In more recent decades, and especially with the advent of the internet, it seems contemporary
Japan and Japanese popular culture have earned the reputation for being quirky, wacky, and
more often than not, just plain weird, particularly to Western eyes. While all cultures have their
oddities, there's no doubt that a unique strangeness has implanted itself in many aspects of the
Japanese experience, sprinkled in between all the boring and sterile bits that aren't
much different from the rest of the developed world.
The realm of gaming is no stranger to this supposed Japanese weirdness, and to illustrate
this point, take a look at some of the following strange games that were conceived in Japan:
Pretty weird stuff, right? Well, prepare yourself for a game that may be the strangest I've
ever played--the curiously named PuLiRuLa. The game is a simple arcade beat 'em up developed
by Taito in 1991 that was ported over to the PlayStation and Saturn in 1997 by Xing Entertainment.
It's part of a series of arcade ports the company published under the Arcade Gears label.
I'll be taking a look at the PlayStation version here for this video.
In the country of Radish Land, time behaves according to a network of gears and machines,
controlled by a large wind-up key. One day, a bad guy named Jack steals that key, and
thereby stops the flow of time. Thankfully, two children, Zac and Mel, are in possession
of magic wands created by their grandfather, and it's up to them to save their town and
the rest of Radish Land from certain doom.
The quest that unfolds is home to some of the most bizarre, random, and surreal images
you'll ever find in a video game. I mean just take a look at some of this stuff! What's
with this large group of gaunt men who I can only assume are starving, surrounded by evil
flowers? Why is there a random "henohenomoheji" doodle here on the wall? Here's a stage made
up M.C. Escher type backgrounds and other random stuff for absolutely no good reason
at all. In the desert level, defeating the snail boss brings some heavy rains, flooding
the area because time is frozen in the next town. Restore time there and all the rain
water rushes through town and sweeps you away, leading to a mini game where you have to repeatedly
whack weird fish men that jump around the water. And what the hell is this?
But none of that compares to level 3, a place which is distorted by a man's crazy dreams.
Here's the lovely imagery you're greeted with at the start of the stage. I'll let some of
the sections of this level speak for themselves...
And finally, what is in my opinion the strangest and most breathtaking oddity in the game.
Big Legs. And an entry way in between them. What mystery lies behind this doorway? Dare
you open it to see for yourself? The build up is killing me...let's do this. WHAT? Upon
further inspection, you'll notice that the door leads to the vacuous domain of outer
space...that opening between the legs houses the final frontier, where no man has gone
before...the resting place of a pink elephant and his trunk, who pulls out the first moment
he has a chance to...what does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!
For answers, please contact Taito Corporation at:
Shinjuku East Side Square 2F 6-27-30 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8447
Japan ATTN: PuLiRuLa/WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WITH
THE LEGS AND THE DOOR AND THE ELEPHANT?
If you find the answer to this question, please let me know and you could win this wonderful
limited edition box set of Finder Love for the PSP, featuring Risa Kudoh. In this special
box you'll find the PSP game software in addition to several photo prints of the lovely idol,
a DVD movie album compatible with Region 2 DVD players, and a special Finder Love "image
bikini," for whom its intended wearer, judging by the targeted demographic of this style
of game, is unbeknownst to all...ahem...
But in all seriousness, despite the wackiness that PuLiRuLa is constantly throwing at you,
at it's core, the game is just a really basic, bare bones beat 'em up. Controls are pretty
standard--the d-pad controls movement, X is the jump button, and square is used to attack.
There aren't any combos in this game, which makes no difference since most enemies in
the game are defeated in a single hit. When your foes die, they transform into little
animals, which can be collected for points. There' also a magic attack performed by pressing
the circle button. The attack executed is random, and can be anything from a horde of
animals that run across the screen, to a guy that bundles up all enemies in to yarnballs
and tosses them into a microwave...in addition to others. In total, there are six levels
and a final boss, and the game is over in less than a half an hour. And of course, the
game supports coop play, which is almost as fun as watching and listening to the reactions
of any friend you coax into playing the game with you.
As far as extras go, a small mini strategy guide of sorts is included with the game,
published by Gamest. If you don't know Gamest, it's a company that put out some of the best
video game magazine books in the 90s. Really high quality stuff for game fans and collectors,
and I highly recommend picking up some of their publications. Anyway, there is a section
in this booklet that goes over the secrets in the game, which are accessed in the options
menu. By playing certain sound effects in a particular order, like you were entering
a password, you'll unlock a variety of different things, such as stage select, free play mode,
and the ability to change the size of character sprites. Changing the character size applies
to enemies and NPCs as well, which makes it an amusing extra feature. Going with extra
large characters crowds up the screen, whereas going extra small results in everything moving
at a faster pace. It's worth playing with these settings at least once, as they change
the gameplay dynamic quite a bit.
Surprisingly, and against all odds, PuLiRuLa made its way outside of Japan...but only in
the form of the the original arcade version. Outside of the PSOne and Saturn ports, the
game saw a later home conversion as a part of the Taito Memories Vol. 1 compilation for
the PlayStation 2 in Japan. This collection was released internationally as Taito Legends,
but unfortunately, PuLiRuLa was taken out of the collection completely.
Is PuLiRuLa worth picking up? Yeah, I think so. While the game is definitely on the short
side, and gameplay is as basic as any beat 'em up can get, it's a lot of fun, and the
graphics and animation are gorgeous, the music is catchy, and it can often be found for cheap.
If you just want a weird game for your collection, you can't really go wrong with PuLiRuLa. The
experience is brief, but the memories last a life time...
As always, I hope you enjoyed the video, and if you'd like to see me talk more about some
of the other weird games shown here, feel free to let me know in the comments section,
and maybe I'll do a future episode on them. Thanks for watching!