Console gaming in the mid to late 1980s may as well be defined as the age of sidescrolling
action platformers. It seems like every other release in the 8-bit era fell under the genre,
and you could even make the argument that the popularity of sidescrollers is the reason why
the video game industry is as big and healthy as it is today, given that Nintendo's blockbuster
platformer Super Mario Bros. essentially revived a flatlining North American gaming market in 1985.
Although they were mostly a product of the technical limitations of the time,
2D action platformers feel timeless thanks to their simple yet rewarding gameplay and
iconic visual style. People young and old still love playing these games decades on,
as evidenced by their wide availability on modern platforms, both officially...and not so much.
In recent years, a "retro wave" has splashed onto the scene, and game developers have been creating
brand new games that take their inspiration directly from classic sidescrolling action
platformers, most tailor-made for play on the latest hardware, though some are developed
specifically to be experienced directly on older game consoles. These devs are more often than not
small teams or independent studios, but even some of the big names will publish retro-style titles
here and there that attempt to capture the magic of gaming's past. One of the more interesting
examples of this comes from one of the pastime's heaviest hitters with an unusual title that not
only pays homage to the legacy of platforming games from yesteryear, but also pokes fun at
it at the same time. And that title? Sega's Chin Douchuu: Pole no Daibouken. (Wii Screen)
Released exclusively in Japan back in 2009 on the Nintendo Wii's now defunct
Wii Shop online service, Chin Douchuu: Pole no Daibouken, or An Odd Journey:
Pole's Big Adventure, was a download-only WiiWare game that sold for a paltry 500 yen,
around five U.S. dollars, the same pricepoint as a standard 8-bit Famicom title on the Wii Virtual
Console. And with its blocky graphics and chiptune soundtrack, you would think it might be some long
lost title from the Famicom, at least at first glance. Starting up the game for the first time,
the player must go through a tutorial stage that teaches the basics, which are as basic as they
come. The protagonist, Pole, can move left and right with the d-pad, jump with one button and
shoot his gun with another...and that's it. The tutorial is short and straightforward,
simply explaining the controls and some fundamental game mechanics, such as collecting
gun powerups, 1-ups and apples that add to score. Here it's obvious that the game's biggest
inspiration comes from the original Super Mario Bros. in both its looks and gameplay, however
I do see shades of Hudson's Challenger as well with Pole's projectile attack and cowboy duds.
Pole's Big Adventure consists of six levels—a dry desert, a lush but perilous Brazillian jungle,
a sunny Caribbean beach, the frigid Antarctic snow, a modern Japanese town and the low-grav
frontiers of outer space. Typically, each level is broken up into three substages, with the player
taking shelter in a small castle at the end of the first two a la that popular Nintendo game
I've already mentioned twice before, and the last substage ends the level with a boss fight. Pole is
on a quest to save his girlfriend Sharon, who has been kidnapped by vile poachers as presented in
the opening cinematic, which features some rather realistic portraits of the hero and villains,
a stark contrast to the game's graphics and cover art. The limited color pallete led me to at
first think this underling character was some kind of monster like the Cacodemon from Doom,
but he's just a buff guy wearing an animal skin over his shoulders.
Up until now, everything about Pole and his big adventure probably looks and sounds like a
rather uninspired 8-bit action title derivative of bigger name platformers, but it's really something
unique...bizarre, even. You'll realize this just a few steps and hops into the game's first stage.
What? (Egg Shen: See? That was nothing. But that's how it always begins. Very small.) Soon you'll
learn that just about every road on this journey subverts conventional expectations. Each level
contains fourth wall-breaking gags called "neta" that the player discovers throughout the quest,
some accidentally, some incidentally and some intentionally as you move along.
Many of these gags joke about frustrating experiences related to old games, due to
technical issues or poor game design, and others parody other games or popular culture. But many
more are just flat out random or odd, really putting the "chin" in Chin Douchuu, similar to
the typical humor you might find on Japanese television or at a Japanese comedy theater.
And that's all by design, since the 8-bit presentation of Chin Douchuu: Pole no Daibouken
is all just a shell that houses a comedy game, a means to deliver jokes, particularly
in the style of one of Japan's most popular forms of comedy, "manzai."
As I was researching manzai for this video, I spoke with a friend of mine and was pleasantly
surprised that he's apparently an expert in the topic. He even humbly offered to share
his valuable insight into the world of Japanese comedy with us, so I knew I couldn't possibly
turn down such a rare opportunity. Ladies and gentleman, it is my absolute pleasure to bring
on the esteemed retro gaming enthusiast and my good friend, St1ka of St1ka's Retro Corner.
St1ka: Hi there, everyone, my name is St1ka and many of you may not know this,
but in my youth, I actually majored in Japanese Communications, Culture and Language. For example,
did you know Katana means “Japanese sword?” Jimmy: Uh, yes, I believe I did. And...did
you just quote Samurai Cop? St1ka: What? No! I’m highly fluent in
Japanese! For example, Honda means Japanese Ford. Jimmy: Yeah, um, well anyway, about manzai then...
