Retro Game Challenge Walkthrough

GAME CENTER CX: ARINO NO CHOUSENJOU [Arino's Challenge]
FAQ/Walkthrough by Molokidan (molokidan@gmail.com)
=CONTENTS=
1. Update History [U]
2. Introduction [I]
3. Menu [M]
4. Games [G]
5. Cosmic Gate [C]
6. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman [K1]
7. Rally King [R1]
8. Star Prince [S]
9. Rally King SP [R2]
10. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 2 [K2]
11. Guadia Quest [Q]
-Spell List [L]
12. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 3 [K3]
-Gear List [GR]
13. Ending [E]
14. Special Thanks [T]
=Update History= [U]
v1.1: 2/11/8 - I've added detailed info. on how to clear each game, rewritten
some inconsistent info, and added the section detailing the ending. All I
really have left now is to add other secrets when I find them and optional
stuff for each game.
v1.0: 2/8/8 - This first version contains info on all the games and their
respective challenges, and how to clear the entire game itself. It's just
missing detailed information on fully clearing each game, which I hope to
add eventually.
=Introduction= [I]
GCCX:ANC is an awesome DS game designed for anyone, but it should really
strike home to fans of retro gaming, as it contains tons of tongue-in-cheek
humor about the industry and lots of throwback to titles and trends from the
80s, mainly from 8-bit NES games. The concept of the game itself comes from a
popular Japanese game show called Game Center CX, in which people are
subjected to different 'challenges' based around extremely hard classic games,
such as Ghouls'n'Ghosts, Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels), The Quest of
Ki, etc. Basically hard games. The results are usually hilarious, so I really
recommend the show to any fan of Japanese/gaming humor.
Enough about that. This game starts with Arino, the host of Game Center CX,
coming to you as a rather strange disembodied virtual head. This time, for
the next in his long string of sadistic 'challenges,' he's decided to turn
you, the player, into a child, and send you back to the 80s in order to play
a bunch of games and complete challenges. It's pretty hokey, but that's the
point. The game starts, and on the bottom screen, you'll be faced with the
area your character will stay in for the rest of the entire game...(young)
Arino's room. The games you play on his TV, however, will take you on a quest
of classic gaming spanning 8 different titles.
This game is a lot of fun, and I love it, although personally, I thought the
difficulty of the challenges was pretty easy, and any seasoned gamer will have
no trouble in unlocking all the games within a single day. Clearing the games
themselves is a different story, but I do think it would have been funner if
the challenges had been harder, really requiring you to develop strategies
while you try over and over again to achieve something...much like classic NES
games and the insanely difficult games featured on the actual TV show.
=MENU= [M]
Main Menu -
The main menu of the game is set on a black space backdrop, with four options,
two of which have to be unlocked. The first is a new game, and the second is
continue. The 'game' itself is playing the different games, so it can get a
bit confusing since you end up playing a game within a game. Your best bet is
just to start one game and keep going, there's no need to restart your entire
data unless you want to do the challenges over again. The third option, which
you get from completing all of the main challenges, is Free Play, where you
can set high scores. One thing to remember here, however, is that the codes
you can use when completing the challenges won't work in this mode. The last
option is the Sound menu, which you receive after clearing each game once.
Arino's Room Menu -
When you press A in Arino's room, you'll open up a menu from which you can do
different things.
First Option: Choose a game. This'll take you to the game shelf in Arino's
room, where you can select which title you want to play. When you have one
title on the screen, you can also look through the instruction booklet before
you play the actual game. This is usually a good idea, as it'll tell you about
all the features each game has, most of which are not obvious after playing
for the first time. All you have to do is press A again to start the actual
game.
Second Option: Read Game Fan magazines. As you progress, Arino will buy more
copies of Game Fan, a magazine that will feature news on upcoming games as
well as give you codes to use on the games you have. Other than that it'll
have mini-walkthroughs to help you complete challenges, talk about game
secrets, and other funny stuff. (Translations of these coming soon?)
Third Option: Memo Pad. This is an option that will allow you to write
things down using the DS Pen on sheets of note paper. If you're at home,
this is kind of useless because you can use real paper, but I can see how
it'd come in handy if you're playing on the go.
