Game:

Ganbare Neo Poke-Kun (2000)

Duration: 13:09

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This is one of two game samples for Ganbare Neo Poke-Kun for the NGPC which show a wide variety of things in the game (but not all). A lot can be said about this game; it's bizarre, straightforward, simple, pointless, satirical, and one of the NGPC's most exemplary titles, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. GNPK is mostly in a league of its own and is sort of a combination of "Little Computer People" (which this came long after) and WarioWare (which this predates), only simplified.

Your goal is very straightforward; you "observe" Poke-Kun and keep him happy. It's not deep or mysterious by any stretch of the imagination-- you can literally just push a button to have random visitors/things ring your bell and come or go, and this will be enough, provided you get your door fixed or play some of the game's 30 mini-games from time to time. However, this would be less of a game if everything was provided upfront and the game is amazing in the sense that you get the impression that the devs acknowledged the overall simplicity and directness needed to make this game enjoyable and serviceable.

Part of the fun is simply "interacting" with the various visitors Poke-kun encounters, which are actually determined by the NGPC's internal clock, as his room differs bewteen night and day. If you aren't meeting a strange dog who takes a dump inside of its own body or meeting a debonair stranger with the face or SNK's Rugal (who touches you inappropriately), it's having a random sexy woman waltz through your door or a big nose with a hairy nostril breaks through your door. Characters have new interactions the longer you play. It's easier to keep Poke-Kun happy during the day, though you'll want to try the game at all hours of the day to get the most out of this title. If you are daring, you can also activate "disasters" by rotating your control pad, which do nothing but annoy or bewilder Poke-Kun (but look really cool). The reason keeping Poke-Kun happy is so important is because the happier he is, the more likely he is to become "inspired" and go off into his development room, where he'll make new mini-games by modifying or creating PCB/Arcade boards.

The mini-games parody or satire a good variety of history's most influential video games or franchises. They start off simple with Pong or Asteroid style games but get progressively more advanced, featuring a Shuffleboard-esque game with a "Nobunaga's Ambition" aesthetic, a game with some obvious "Star Wars" references, Spartan X references, a fighting game based on some of SNK's own, and even a simple "Dragon Quest" parody, just as some examples. It's very impressive on a technical level and for the NGP handheld to see just what was accomplished with this game.

Sadly, Ganbare Neo Poke-Kun (while acting somewhat as a mascot for a brief period of time) has mostly been forgotten. While he has made some cameo appearances in SNK/Playmore products over the years (his likely most significant appearance of which stems from Neo Geo Battle Coliseum's "Ai", which she shares many instances with Poke-Kun from in-game cameos to many of her official illustrations) and may have directly or indirectly influenced the creation of titles like WarioWare, there aren't more games that follow his example, which is just a smidge sad; this makes this title all the more significant. If you are into the obscure and the unusual and like mini-games and lite-sims, then it would be worth your time to track this down. Enjoy.