DONE BY: Namco / indies 0 [zero]

IT’S FOR: DS

YEAR: 2007

NOTE: Game Centre CX is as valid a romanisation of the Japanese title as Game Center CX, but we know which spelling will get us more Google hits.

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What an extraordinary game. But I ought to get the dry description out of the way before I start carrying on.

Game Center CX is, in a way, a collection of old games – or more accurately, retro games, because all of these games are brand new, but made in the old, 8-bit style. Furthermore, they are all games-within-a-game; they are framed by Game Center CX proper – a cute little story in which you, a child in the 1980s, visit your friend’s house and play his videogames. A feebly villainous floating head presents you with challenges – eg. perform a certain move, beat a level within a certain time limit – and when you complete these challenges, the next game becomes available.

So far, it sounds like just an overly elaborate menu system, right? But the developers of Game Center CX, being magnificent geniuses, understood the potential of this premise – of a collection of games that are 8-bit not only in style, but in context.

Do you own one of the Namco Museum collections? Let’s say you want to play Galaga. You select it from a menu, and you play it. “Golly,” you think, “this sure is perfectly emulated.” In Game Center CX, meanwhile, you will play Cosmic Gate (a Galaga tribute) only after your friend, Arino, has told you all about it, with great enthusiasm – “You gotta play this! It’s totally awesome!” So you plug in the cartridge and turn on the system, and there, relaxing in the holiday heat, sitting too close to the TV on your friend’s living room floor, you play a home videogame for the very first time.

Arino cheers when you do something cool, sympathises when you fail, exclaims when a bonus appears on the screen, and yawns when nothing is happening. He’ll chatter excitedly with you between game sessions, happy to be sharing this new hobby. The two of you begin to read Gamefan Magazine – it has all sorts of information about Cosmic Gate – even cheats! – but even better than that, it has information about games you don’t have yet. Oh my god, we have to get Hagureman – look at those graphics!

Eventually you get Hagureman, and yes, it’s amazing. The colours; the characters; the music! The ineffable joy of running around and jumping on things! Next comes a racing game, Rally King. It’s kind of hard... but we don’t have anything else to play. And hey, what do you know – with a bit of practice, it’s really fun! These games are all so great, and so different – and the graphics and sounds get better and better! Arino’s game system seems almost magical. What wonderful thing will it do next?

In this way, Game Center CX presents its own alternate history of 8-bit gaming. Gamefan tells you about Star Prince, developed by Tomato. Oh, they made Cosmic Gate! Remember how good that was? Then there’s Hagureman 2, which is very similar to the original – but then comes Hagureman 3, which is totally, shockingly, amazingly badass! And nothing can prepare you for Guadia Quest – it’s called a ‘role-playing game’, and it’s massive; I can’t even explain. You have to play it.

And so, while Game Center CX might, from a glance at the back of the box, seem like a nostalgia piece – and it has that function, no question – I’m inclined to believe that the intended audience for this game is those who are new to videogames: those who didn’t grow up with Nintendo, because they’re too young, or too old, or weren’t interested at the time. Your character and Arino resemble Miis, and the villainous floating head is a clear parody of Professor What’s-his-face from those Brain Training games. Game Center CX is a letter from the ‘Nintendo generation’ to Nintendo’s new audience: “This is what it was like.”

Of course, Game Center CX works as a straightforward game collection too: all eight games are excellent as games, regardless of their function in the larger narrative – and once you’ve unlocked them, you can play them independently. There’s even a board for each game that keeps track of how much time you’ve spent playing it, how many Game Overs you’ve gotten – even how many times you’ve pressed the A and B buttons.

I haven’t had a chance, yet, to mention that Game Center CX is funny. It’s a funny, funny game – and I can’t even read most of it! The way Arino’s head wobbles when he walks into the living room is funny. Some of the game titles at the back of each issue of Gamefan are funny. The opening ‘cutscene’ of Hagureman is goddamned hilarious – something about the timing; I dunno; it makes me giggle every time. Maybe the best joke is the second Rally King game: Rally King SP... which, since it’s a joke, I won’t spoil for you here.

Game Center CX, it turns out, is based on a television show of the same name, but I’ve never seen it. (My television back in Japan wouldn’t pick up Fuji TV for some reason.) If I’m right about the intended audience for the game – the ‘new Nintendo’ audience; the popular audience – then I’m glad there’s a well-known license attached to it.

I wouldn’t have guessed, though, that it’s a licensed game. Licensed games are usually garbage, and Game Center CX is the opposite. Care has been taken with this title, and creative energy has been spent, generously and lovingly – in making retro games that function as games, as commentary on other games, and as elements of a greater narrative; and in constructing that greater narrative, in rich detail – the game manuals; Arino and his wide-eyed enthusiasm for this increasingly wonderful pastime; Gamefan Magazine, with its tips and cheats and previews... even the price on the front, that gradually increases with inflation. It’s that sort of careful detail that makes Game Center CX a really authentic experience: Recently I’ve found myself wondering if there was ever a Hagureman 4, before remembering with disappointment that the Hagureman series isn’t ‘real’.

Like I said: an extraordinary game. As well as being, simply, fun, Game Center CX captures the imagination in a way that videogames rarely do. If you’d like to live your videogaming childhood again – or for the first time – I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

FINAL SCORE: 32 ASTEROIDS

ANOTHER NOTE: If you can’t read Japanese, you’ll probably need a walkthrough to help you through some bits of Game Center CX – I’m thinking particularly of the RPG section. This is of course no problem, what with the internet and all.