Fourth Option: Converse with Arino. You can talk to him and he'll give
you general information about the challenge you're on, although most of
the time he just refers you to the Game Fan magazines.
Fifth Option: Quit. This'll quit the game, but before Arino will allow you to
save your progress and even continue playing if you want. But you don't have
to worry about losing all your progress if you choose quit.
=GAMES= [G]
There are eight different games that you'll be able to unlock throughout the
course of the game. If you want details on how to play the games, beat the
challenges, etc, go to the individual game section in this guide and
everything will (eventually) be detailed out. Here's the list of the games,
and my rating out of five stars. The next game will be unlocked by completing
the four challenges on the previous game.
When you're playing games, you can reset them by holding R+B. (This comes in
handy when trying to complete tricky challenges.)
If you press L+X while playing the games, it will return your control to
the room on the lower screen. During this, if you press R+B you will shut
off the entire game console, so be careful. But this way you can access
the room menu while in the middle of a game.
1. Cosmic Gate (Space Invaders/Galaga-type shooter) ***
2. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman (Mario/Bubble Bobble-type platformer) ****
3. Rally King (Racing) ***
4. Star Prince (1942-type shooter) *****
5. Rally King SP **
6. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 2 ****
7. Guadia Quest (RPG) *****
8. Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 3 *****
After you complete all the challenges for the games, you'll be able to do the
'final challenge,' which is basically to clear all eight games, all the way
through to the end. Once you beat that, you'll get a surprise.
=COSMIC GATE= [C]
Alright, the first game: Cosmic Gate. The rules should be pretty
self-explanatory, as you just move left and right and shoot the aliens.
Every three or so levels you will go through an asteroid field, where you can
rack up points (or get hit by an asteroid and die). This is a great game to
start with, as it is the most 'basic' out of the eight games included, and
really harkens back to the days of Atari and simple gaming. Especially
hilarious is the congratulations you get from beating the asteroid levels:
"YOU SHOOTED ## ASTEROIDS."
SPECIAL CONTROLS:
On the game over screen, press LEFT + START to continue.
On the title screen, press DOWN, DOWN, B, B, A, A to access "Hard Mode."
TIP #1: Once and a while, one of the enemies will drop a power-up, so try to
grab it. Although, the power-ups aren't that amazing, so don't go suicidal or
anything trying to get it.
TIP #2: One-ups will also drop, but they look like tomatoes (since this game's
developer is 'TOMATO'). Definitely grab these!!
TIP #3: During the asteroid level, once and a while huge asteroids will float
by, so try to shoot these and destroy them, as you get a ton of points.
If you can't get under them immediately, however, just don't even bother
trying, you'll just get squashed. You have to be on the lookout for them and
get in range quickly in order to shoot them up before they contact you.
TIP #4: There are also warps. These are a must for trying to clear the entire
game, as they can cut down the number of stages you need to clear by a lot,
and make it much easier. Basically, when a new wave of enemies fly in, there
will be one enemy blinking white. If you're aiming for the warp, then don't
shoot ANY OTHER enemies, or that special enemy will stop blinking, and you
won't be able to get that warp anymore. Instead, either shoot the enemy when
it first comes in, or wait until you have an opportune moment to shoot it once
it lines up. Once you shoot the blinking enemy, a warp hole will appear in a
corner of the screen. Now, while dodging enemy fire, you have to shoot the
warp zone repeatedly until it grows big enough and sucks you in.
CHALLENGE #1: Clear Stage 5.
This challenge is easy, and rightly so, as it's the first challenge in the
entire game. Basically, you just need to survive through stage 5, it doesn't
matter if you die or anything. Just get past it somehow. You can use warps,
although it isn't necessary.
CHALLENGE #2: Warp Twice.
This is a bit more tricky, as it requires you to use active not just one, but
two warp gates in a single run. Well, the warp zones get harder to activate as
the levels go up, so your best bet in this case is to simply activate the
first two warp zones that you possibly can. Check out Tip #4 out there to
learn the finer arts of activating warp zones. The first warp will take you
to level 3, which is an asteroid field, so just survive through that and them
get to Level 4, where you can activate your second warp. Once you do that, the
challenge will be complete. If you somehow just mess up, it's easier just to
reset then keep trying, as level 1 has the easiest warp to access.
