Video game history: Takeshi’s Challenge translated
Back in the ‘80s, Taito released a controversial video game on the NES that became notorious for its unconventional game design for the time. Takaeshi’s Challenge, was closely developed with input directly from famed Japanese movie director Beat Takeshi responsible for popular films such as Battle Royale.
Apparently, the developers at Taito jotted down design ideas given by Takaeshi while drunk from drinking too much sake at dinner. As it turns out many of those ideas were incorporated into the game.
Back then, our developers wrote down everything he[Takaeshi] said, even the stuff he said when drunk. So they created the game like that.
The game has many strange design choices for the time, such as the ability to beat up everyone in the game including women and old men. We see this in games like Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row today, which has become the norm in video games but for the era it was unheard of.
There is a hang gliding shooting section where you can only go down and not up, which makes playing through it nearly impossible as you have to get to the end before completely descending.
There is even a section where gamers have to sing a karaoke song through the built-in mic on the Japanese second controller. This was considered to be notoriously difficult to accomplish. The game also tested player’s patience as there is one part where you must wait for over an hour without touching the controller before proceeding to the next section.
The story centers around an average salaryman looking to find some treasure on an island. He also has a run-in with the Yakuza in a gambling establishment. One of the interesting aspects of the game is in how it offers a list of choices in how the player can respond to the NPCs.
GameCenter CX’s special on Takeshi’s Challenge (translated)
As reported by Tiny Cartridge, gamers interested in experiencing this video game history can download the ROM as it has recently be fully translated by KingMike.
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3 Responses to “Video game history: Takeshi’s Challenge translated”
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January 1st, 2012
“The game also tested player’s patience as there is one part where you must wait for over an hour without touching the controller before proceeding to the next section.”
And you people complain about the game length being padded by travelling sections. o.O
January 1st, 2012
Sounds stupid to me.
January 1st, 2012
Just got home from the Blue Man Group. Talk about fucking awesome! If you ever get a chance go see them. Funny stuff and great for the whole family.