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Do you like to play video games?

Do you like to watch people play video games?

Well, if you answered “yes” to both then this show is for you. It’s called Game Center CX (or Retro Game Master) and it’s about a guy that plays video games… and you watch him. Actually, it’s a bit more in depth. It stars Shinya Arino, one part of a comedy duo in Japan, and he plays some of the best classics from the golden years of gaming. His challenge for each episode is to beat the game he’s playing in one day (sometimes it goes over for two days). He has Assisstant Directors there to help him if things get really challenging during the game play in the way of moral support or level help. He even has titles for his position at the game center. The better he does (more games he beats) the higher his rank and the better the office he gets to play in. If he does poorly and doens’t complete his challenges, he might drop down a rank have to go back to a lower standing office. This actully happend once when he failed to complete 4 games in a row (UltraMan, Final Fight, Adventure Island and ActRaiser).

One of the neatest angles of the show is that Shinya Arino has never played these games before. So you get to see, and sort of relive the experience of these games though his as a first time gamer. How cool is that? He plays game that we know and love like Contra NES, Super Mario Bros 3, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia and less known or Japanese only ones like Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, JJ & Jeff and Doraemon. There are also segments where he visits old arcades, plays old systems in his home and even interviews some game desingers.

The show has gone on for 10 seasons now and even has DVD released boxsets in Japan (and maybe in North America too). You can watch a lot of the episodes here as I’ve been doing but be warned, they are all in Japanese. But that doesn’t mean you can’t watch and understand the frustration or joy on Shinya Arino’s face and he attemps these game challenges.

Oh, here is a site with full info on the show. Check it out. I higly recomend it. ^_^