CHALLENGE #3: Destroy a giant asteroid.
In my opinion, this is easier than challenge two, since you really only have
to do one thing, which isn't too difficult. There are two main ways to go
about this: use the warp in level 1 to go straight to the asteroid field, and
then find the big asteroid and destroy it, if you can...or, you can skip the
warp, go to level 2, and pick up the power-up. There's a fairly high chance in
level 2 that an enemy will drop one, and this will make your asteroid-hunting
a bit easier since you'll have more power in your shots. Whichever way you
want to do it is up to you, just make sure that when you're in the asteroid
field your eyes are toward the upper part of the screen and watching for a
big hunk of rock. Keep in mind that there are three sizes of asteroids: the
tiny pebble ones, the normal-sized ones, and then the big ones that only come
about 1 or 2 per level. It's the big one that you need to blow up.
CHALLENGE #4: Score 200,000 points.
This is the only relatively 'challenging' challenge in Cosmic Gate, really,
and it's only because it requires you to survive for a longer period of time
than what you're used to. You may find yourself having to get to Level 10-15
(this is without using warps of course) in order to achieve such a high score,
but it isn't impossible or even relatively difficult, as long as you get a
rhythm in your shots. Getting power-ups here is pretty important as although
your normal shots don't get stronger, what happens is that once every few shots
you'll shoot what looks like a big rocket, and this has the ability to slice
through entire lines of enemies, racking up combos that multiply the scores
you get from enemies. This is the key in getting high scores. Also, this goes
without saying, but shooting the big asteroids will net you lots of points as
well. Once you get past the initial swarm of enemies in each level and they
start to move around one-by-one, just dodge them -- don't try to go for them
when they loop around towards the bottom of the screen, it isn't worth it and
usually ends up in death. There really isn't much more to say about this, just
keep on firing and try not to die.
FINAL CHALLENGE: Clear the game.
There are 64 stages in total, and of course you can get through the game level
by level, but that can get old fast. Using warps is fine, although most warps
only shoot you three levels ahead. Here's the fastest way, which I found on
the Japanese GGCX wiki:
2 -> 5 -> 13 -> 17 -> 29 -> 37 -> 41 -> 53 -> 61.
That way you don't have go through all 64 stages at once.
=KARAKURI NINJA HAGURUMAN= [K1]
Alright, time for the second game. Haguruman is kind of like the ultimate mix
between Mario, Megaman, and Bubble Bobble -- you can stomp on your enemies to
kill them, you can shoot things at them, but you are also confined within
rooms and have to fight bosses once you kill all the enemies. It's also a bit
like Ghouls'n'Ghosts in that you can take a single hit, but another hit will
kill you for good. There are a few annoying things about the game, but overall
it's pretty fun, and a good break between Cosmic Gate and Rally King. By the
way, about the name, Karakuri is a word that commonly refers to wind-up toys
or clockwork things, and then Haguruma means cog-wheel, so it's a funny play
on words. A decent translation would be "Wind-Up Ninja Cogman."
Special Controls:
A: Jump
B: Throw Shuriken
UP: Open Door
DOWN+A: Go through a floor panel
On the game over screen, press LEFT + START to continue.
During the game, pause and press DOWN, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, B four times, A four
times, and you'll automatically gain three scrolls.
TIP #1: You can only use shuriken to stun enemies, but you need to jump on
them to actually kill them. You never run out of shuriken, though, so it's
safe to just keep firing them all the time since enemies can sometimes have
unpredictable jump/moving patterns.
TIP #2: You'll see weird multi-colored doors around the levels with Japanese
kana on them. If you press up in front of these walls, you'll go inside them.
You can use this to hide from enemies. If you come back out of the doors,
sometimes a scroll will spawn. Try to collect the scroll if you can, since
collecting three will summon a helper who stuns all the enemies on the screen
for you.
TIP #3: Notice that when you go through a door, all the same-colored doors
will open and close simultaneously. You can actually use this to stun enemies
far away from you if they are in front of these same-colored doors.
