Thought id post some impressions now that i had my official copy turn up, basically if you liked the first game you'll absolutely love this one they have improved on the first game so much.
Once again Arino takes you back in time & challenges you to complete his various game challenges if you succeed he will let you return to your own time. LOL it's like the first game never existed, same storyline. There are 15 games in total this time round & a lot more variation than in the first game.
Heres the games you'll be playing this time round.....
Wizman
This plays a bit like pacman the idea is to eat all the dots in the maze once all the dots are eaten a exit will appear to take you to the next floor, however the dots are 2 colours red & blue, to eat them you actually have to pick up either a fire or ice wand. The wands can be used to kill the enemies that are roaming the maze the more rods of the same colour you pick up the faster you can run. Theres a few secrets in this game like hidden treasures or if you get the flashing gems in the right order you get score multipliers or you can even warp.
Muteki ken Kungfu
A side scrolling fighting game that plays very much like kungfu master, the animation iis very well done & looks a bit like the art style use in flashback, you can combo attack enemies & when you knock 2 into each other they release a Ki power up that fills one of the boxes at the top of the screen when muteki ken is totally filled you become invincible for a short time & even the slightest punch will send enemies flying across the screen.
Demon returns
This has elements of super mario bros in it, it's a very well put together platform game, lots of hidden secrets & even warps if you know where to look. You have the ability to hit an enemy then swipe it to make it spin to ride around on it, when riding around you can jump further & you can even use it to preform a double jump but you will then lose it. It also acts as a shield you can take one hit while riding it, there are different enemys you can ride & they have different properties.
Kacho wa Meitantei
This is the first famicom disk system parody, it's suprisingly like famicom detective club. It's a old style adventure game where you have a list of commands & you move from place to place trying to solve the mysteries your given. One cool thing is some of the games use new systems so the console in Arino's room changes too, for instance in this game you see the disk system under the console & you even get a disk system loading screen & the disk loading noises for added retro nostalgia. The game itself is pretty hard if you cant read japanese & you will probably hit a brick wall, however i'll explain later one cool new feature to combat this.
Gunduel
Proably one of my favourites its a very well put together shooter & even better than star prince although it has elements from that game. In this game you can have 2 powerups at once & you can switch between them, however depending on what 2 you combine you get some cool new weapons. Also in 2 player mode if you & Arino get the gatta powerup both your ships will combine giving you mental firepower, however whoever touches the powerup is the person who ets to control the hip. This & a few other games have a 2 player mode however your playing against Arino next to you so he is controlling the other pad, theres no proper multiplayer against another human sadly but it's still a nice extra.
Kacho wa Meitantei :Part 2
When you complete the 4 challenges on the first detective adenture game your given the sequel however there are no Arino challenges for this game & you can only play it if you have completed the first adventure game as your save file carries over to the sequel, just as before the language barrier in this is pretty harsh, its all in kana but unless your vocabulary is pretty good your going to get very stuck.
Triotos
This puzzle is a for the computer game mini a fake handheld console & is like colums but you can rotate the pieces like tetris, the idea is to get lines of 3 blocks or more to make them vanish, you can play endless mode or play against the cpu
Guadia Quest Saga
For those fans of the first game then rejoyce they made a sequel & they made if for the colour version of the game computer mini handheld. The graphics have been upgraded since the first game but the basic play mechanics are pretty much the same but with a few changes, pretty straight forward to play as it roughly follows the same challenges as ion the first game.
Super Demon Returns
This is the first game that hits 16bit, it's for the super computer game console, the graphics are really nice & it even uses some lovely fog layer effects, it plays like the first demon returns game but has some new powerups & extra secrets in it. Very polished & could quite easily stand as a game on it's own
These are all the games that you play in Arino's room however theres more & these are the rare hibaihin (not for sale) games that you can visit the game shop called Waku Waku Boy & play. Some of these games appeared in the first game center cx game but these are special versions.
Cosmic Gate: Masa-X version
This plays like the first cosmic gate however the sound & graphics has been improved & theres now a boss in the asteroid field.
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman: Koumei version
This is a special version of haguruman where you play as his sister, apart from that it plays the same as the first game.
Rally King EX: Time Trial
A special time attack version of rally king where you can race in 3 different CC classes to try & get the fastest score in 2 laps.
Star Prince: Score Attack Version
Special version of star prince where you can either select 3 or 5 minutes to try & rack up the highest score possible.
Triotos DX
Another game for the 16bit super computer game system, this time a upgraded colour version of triotos it plays the same as the handheld one but looks & sounds a lot nicer. When you play a 2 player match vs the computer you play against characters from the haguruman games.
The final game is on it's own in the main title menu
Kugure! Girijan MAX
A pretend lcd game that generates random platform courses that you have to try & get across while collecting as many coins & points as possible. This game is meant to be a tool to test you platforming skills.
Ok so thats all the games taken care of however theres still more new stuff & some welcome returns, firstly the magazines are back & full of hints & cheats however this time round they have put silver scratch panels over the cheats that you have to rub off if you want to see the cheat these are so you dont get spoiled unless you really need it. Theres also the telephone, this is a very good new addition to the game, you can select the telephone from the room menu & you can get Arino to either call his friends who will give out interesting bits of info, or you can call the evil future Arino & ask him to let you give up on a challenge. This time round if your really stuck you can actually skip the challenges to get to the next game, however you need to have played the game a certain amount of times before Arino will take pity on you & let you quit the challenge, when you do quit instead of a tick on your challenge card you will see a "give up" icon instead.
Another really good new addition is the daily challenge mode, each day Arino will give you a challenge for a certain game & you have to try & clear it. The challenges are different from the main ones you did in story mode & the games differ each day. If you clear the challenge you will get a gold emblem if you fail or quit out you get a regular emblem, these emblems give you challenge points. You can only attempt the challenge once for an emblem but you can play the game as much as you want for the rest of the day which is good as you can play games you havent unlocked in story mode yet. The challenge points unlock new voices & tshirts for Arino when your playing in story mode, the voice change is for when he turns the console on.
Theres one final option in the main title which im guessing is a sound test but i haven't unlocked that yet as i have to complete all the games to do the final challenge.
The game comes in 2 versions the regular & the limited edition which pictured is at the top of the post here, the limited version comes with a bandai namco special dvd which has 2 episodes of the tv show where Arino plays Ultraman & Ultra seven, theres also a challenge for the first game center cx ds game where members of the production team give Arino a challenge for one of the games & he has to try to clear it. Theres also a small section on this game showing them filming Arino doing a ghost car time trial for the rally king EX time trial version & it tells you how to unlock it while playing.
Well thats pretty much it, everything i could have wanted in a sequel & more. I really hope they make another this series could go on & on.
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