Many popular games for all the biggest of the old systems have been on the show, but now Arino sits down with the physically biggest: SNK’s Neo Geo. The game? Fatal Fury Special, an improved version of Fatal Fury 2. The challenge: defeat all 15 characters to see the ending.
Season 6 begins, but is it the last? Though the previous season was only six episodes, Arino finds time to fit two more into his schedule for this one. But before anything else, Urakawa comes in and hands him a letter from a young fan and an attached Arino paper doll. Arino reads the letter, then pins the doll on the whiteboard and finally gets ready to play today’s challenge: Street Fighter II!
Arino opens the show by cracking up — director Urakawa’s weird countdown to recording time gave him the giggles. Anyway, let’s get down to business: this episode’s challenge is Nintendo’s classic NES/Famicom game, Punch-Out!!
As his 24-hour quest against Lemmings continues, Arino once again runs into a snag. But not only are fans sending in helpful faxes, but a couple of guys in the theater are writing messages, too. Arino is also shown the debut of the live show’s "theme song," Last Continue, as sung by AP Nakayama.
Last time, Arino began Ninja Gaiden II, and got surprisingly close to the endgame. But the show went over time, so things were cut short. So, we begin where we left off...
You usually don’t see a sequel on GCCX unless it’s a sequel to a game that’s already been on the show — and if you know it’s going to cause Arino pain. Four years after tackling the original Ninja Ryukenden (Ninja Gaiden), our hero is forced to endure that game’s sequel: Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. It’s definitely no softer than its predecessor, but will Arino get far without the help of three ADs at his side, like last time?
After a hell of a time trying to beat Mega Man 3 for 13 straight hours, Arino finally reached the final stages… until he was told it was time to go. With still so much to do, he couldn’t simply end it there. So now, after some time later, Arino returns to the challenge room to try his best to finish the game. Waiting for Arino are ADs Ito and Emoto.
Arino returns to one of the greatest series in games by taking up the challenge of Rockman (Mega Man) 3. With a so-far-even series scoring (he failed Mega Man 2, but completed MM1), Arino can turn the tide in his favor, but then again, MM3 is the longest one in the original series.
For once, a Famicom game that’s not from the ’80s! And it’s also one of the most celebrated games on the system: Kirby’s Adventure, the bigger, bolder sequel to the original Kirby’s Dream Land on Game Boy. It’s not a terribly hard game for most, but it can be lengthy, and regardless, there are tricky bosses in the latter half that may or may throw Arino for a loop.
Another European game arrives at Arino’s desk: DMA’s classic action-puzzle game Lemmings, ported to the Super Famicom by Sunsoft, which is what Arino will be playing it on, of course. As you may know, Lemmings involves the player using a cursor to assign roles for an arbitrary number of rock-stupid "lemmings," making sure to get most — if not all — of them to an exit door at the other end of the level.