worth importing? - Defunct Games

THE AKA-CHAMPION
“What in the name of God is this thing? WHAT IS IT??” was KouAidou’s
exact response when this game arrived here at HGM. You can’t really
blame her; seasoned importers have likely been witness to all sorts
of Japanese weirdness over the years, but the mutant freak babies
of The Aka-Champion will haunt even the most jaded import gamers
for life.
The Aka-Champion—Volume 94 in D3 Publisher’s budget-priced
Simple 2000 Series—contains ports of the 1999 arcade game Come On
Baby and its sequel. Created by South Korean developer ExPotato,
Come On Baby is a Track & Field-style button melter wherein a
bunch of super-powered babies compete in various events for
(assumed) wealth and glory.
Abstracts do nothing to describe just how truly frightening this game
is, however. You might think that an infant take on the Olympics
genre would make for good clean fun, but brother, you couldn’t
be more wrong. During the game, you will see deformed babies
subjected to all sorts of scary and inappropriate situations, and after
every stage they will pull down their diapers and shake their baby
dongles at you in victory. Trust me, this is a sight that you are not
prepared to see.
Gameplay in Come On Baby mostly follows the style of Track &
Field’s “push these buttons as fast as possible, then push this other
button” events, with the added bonus of uniquely twisted and
disturbing backdrops. One event, for example, begins with two
babies being thrown into a lake with weights chained to their ankles;
the object is
to swim to the
surface... or
Review by Sardius
Publisher: D3 Publisher
Developer: ExPotato
Release Date: 12/29/2005
Platform: Playstation 2
die. Other events involve running from a hungry polar bear, jumping
an electrified rope, and skydiving without a parachute.
Blatant disregard for child safety aside, there is an unfortunate
lack of gameplay depth to be found in The Aka-Champion. As direct
arcade ports, both Come On Baby titles can be completed in less
than half an hour each, and the simplistic button-smashing gameplay
is hardly satisfying on any level. Don’t count on the consoleexclusive
Adventure mode extending replay value any further,
either; it’s just Arcade mode with a map. The game itself has also
suffered for its
PS2 conversion,
as there’s a
shocking amount
of slowdown
and choppiness
not found in the
arcade original,
and the DualShock
is no substitute
for the arcade
cabinet’s huge
domed buttons.
Played alone, it’s
hard to ignore the
thin gameplay behind The Aka-Champion’s bizarre visuals. If you’re
the type of gamer whose collection consists of oddities you can scare
people with, however, this game is a must-buy. A copy of The Aka-
Champion and a “Hey, check this out!” could be all it takes to scar
your friends for life.
WORTH IMPORTING?
Genre(s): Olympic
Category: Child Endangerment
# of Players: 1-2
Odds are that a baby abuse simulator doesn’t stand a chance of being published in
America, so don’t go looking for a domestic release anytime soon. While an easily
navigable interface and a budget price makes
importing tempting, just be aware that you
probably won’t be enjoying The Aka-Champion
for conventional reasons. 2 of 5
76_JAPAN_THE AKA-CHAMPION: COME ON BABY HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 9_WARM BUN
In 1999, Aqua Plus released a new PC
game called Comic Party. Like a lot of
“visual novel”-style simulation games, it
included porn to help make sure it’d sell.
Comic Party, however, was the rare visual
novel that had the story, characters, and
challenge it took to succeed as something
more than fap material. A porn-free,
enhanced version of the game was ported
to the Dreamcast in 2001. This version
proved more popular than the original,
so it was ported back to the PC in 2003
as Comic Party DCE. This was followed up
in late 2005 by the game we’re reviewing
now, Comic Party Portable: an enhanced
PSP port of a PC port of an enhanced
clean Dreamcast port of a PC porn game.
I love you, Japan. Review by Lynxara
Anyway, Comic Party Portable’s been
enhanced with some PSP-specific
features like saving unlocked bonus
images right to the memory card, and
all-new art that features the Comic
Party Revolution designs. Despite
this, it more or less tells the story
covered in the original Comic Party
anime. Kazuki is a young artist who
gets strong-armed by his bombastically
geeky friend Taishi into attending
a giant Japanese geek convention
the characters call Comic Party.
This is one of the best titles its genre has to offer,
It’s modeled after a real-life
convention called Comiket where
but the sheer amount of text can be daunting and the pace is a little slow.
fans get together to swap fan-
With no localization in sight, we can best recommend this game to people
made goods of all kinds. 4 of 5 who’ve seen and liked the Comic Party anime. Everyone else, shake your fists
in fury until Sony lets someone localize it.
Comic Party focuses on fan-made
comics, or doujinshi, and the many
conveniently adorable single girls who
are involved in their production. After
attending Comic Party, Kazuki agrees
to form a group with Taishi so they can
publish their own doujin to sell at the
next one. Unfortunately, his current
love interest Mizuki found Comic Party a
horrifying wasteland of unwashed nerds,
and is furious at Kazuki for wanting to go
back. To win the game, you not only have
to successfully have a doujin printed and
ready to take to Comic Party, but make
sure that Kazuki’s love life doesn’t go
all to hell in the process. process. You can try to
mend his relationship with
Mizuki, or try to build a
new new one with any of the Publisher: AquaPlus
other other girls girls in the game. Developer: AquaPlus
This is a daunting task. Release Date: December 29, 2005
Kazuki has only only so much Genre(s): Sim RPG
time during the day
Category: Datesim, Comic Making, Rampant Geekery
and weekend to devote
to creating the actual # of Players: 1
comic, and and he also needs
time to rest, socialize,
and work. If you fail to to have a comic
ready in time for Comic Party, it’s game
over, and and getting Kazuki a girlfriend is
right out. While the game is graphically
unimpressive, there’s tons of voice
acting and the script is hilarious. The
actual gameplay is a bit slow-paced but
addictive in the way that only a welldone
simulation game can be. If you like
sims or liked any any of the various Comic
Party anime, you’re sure to get a huge
kick out out of this game.
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 8_SUNRISE 9_WARM BUN OF DESTINY COMIC PARTY PORTABLE_JAPAN_77