St1ka: Oh yes, I know all about BANZAAAAAAAI~ Jimmy: Manzai!
St1ka: Uh, right, that! In fact, I’ll now be performing a typical
manzai routine. *clears throat*. What is the deal with airline food? It's trying to
hijack our stomachs and take us to the bathroom! Jimmy: I, uh, think that's more Jerry Seinfeld
than something from Japanese culture... St1ka: Well, I can see a clear influence
in manzai and traditional Japanese culture and values in this game too. For example,
your high jumps are actually a reference to how gravity and physics work differently in Japan.
Jimmy: I don't see how this is... For those who don't know, in Japan,
if you fall down some stairs you will always land face first on some girl’s big anime tiddies, with
a 50% added chance that she’s actually your long lost childhood friend that you’ve forgotten about.
That’s just physics. Jimmy: What?
St1ka: You’ve also got this power-up that turns into Chuck Norris. This is actually a
reference to Nobunaga Sensei who was a big Texas Ranger fan back in the Edo period.
Which is actually how we got most of his strategies to defeat his enemies in battle
Jimmy: You mean the Sengoku Era and the Imagawa Clan?
St1ka: No, I mean his big tiddied anime harem. A man’s gotta have priorities, dude.
Jimmy: OK, I think I see what's going on here. St1ka, come clean with me.
You're not a Japanese expert, you never majored in anything Japanese...you're just
some run of the mill weeb from Portugal who watches too much anime, aren't you?
St1ka: What? No, I did all the required reading and I spent years
studying their classic literature! Jimmy: Oh yeah? What did you study?
St1ka: Well, Big Tiddied Onee-chan #3, Mother Knows Breast #8, I Can’t Believe My Younger Sister
Has Huge Knockers #12 and Amazing Spiderman #3 Jimmy: Oh, get out of here. Spiderman?!
St1ka: What? It’s the one where he fights Doc Ock! Jimmy: That's enough, good-bye St1ka.
You've got a lot of growing up to do, I'll tell you that. Ridiculous!
I'm sorry about that. If you want to get anything done, you've gotta do it yourself, I guess.
Anyway, what manzai really is is a traditional two man comedy act that has roots that go back
hundreds of years, but it was the popular Osaka-style that really brought it to the
mainstream. One performer plays a bit of a goof who says or does silly things,
and the other is more of a straight man who corrects or berates his partner's foolishness.
These are called the "boke" and "tsukkomi," respectively. In this game,
Pole plays the role of the tsukkomi, and for the boke...well, the game itself plays
that role with all the absurdities it throws at the player. It's a pretty clever setup,
and the gags in Pole's Big Adventure were conceived by actual Japanese comedians. Pole's
reactions are plastered across the screen in large text similar to what you'd see on Japanese TV,
but what gives his words an even bigger impact is its delivery in the Kansai dialect used in Osaka,
voiced by Mr. Takashi Endo, who was a part of a manzai act back in the 90s called Homare.
There are 100 total neta in the game, evaluated as either bronze, silver or gold,
depending on how tricky it is to discover them, and these rankings come with a score bonus,
not that score matters. A lot of them trigger or are triggered by player deaths,
so extra lives are given out generously and the game is quite easy. Bosses are a pushover,
and you can spam Pole's attack and take out most before they even start to put up a fight. That
might sound disappointing for fans of the genuine challenge that older 8-bit platformers were known
to provide, so thankfully there is a classic second round after the credits that ramps up
the difficulty exponentially, especially with the boss fights. Take a look at the stage five boss,
an ordinary Shiba Inu, as he appears in round 1 vs. his much overpowered round 2 form.
The humor in Pole's Big Adventure is the main driving point for players to complete it,
and there's not much of a reason to play the game other than encountering all the different gags.
A counter at the bottom right of the screen shows the total number of neta collected
across all playthroughs, and any of these can be seen again at any time by accessing
them in a gallery mode on the main menu. To help making collecing all the neta less of a hassle,
stage select options become available as the player progresses through the game.
I've tried to keep from spoiling too many of these so far, but to make this video feel more complete,
I think I need to at least explicitly share some of my favorites.
What better way than with a top ten countdown? (There are plenty of better ways), but here we go!
10. A running gag throughout the game, at the castle bases in between each stage,
Pole will be reunited with his love, but of course his princess is in another castle
and the imposter Sharon is revealed to be the poacher underling. Over the course of the game,
however, these disguises just keep getting worse and worse, most of them are quite humorous,
though a couple are plain disturbing. These aren't part of the 100 official neta,
but provide some welcome chuckles nonetheless. 9. Level 5-2 is just a long stretch of empty
space for about a minute and a half, and at the end a crowd is gathered as if it were the finish
line of a marathon. This game loves wasting your time...and this is nothing, you'll see in a bit.