TIP #4: Once in a while opening/closing a door will spawn this golden
shuriken that will fly toward you. You CANNOT defeat this by throwing
shurikens at it or jumping on it, so all you can really do to dodge it is
jump out of the way or go back into the door. Watch out, because this can
really mess you up if enemies are swarming you when it happens.
TIP #5: Don't confuse the evil flying orange disc with the normal powerups
enemies drop -- you can grab those no problem, and it's usually in your best
interest to do so.
CHALLENGE #1: Get a double kill combo.
Alright, so getting a double kill combo here just means you have to jump on
two enemies in a row without touching the ground. This can actually be harder
on later levels, where enemies take more than one hit to kill, so I strongly
recommend staying on the first level to get this done, unless you're some kind
of masochist. The little green guys you run into on the first level only take
one jump to kill and can be stunned easily with the shuriken, so they're your
best bet. Try to find two together, wham 'em both with the shuriken, and then
hop to victory.
CHALLENGE #2: Clear Floor 3 without throwing a shuriken.
This can be pretty annoying, since you have to rely simply on your jumping
skills alone to get you through the levels. Don't worry about grabbing
power-ups or getting scrolls, just jump, jump, jump. The bosses don't have
much strategy to them, although it's notable than the red-armored samurai you
run into on the third level can't be stunned by shuriken anyway, so you aren't
handicapped that much. Just use the doors if you get in trouble, (look at the
tips above for door strategy) and time your jumps well. After you a few tries
you should able to make it through.
CHALLENGE #3: Clear Floor 4 without dying.
Alright...this is where things get tricky. You have to make it through the
first four levels without dying a single time, although the good part is that
you can use your shurikens again. Integrate door hopping into your natural
strategy, just go in and out of them while throwing a bunch of shuriken to
keep yourself safe. I really recommend gathering the scrolls in every level,
because it will stun a bunch of enemies and really make things safer for you.
Things can get pretty problematic in stage 3, where the red-armor guys who
can't be stunned start running around, but your jumping skills should be
honed from challenge 2, so you can do it (and you can still stun them with
the scrolls). Throw the shurikens really fast for the boss on Floor 4 since
he un-stuns himself rather quickly.
CHALLENGE #4: Clear Floor 8.
Arino's expectations for you are now doubled, but you're allowed to die, so
this is actually easily than the previous challenge. If you get a game over,
remember to press LEFT+START on the game over screen to retry from the same
level. The dark blue/purplish alligators can be real pains because they jump
rather unexpectedly from levels below you, and even if you try to counter-
jump, touching them diagonally can hurt you. Again, get power-ups, use
scrolls, etc...and enjoy the 'interesting' ending. Remind you of anything?
FINAL CHALLENGE: Clear the game.
After you clear the first 8 floors, you'll face the 'last' boss and then have
to do it all over again, but with completely different enemies. This time
the ninjas throw shurikens, the skeleton heads breath fire, and the samurai
just act like jerks. Surprisingly, though, the boss is just as easy as last
time, and the 16th stage is the last one. Pretty easy.
=RALLY KING= [R1]
Rally King......what can I say. It's a crappy NES racing game, they did an
excellent job at emulating all the awkward controls and annoyances from games
like Outrun, F-1, etc. It can be fun once you get the controls down, but the
first few times you play you will most likely get a little frustrated at the
interface.
Special Controls:
On the game over screen, press LEFT + START to continue.
Press A right before the number "2" comes up when the race starts, and you'll
get a start-up boost.
During the game, let go of A for a second, and then alternate left and right
to drift, which result in a speed boost.
On the title screen, hold UP-LEFT and then press select, and your car will
become invicible. Note: This REALLY takes the challenge out of the game,
so only use it if you're really fed up.
On the title screen, hold DOWN-LEFT and press select, and all the rival
cars in the races to come will disappear. With this code and the invici-
bility code, there's really no challenge left in the game.
On the title screen, press A, B, A, B. This will enable the stage select
code. If you press UP+SELECT after that, you'll go to Stage 2, LEFT+SELECT
will take you to Stage 3, and DOWN+SELECT will take you to Stage 4.
