Game:

Wagyan Paradise (1994)

Duration: 10:52

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Wagyan Paradise is one of the last (good) games in the Wagyan series, a great series of semi-educational, non-violent platformers developed by Namco and aimed at a young demographic, primarily children. It has superb use of solid colors and slick visual effects, not to mention a great soundtrack and an ongoing story. Its impressive display of simplicity shines through, and it's above average in every respect even if you do take into account that it's kiddy and educational (history taught me many edu. games are subpar). I played years ago and wanted to add it to my collection, but I couldn't find it for a good price until a few months ago (CIB for about $10). It's ideal for Japanese beginners and can be a bit challenging depending on how you play.

WP tells the tale of Takuto & Karin, two cute young Wagans who embark on an adventure throughout Wagan Land (Wagyan is also read Wagan in this game and in the manual) after strange occurences cause a sacred landmark near their home, the "Hohoemi no Ki" or "Tree of Smiles", to collapse. Raiti, an anthropomorphic bird adventurer whose travels have sent him around the world and across the seven seas, is the first to notice these events and spread the word. He notices an odd cloud formation and takes it upon himself to keep looking when he notes how peculiar the surrounding area is. It's not until he's shocked by the Tree of Smiles' fall that he flys off alarmed. Later that day, Papa and Mama are talking (that's their names) about how they don't like the recent events happening across the land (Papa mainly just says "I see." and nods in agreement) and that Mama is worried about the kids being out because it's getting late and the land is perilous. The kids arrive before nightfall yelling that they're home.

Mama is exasperated and upset, asking what the kids were doing out at such a time of day and telling them that she doesn't want them so far away. She then calms down and tells them to come and eat. Later that evening, Takuto is curious about Raiti the Adventurer and the fallen tree and becomes rowdy, but is yelled at because it's his bedtime, so Takuto reluctantly lays down for a while... but he soon sneaks out of the house convinced that he couldn't just sleep with the strange events on the island. Thus, his quest begins as he leaves Wagan Village. Of course, you can also play with Karin if you want.

The Wagyan series is interesting in the sense that you cannot kill enemies (in most cases), only stun them, and bosses are fought via various games which test your memory, concentration, reflexs, ability to identify (shapes, objects, etc.), and your knowledge of Japanese words and phrases. WP uses mainly Hiragana, Katakana, and Furigana, but it is almost required that you know the language in order to fully enjoy this because unless you're using an emulator, you can't simply write everything down and analyze it due to time limits, the inability to pause during bosses, and a large range of random things to identify, so you're going to have to get somewhat familiar with the terms and what they apply to as one game may require you to pick a picture based on the word listed whereas another might identify a pic using a list of words, so Namco's checking to see if it's commited to memory.

Another thing that makes WP neat is that the difficulty of the stages and Boss Games are affected by how old the player says they are. The default is for those 3 years of age and it can go up to 99. Generally speaking, the first few are what you call "Easy" mode; you have unlimited max POW, start with 20 extra lives, and Boss Games are easy (EX: the first one with Raiti will only have 7 of the 15 panels exposed, meaning more room for error-- you'll also have more time and need less correct in order to advance). Ages 13-24+ (I speculate higher but haven't seen just how high the threshold is) are the equivalent of "Hard"; empty POW, only start with two lives, Boss Games are much harder (EX: Nothing is held back, some games have additional rules like Raiti's where you have to guess as letters appear and waste valuable time waiting for more to appear, and you need more correct to advance). High ages like 99 are what you'd call "Normal"; the stage segments are the same as Hard but the Bosses are the same as Easy.

WP has a surprising degree of flexibility although the player initially only runs, jumps, and yells with varying intensity. There are three bonus games you can play if you collect at least 100 stars on the levels and there are also cool levels such an ice level where your breath freezes in mid-flight and can be used as a platform or another which has you deep underwater with limited visibility; you can shine a light to reveal concealed obstacles. You can also battle a friend in various mini-games. WP is by no stretch the best game ever, but for an educational title, it's almost like the best game of all time, lol. Here's approx. 20 mins. of it in action. Enjoy.