Game Center CX

Some of you are probably already familiar with this show in some form, either through Kotaku's abortive attempt at bringing it to the States (as Retro Game Master) or the DS release Retro Game Challenge. The idea is pretty simple: a middle-aged professional comedian named Shinya Arino and his assistants play through older games for a variety of older systems while a camera crew records their progress. The catch is that he's not especially good at games and they throw some notoriously difficult games like Ninja Gaiden and Ghosts n' Goblins at him. Throughout the show he also visits arcades and interviews famous developers. Even though Kotaku's version tanked, some folks at Something Awful have been fansubbing episodes for a while now, which can all be found here.

The premise seemed a little dry to me, but the show is actually pretty funny.

I get kind of mad when he sucks really bad at something like Ninja Gaiden, but it's a lot of fun to see some Japanese games that never came out here. I liked the Clock Tower episode and the SNES game that was like the Poseidon Adventure.

This is oddly entertaining.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

I liked the Clock Tower episode and the SNES game that was like the Poseidon Adventure.

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Ooh...I gotta check those two out.

The SOS/Septentrion episode is one of my favorites. Dealing with the AI in that game sucks when you're the one playing, but it's funny as hell to watch someone else struggle with it.

My favorite episode is probably where he plays the real Super Mario Bros 2. The super hard game. There's something that happens that's both hilarious and terrible. The mystery game made by the guy behind the Dragon Quest series is also a real good one.

I get frustrated while watching since he sucks at these games. It's no fun to watch a guy fail over and over at Lemmings on a 24 hour marathon.

How can you play that many games for that long and still suck so bad? Isn't this all just practice?

He's playing a lot of these games for the first time, and either eventually beating them or getting nearly all the way through. I couldn't just sit down and beat Contra or Ninja Gaiden in a couple hours when I got them new. It took hours and hours of practice. It's really the same thing with him, but concentrated into a single day (occasionally a couple of days). If anything, I admire his tenacity.

I think the best episodes are the ones where the whole staff gets involved, like Bomberman or the quiz games.