Why Game? 1 - TextFiles.com

ought to our lazy and hot summers of 1986,
shared with many friends, in search of all pos-
sible secrets that Bubble Bobble could offer us.
So, let’s examine the other side of the coin.
PART 2: ESCAPE FROM THE HIVE, ONCE
AND FOR ALL
Raimais is one of the most peculiar and
intriguing Pac-Man clones around. Winter 1988.
I can clearly remember the order of games on
the second floor, after the pool tables. The cabs
started from the window side, which looked out
over a covered gallery, facing south. There were
four cabs - Contra, Raimais, Black Tiger, Double
Dragon - then two cabs, Pac-Man Jr. and Side
Arms - and then Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in
Monster Land and 1943: The Battle of Midway.
I could write an entire book on that room
alone, but for the moment, because I’m in a
Taito frenzy, I will focus on Raimais. I don’t
know what the hell the title means, however,
I know what it’s all about. Picture the future,
Akira-style. You are a young woman who has
been enslaved by a mad scientist, and the only
hope of survival for you and your imprisoned
brother is to escape from the Hive.
In order to escape from the mad profes-
sor’s clutches, you have to clear a sequence of
labyrinths of their dots and then choose which
cell of the hive to work on next. Every once in a
while (depending on which pattern you choose)
you have to fight giant insect mechas, because
the mad professor wants you to stay safe and
warm in his gigantic prison to study you for his
94 The Gamer’s Quarter Issue #3
experiments.
You clearly disagree with his wishes, so the
journey begins.
Raimais was really loved by the girls, to my
memory. I don’t know why, and I don’t remem-
ber girls loving Pac-Man, but I do remember me
loving this one girl, at least ten years older than
I, who was an absolute Raimais genius. Person-
ally I am a disaster with maze games, and I
would surely never have escaped from the hive.
But she did it all the time, and she liked that I
showed her attention. I still know her after al-
most 20 years; she owns the gym that took the
place of the old arcade.
I don’t love her anymore, of course. But I
loved her when I was a kid. I loved her grace
- her hypnotic precision in playing Raimais. Rai-
mais, in my personal opinion, is the best maze
game around.
Let’s start from the OST: Masahiko Takaki,
known as MAR, and obviously a Zuntata mem-
ber, did a terrific job. It’s impossible not to
be enthralled by the hypnotic main theme he
composed for the game, or by the majestic boss
battle theme.
In hands other than Taito’s, this would
have been a “kill them all!” theme. It is not; as
Taito always had a passion for building com-
plete worlds behind a game. Vision, Conception,
Organization: these are the three main ideas
behind Taito’s design style, as stated in most of
Zuntata’s booklets. I suppose they mean some-
thing like, “we decide to make a game with a
given argument, then develop the game concept
with this vision in mind, then we organize vari-
ous aspects to make it worthwhile.”
Well, the strength of Raimais is this:
Pac-Man with various power-ups, the ability to
choose your path (like Darius), a great sci-fi de-
sign, a cool plot and an atmospheric soundtrack.
Add a cute girl that can play the game to
perfection, a young kid who easily falls in love,
and mix them together for a perfect scenario. I
remember that I usually spent my time silently
watching her play, looking at her cute, expres-
sionless face showing a singular focus on her