huge fan of Super Mario World, of course--so why am I mentioning it here? I'm mentioning it here because of what I found on page 78 of said magazine.

If you click on the scan below and then zoom in on the guy standing in the left-hand corner of the page, you'll see what I consider to be one of the most hideous illustrations of Final Fight's Mike Haggar ever created.

Nintendo Power's take on the same game's Cody--apparently he's a mononymous person like Cher and Madonna--isn't much better, sadly:

I tried to wipe these despicable drawings from my mind by finding some filthy fan art featuring this dynamic duo, but all of my searches came up short. Thankfully, this GameSetWatch article--about a pair of rather roid-y Cody and Haggar figures--popped up just in time.

See also: 'Hubba hubba, part deux'

Mad Panic Coaster's awesome manual

OK, so today is "Mad Panic Coaster Day"--or at least it seems to be on this here blog. Don't worry, things will return to normal (i.e., I'll write about something other than this wackadoodle import) tomorrow.

Anyway, in my "Great Gaymathon" review of Hakohodo's roller coaster simulator (read it here) I mentioned that it sports a pretty awesome piece of cover art. Well, that awesome art continues throughout the game's manual, so I thought I'd share some scans of it here.

Here are the manual's front and back covers (click to engorge, er, enlarge):



And here are its first four inside pages, the third and fourth of which seem to tell the game's "story":





Check out the rest of Mad Panic Coaster's manual (if you so desire) after the jump.

The wonderful world of Working Designs

So, I've spent the last few evenings flipping through my old TurboPlay magazines, and while doing so a number of Working Designs ads have caught my attention.

I thought I'd post three of them here, just in case some of you are TurboGrafx-16 (or Working Designs) fans, too.

This rather horrific ad was supposed to promote one of the system's rare RPG releases, Cosmic Fantasy 2:

The following ad, for Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, is a bit better, at least in my opinion.

There's little to complain about in this Parasol Stars ad--unless, of course, you hate parasols and rainbows and, er, anthropomorphic slot machines.

See also: 'PC Engine porn'

Mizubaku Daibouken = Bubble Bobble 4?

At least, that's what the editors of TurboPlay magazine suggested all the way back in 1992--just before Taito's Mizubaku Diabouken (aka Liquid Kids) hit the streets in Japan.

My initial reaction to that suggestion was something along the lines of "nuh uh!"--but after giving it some consideration my reaction has softened a bit.

After all, the series' other (actual) entries--Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars--don't share enemies, protagonists, settings or weapons, so why would part four--with its waterbomb-wielding platypus--be any different?

All that said, Mizubaku Daibouken isn't, as far as I can tell, officially called chapter four of the Bubble Bobble saga--although I suppose that may have been something the game's creators considered early on.