TIP #1: Drift. It's not really a requirement, as I've gotten 1st place in
races only drifting once or twice, but it can come and handy and is required
to complete the first  challenge. It will take some getting used to, but if
you've played any version of Mario Kart then it will most likely come easy to
you. Just take your finger off A for a second then put it back on, and move
left and right on the control pad to spin your car a little bit. If it's
working, you should see more and more white smoke come out. Keep in mind that
if you drift too far in one direction, you'll ruin your momentum and won't get
the power boost. This is why it's only good to drift on curves when your car
is already swerving, or on long straightaways.
TIP #2: Be really careful in this game, as there is no map to tell you when a
curve is coming -- all you have is a tiny little blinking icon at the top
which will give you a vague indication is to what the next curve will be like.
Often times there are hidden paths that you'll want to take instead, so
knowing the ins and outs of each course is imperative to doing well on them.
TIP #3: Just stay away from other cars, as even nudging them will do damage to
you. Most of them are pretty slow, so just ignore them.
TIP #4: There are two power-ups, and both of them look like ghost cars. The
first power-up has a little Pt icon, and will give you bonus points. Useless
unless you're trying to complete the point challenge, so don't waste time
going for it otherwise. THe other power-up, which is much rarer, has a heart
icon, and will refill your life to FULL! If you accidentally pass it up, it
may be a good idea to slow down and let it catch up to you so you can nab it,
because death occurs quite often in Rally King.
TIP #5: There are weird wavy circles that you'll encounter on each map, and
these are by far the most annoying obstacle, because if you run over them
they'll cause you to spin out. There are the black dots as well, but you can
go over them fine with minimal slow down, and you won't even take damage. Just
watch out for banging into walls and the spin-outs, which often results in you
crashing into other cars and taking more damage.
CHALLENGE #1: Drift twice.
Just start out the game, don't worry about winning or anything, you don't even
need to win the first race to complete this. It's all about getting used to
drifting, so look at my drifting tip up above and do your best to drift and
get two speed boosts, and you're done.
CHALLENGE #2: Clear Course 1.
Keep in mind you just have to clear it, it doesn't matter what place you get.
So just take your time and try not to die, watch the top icon closely so that
you know what kind of curve is coming up. Your time doesn't matter either, so
it's better not to gun it and be careful not to crash into walls. You have to
go around the entire course twice to clear it.
CHALLENGE #3: Get 5th Place or higher in Course 2.
A very annoying challenge, as it first requires you to not only clear Course
1, but get 5th or higher in Course 1 just so that you can go to Course 2. On
Course 1, I usually pass up the first 10 cars on average on the first lap, so
that will leave you with a lot of wiggle room on the second lap to allow you
to place and move on. Be careful, but by now you should be accustomed to the
course enough to know where the dangerous spots are. Course 2 is an entirely
different story, though, as it's a desert full of traps, annoying curves, and
just generally frustrating aspects. On your first try, just try to take note
of particularly hazardous spots so that you know how to get around them as
fast as possible. There are a lot of shortcuts in this level, and towards the
end it will open up and there will be three different paths for you to follow.
The easiest thing to do is stay to the left or the center path if you can. If
you place lower than five, it will allow you to try again. But if you get a
game over...you have to start back from Course 1.
CHALLENGE #4: Score 15,000 points.
Way easier than the last challenge, you probably won't even need to go to
Course 2 to complete this. The key to this challenge is to take the straight-
away shortcut in Course 1. It's around the middle area of the track where
there is a sharp right curve. Instead of curving right, just head forward,
and you'll see a panda face appear that will reward you with 10,000 points.
The rest of the points can be gained from the floating cars in the level. If
you need help finding the panda face, check the Game Fan magazines, as one
issue has a screenshot.
FINAL CHALLENGE: Clear the game.
Thankfully, there are only 4 courses in the game. The first two are pretty
much covered in the above challenges -- course 3 is the toughest one by far,
with tons of stuff for you to smack into, you'll be dying for life by the
time the second lap comes around. Just be careful, and remember that once
you pass a car as long as you're moving at a decent speed (you don't have to
be going super fast or even drifting) they won't pass you up. Course 3 is a
bit different from course 4, which only has a few surprises that should only
trick you once and is much easier to navigate. There really isn't much to this
game, it's pretty easy to finish in one playthrough.
