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Siliconera posts answers to Our Video Game Exams
We're no strangers to scrawling information across our arms and concealing it beneath our sleeves before taking an exam -- it's precisely this kind of devilish act that got us through most of school. Yet thanks to its intensive use of Japanese, Bokura no Terebi Game Kentei (Our TV Game Exams) left us stumped -- at least until Spencer of Siliconera sneaked into the headmaster's Namco Bandai's office and grabbed some of the "answers" to the title's numerous tests.In his time with the microgame compilation, Spencer passed exams by hitting a home run in Family Stadium, collecting 13 balloons in Mappy, getting a ship captured and then recovering it in Galaga, and digging to the bottom of the stage in Dig Dug. Head past the break to read more of Bokura no Terebi Game Kentei's challenges, but don't even think about telling teacher we told you.
Friday Video: Edutainment
We feel like we could score in a fairly high percentage on the TV Game Exam, but right now it's only available to Japanese students. This short commercial for the game, which arrived to Japanese retailers this week, plays up the "exam" concept of the game, presenting the mini-challenges within as tests of specific retrogaming aptitudes.It turns out that it's not only possible, but easy to make learning fun! As long as you're learning about Galaga. A longer trailer featuring micro-clips of the microgames (and a very happily dancing Picotto) can be seen after the break!
All aboard the Game Training train
For a press preview of Bokura no Terebi Game Kentei (Our TV Game Exams), Namco Bandai made a train car on Tokyo's Arakawa line into a mobile game demo venue, emulating the ideal location for everyday play of the game-training minigame collection.As the writers accrued points in minigames, they were decorated with 5-point and 10-point stickers. At the end, the winners were awarded with yellow baskets containing yellow foods (to match the game's Pico mascot) including curry, corn and bananas.After the break, as a consolation prize for those of us unable to attend the preview event, we've got a trailer. It may not be free food, but it's still enjoyable.
Meet the student taking the Video Game Exams
The aspect of Bokura no TV Game Kentei (Our Video Game Exams) that doesn't get much attention is the metagame -- the original bits that connect all the retrogaming experiences together. New screens offer us a look at this area of the game, which is vaguely RPG-like -- Pico, a sentient arcade machine receives challenges from NPCs in a nostalgic-looking side-scrolling environment, and that's how the games are distributed. Later, you can replay these in Pico's home.In addition to images of Pico's quest (which is also basically the menu), as you would expect, there are lots of screens of old arcade and Famicom games to look at.
More Namco classics thrown on the Video Game Exams pile
The more old games Namco Bandai refines into representative mini-challenges and adds to Bokura no TV Game Kentei, the better a deal it becomes. Many old arcade games can be boiled down into a few seconds' worth of basic material, which is then repeated in slightly different arrangements until you run out of money. Play one Challenging Stage in Galaga, for example, and you know what it means to play Galaga.Banamco has apparently been spending the time they gained from the delay adding even more retro material to the "game trainer." The latest round of screenshots includes new stuff like Family Tennis and the obscure Famicom games Warpman and Battle City. This would be a no-brainer to import if not for the fact that it arrives in June, along with every other DS game we want.
Time to start studying: Our Video Game Exams scheduled
Early this year, Namco Bandai announced an indefinite delay for their "video game training" collection, Bokura no TV Game Kentei (Our Video Game Exams). The company has, finally, finished the back-breaking labor of making a new game out of tiny excerpts of old games, as evidenced by the fact that they've announced a release date for the title: June 26th. The website has also been updated with some videos of the "short games" (as they call the microgames). You can select from some of the challenges that are contained within the collection, like "shoot all the ships!" in Galaga. Which, as it turns out, is about 90% of the strategy of Galaga.[Via Siliconera]
Video Game Exams study guide
Namco Bandai has released a more complete list of classic games that will be featured in Our Video Game Exams, as well as (obviously) the boxart. We doubt it's a full list, given that there are games on the box that aren't on the list (Rally-X and Dig Dug are immediately identifiable).Surprisingly, Namco Bandai based many of the minigames on the Famicom versions of some of the games rather than the original, superior arcade versions. Specifically, Xevious, Star Luster, Sky Kid, Galaga, Dragon Spirit, Mappy, and The Tower of Druaga have been duplicated in their home console form rather than arcade. The rest of the games, with a few notable exceptions, are either in their arcade form or were only released on Famicom.The exceptions are original games made just for this collection. In addition to the retro-ized Idolm@ster, some kind of new version of Druaga will be featured. There is also a "button input" minigame in which you simply enter fighting-game-style button combinations, and an "adventure" game. The current list is available after the break.
Our Splatterhouse Exams
New screens of Namco Bandai's classic-gaming trainer, Our Video Game Exams, reveals a few more gems pulled off of Namco's shelf and excerpted for the DS. Most notable is the bizarre, super-deformed Famicom Splatterhouse game, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. The challenges seen in the screens include picking up some candy and getting a shotgun.Other new games include the Famicom version of Family Jockey, which looks shockingly vintage, especially compared to the Wii version, Namco Classic II golf, and Dragon Spirit. But it's the inclusion of Wanpaku Graffiti that really has us interested. How obscure are the included games going to get? The more comprehensive a Namco history the game is, the better, as far as we're concerned.