8. Technically three in one here, but they're related. You'll encounter the polar bear boss
of level four a couple of times before the actual showdown. The first time you see him is near the
beginning of 4-2, and he'll take off quickly since you met up with him a bit too early.
The second time is at the end of 4-2, where he's become frozen in ice waiting too long for Pole
to reach him. When you finally fight him in 4-3, things climax in a nasty bloodbath of a battle.
7. A gag that plays around with the idea of the mushroom powerup,
picking this one up in the second stage turns Pole into a big, buff shirtless cowboy man similar to
something you'd see in a Fist of the Northstar game. The change is only cosmetic, however,
and actually comes with a major disadvantage, as now all of Pole's shots go directly over the heads
of his enemies due to the increase in height. St1ka: I told you, Chuck Norris fan! Jimmy: I
thought I told you to get out of here! Completely ridiculous. Can you believe this character?
6. In 5-3, there's a section with a rather steep fall. No worries, it's a video game,
the laws of physics don't apply, just jump down, break a leg! Literally. Afterward,
poor crippled Pole has to limp around in excruciating pain for the remainder of the area.
5. An odd, fleshy apple can be found in 6-2. Eating it at first seems to have no effect,
but just a little while later, Pole collapses and then an alien violently bursts from his chest.
Sick! It's kind of dumb, but I'm a huge fan of the Alien movies.
4. This one is a straight up troll on Sega's part. In stage 1-2, cacti occupy much of
the background...it's harmless to touch these, of course, since they're all just
basically wallpaper...with the exception of one, however. Gruesome and cheap. This happens again
on the beach with a palm tree...for some reason. 3. Another troll job, and a truly cruel one. Right
at the very end of the last stage right before the final boss fight, there are some large pipes
laid out near the exit. Your gamer instincts say to try heading down into them...and if you head
into the middle one, you're transported all the way back to stage 1-2, with no way to return to
the last stage except the way you just did, which is to go through the entire game again. Or reset
and use stage select. Sega really got me with this one, I think my jaw dropped onto the floor.
2. Here's a bit of nostalgia for anyone who's played real 8-bit carts on original hardware.
At the end of stage 5-1, the graphics glitch out, and all sprites, including the player
character, become garbled, mostly unidentifiable messes. Ah, memories.
1. Arguably what this game is most famous for, another mushroom gag, emphasis on the mushroom.
Picking up the shroom at the start of stage 5-1 will power up Pole's...well, pole. Boing.
There must have been viagra in that thing as well, because while not a permaboner,
this erection does last for the entirety of the stage. Really puts the "chin" in Chin Douchuu.
And that's my top ten...and I guess that's Pole's Big Adventure.
The first playthrough should take about a half an hour or so to complete, round two a little
more depending on how well you can nail the enemy boss patterns. There's no real reward
for finishing the second round or collecting all of the neta, just some color changes on the title
screen and the pleasure of rewatching all gags at your leisure. As far as options, there are a few,
including channeling Pole's voice through the Wii remote or turning it off completely, as well as
disabling the large text that pops on screen when encountering one of the gags. Probably not really
stuff you want to mess with, though, since the voice and text are a big part of the game's charm.
Pole never got a second outing, though his big adventure was actually the first in an
intended series of games using the "Chin" moniker. The second and sadly final entry
in the Chin series was Chin Sports on the Wii, published just a few months
later in 2009. A bizarre take on the popular motion sports genre that flooded the console,
this title was supervised in part by Kenichi Nishi, formerly of Love-de-Lic and Skip fame,
a man known for his unconventional takes on game design. Unlike Pole,
Chin Sports did get its chance in the spotlight in North America and Europe under the name
Wacky World of Sports. It's good, you should pick it up. While the only things that really link the
two are their quirky presentation and odd content, a more material connection between the games is a
special soundtrack for both that was offered as a bonus item for early adopters of Chin Sports.
While its gameplay is simple and limited, and lacks much replay value, Chin Douchuu:
Pole no Daibouken is an interesting game that fans of the Golden Age of Console Gaming,
or those who enjoy Japanese comedy, should play at least once, and maybe a few more times to see
the reactions of friends and family if you've got 'em. As of the making of this video, it was only
ever available on the Wii Shop, and while it's not the most likely candidate for a re-release,
stranger things have happened in gaming. I would love to see Pole not only get ported
to other systems, but for a full-fledged remake or sequel done in the same spirit,
with ten times the amount of gags and levels, an adventure taking place over
multiple console gaming generations, and one with an international release. But before I get excited
over things that will probably never be, I'll just end the video here and calm myself down.
Big thanks goes to St1ka for his help in making this video a little less conventional,
much like Pole's Big Adventure, and also for showing us the dangers of hentai. If
you like old video games, or new old games like this one, then you must check out his videos,
because while he's not an expert in Japanese language or culture,
the man definitely knows his retro style games. Plus, he has the best accent in the game. Also,
thank you for watching this episode of Import Gaming FTW--this is Jimmy Hapa. Take care.