=STAR PRINCE= [S]
This is the first of the super awesome games featured in GCCX that I would
have love to have owned when I was a kid. It's a shooter, but now you can move
around, get different power-ups, kill tons of crazy mechanical enemies, and
just have a great time. Get your trigger finger ready and dive in!
Special Controls:
WITHOUT THE TURBO CONTROLLER-
A: Fire.
Hold B: Shield.
WITH THE TURBO CONTROLLER-
A/B: Shield. (Hold either one)
Hold Y: Rapidfire.
On the game over screen, press LEFT + START to continue.
On the title screen, hold UP and then press A three times, then hold DOWN
and press B three times to become invincible for the entire game.
Powerups:
B: Gives you two additional lasers behind you.
P: Gives you two additional diagonal lasers.
M: Gives you missiles that explode in the air occasionally.
S: Best powerup IMO, it gives you two huge lasers that demolish anything in
front of you.
TIP #1: They added another depth of difficulty in this game in that the space
you can move is wider than the DS screen itself. This means that you'll have
to move horizontally every once in a while in order to find special power-ups
and the PRINCE letters in order to get the bonus points.
TIP #2: Don't be afraid to use the shield, especially in higher levels where
the sheer amount of bullets on the screen reaches Ikaruga-ish levels of
insanity.
TIP #3: Always go for the S powerup, it's the best one, and try to avoid the
others as they'll downgrade your weapon. You can shoot them instead and they
will act as bombs and give you points.
TIP #4: Sometimes it can be hard to figure out exactly what you're supposed to
shoot at on bosses and the like...so the best strategy is just to go nuts and
move left/right a lot.
TIP #5: You get special point bonuses for destroying whole sections of
machinery, so use that to your advantage when going for high scores.
CHALLENGE #1: Defeat the miniboss in Area 1.
This is very easy, as it doesn't even require you to make it through the
whole stage. The boss of Area 1 is a huge multi-armed flying robot, so just go
to town on it and rip it to pieces. The red brain in the center is how you
kill it, but just take out the laser cannons around it beforehand, because it
has quite a bit of health.
CHALLENGE #2: Find the 1up in Area 1.
This is more the game forcing you to look in the magazine than anything else.
You can either go through the level blasting up everything you see until you
find it, or just look in the Game Fan magazine you get right before this to
find a screenshot of the area in which the 1up is hidden. Whichever way you do
it, this is still pretty simple. After you complete this challenge, Arino will
present you with the turbo controller, and that's when things really heat up.
CHALLENGE #3: Beat the boss in Area 2.
With the turbo controller, you can hold Y for rapidfire, so things are much
easier to handle now. At the end of Area 1 there is a golden sort of
contraption, when you see it, get OUT of the center of the screen, as it will
summon one of its parts from below the screen, and this thing will smash into
you instantly and kill you. For the boss of Area 1, watch it for when it
charges up and releases its laser cannon. Area 2, much like the second course
in Rally King, is kind of desert-themed, but there aren't really any surprises
here, and the boss has no tricks to him.
CHALLENGE #4: Score 250000 points.
If you're good at blowing things up (which you should be by now) you probably
won't even have to go past Area 2 to get this one. Just destroy entire
sections of machinery to get point bonuses. One great place to do this is on
Area 1, where there are lines of those green orbs on the left and right sides
of the screen. Just alternate between sides with your gun and blow them to
bits, while dodging enemy fire when necessary. It shouldn't be too hard to
get your points up.
FINAL CHALLENGE: Clear the game.
Okay, time for you to go all out.
Area 1 -
If you're trying to beat the game without using codes (which is entirely
possible) then of course you're going to want to conserve lives on this easy
level. Use this one to practice your shield utilization techniques, because
you will need it later. If a ship hits your shield it will block the ship, but
you will also become vulnerable for a half-second, which is all the time a
laser needs to slide in and hit you, so take note of that. I recommend getting
the S power-up in this level, as it is easily accessible, and then just
shooting the rest of the power-ups to knock out enemies and get points.
Area 2 -
This one isn't hard at all, just watch out at the end when you're in space
and a bunch of enemies come and shoot lasers non-stop. This is the time to
hold your shield up. Your ship will absorb the lasers Ikaruga-style and
automatically launch a massive attack back at them. The boss is basically
the same as it w