BISHI BASHI SPECIAL (PS)
Picture the scene: you’re limbered up, all ready for a bit of button-mashing mayhem in an event that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Javelin in Konami’s celebrated Track & Field series. Except, a few of the key components may seem a little… different. How would things look, for example, if the developers were to switch the athlete in question with say, a bride? Okay, now swap the stadium for a church, the spectators with wedding guests and the javelin for a pie? If you’re still following after all that then congratulations! You’re one eighty-fifth the way to acquainting yourself with the lunacy that is Bishi Bashi Special.
Lunacy it may be, but Bishi Bashi Special is a truly marvellous, unique creation that everyone, even those with the merest passing interest in gaming, should indulge. It was (and highly likely, still is) the very best of the best when it comes to party games, expertly combining deadpan humour with instant accessibility and, more illusively, having the depth to drag you back time and again to better your scores. It’s a bumper pack, comprising of Super Bishi Bashi and Hyper Bishi Bashi compilations. This amounts not only to a truckload of mini-games, but a subtly different gameplay dynamic as the mostly play-alongside style of the former gives way to a more direct competitive multiplayer experience in the latter.
As the aforementioned Hyper Pie Throw contest so richly illustrates, BBS’s success lies in its ability to mix quirkiness, parody and quality across a frightfully large array of sub-genres. It’s all about directness and streamlined simplicity; it doesn’t even need a memory card as you can bomb through a 46-stage Marathon in one sitting, whilst razor-sharp controls and minimal loading times mean the games themselves, which typically last anywhere between three and sixty seconds each, are all geared towards those with short attention spans. It tests all of your gaming acumen, with many challenges requiring a degree of observation and reaction that’s largely absent from similar such titles. Whether it’s a case of spotting the difference in an identity parade, picking your way from one end of a jumbled alphabet to another, pogo-sticking high enough to grab a leg of meat, or firing speedo-clad 'Uncles' from a cannon onto a giant plate (yep), you can be forgiven for missing, amongst the sheer zaniness, the quality of it all.
It’s worth the price of admission for the Super Bishi Bashi section alone, as the out-of-ten grading for each discipline allows players an easy-to-understand method of gauging their performances, and whilst it can seem a little inconsistent on occasions, it’s an ingenious way of allowing the player a benchmark with which to improve – particularly as you’re given an overall total at the end. If the Marathon seems a bit strenuous, there’s the equally-lovely Time Trial to try at a more manageable eleven stages long, where shaving seconds off your total is the order of the day. Hyper Bishi Bashi instead keeps a running tally of wins for each player, showcasing more thematic ambition but also coming unstuck a few times with a marginally less consistent line-up. Either way, there’s a mountain of stuff in here and enough of a hook to most of the mini-games for you to want to perfect your performances across each individually.
BBS parodies very well, with some unerringly good skits on Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks games, and even a reimagining of arcade lightgunner Lethal Enforcers, with colour-coordinated auras popping up around enemies and innocents for the players to hit/avoid as appropriate. Many of the mini-games offer subtly different experiences, as button-mashers Burst the Balloon and Mechanical Pencil Basher (later tepidly aped in the Wario Ware games) set time and cumulative scores as the benchmark for success. Bishi Bashi Special also offers a good opportunity to become acquainted with X, O and Triangle buttons as they are appropriately assigned blue, red and green buttons. It’s an excellent template used effectively in a host of speed/reaction based mini-games, the best of which sees a bunny girl hopping across a sequence of colour-coded sharks. As you do.
Of course, not every vignette was going to hit the mark. Oh NO! It’s Gonna Explode is a simple, pass-the-parcel format (except with a bomb, naturally) that essentially requires that you don’t end up with said bomb as it detonates, but this gets dull pretty quickly. Shoot the Tank, which sees competitors blasting each other with missiles is a bit negative as it essentially reduces the amount of points achieved when damage is taken on either side, meaning that a really closely fought game will see both players scoring poorly. The odd tap-to-the-rhythm encounter can prove rather impenetrable and some letter-typing stages are a faff to do with a pad, but generally speaking, the fact so few of the eighty-five can be singled out negatively is testament to how good an overall package it is.
BBS parodies very well, with some unerringly good skits on Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks games, and even a reimagining of arcade lightgunner Lethal Enforcers, with colour-coordinated auras popping up around enemies and innocents for the players to hit/avoid as appropriate. Many of the mini-games offer subtly different experiences, as button-mashers Burst the Balloon and Mechanical Pencil Basher (later tepidly aped in the Wario Ware games) set time and cumulative scores as the benchmark for success. Bishi Bashi Special also offers a good opportunity to become acquainted with X, O and Triangle buttons as they are appropriately assigned blue, red and green buttons. It’s an excellent template used effectively in a host of speed/reaction based mini-games, the best of which sees a bunny girl hopping across a sequence of colour-coded sharks. As you do.
Of course, not every vignette was going to hit the mark. Oh NO! It’s Gonna Explode is a simple, pass-the-parcel format (except with a bomb, naturally) that essentially requires that you don’t end up with said bomb as it detonates, but this gets dull pretty quickly. Shoot the Tank, which sees competitors blasting each other with missiles is a bit negative as it essentially reduces the amount of points achieved when damage is taken on either side, meaning that a really closely fought game will see both players scoring poorly. The odd tap-to-the-rhythm encounter can prove rather impenetrable and some letter-typing stages are a faff to do with a pad, but generally speaking, the fact so few of the eighty-five can be singled out negatively is testament to how good an overall package it is.
In terms of its presentation, colourful, functional veneers inevitably take precedence over technology-pushing polygon effects. Whilst there’s the odd jaggy and some rather crude backdrops, it’s worth noting that it delivers a level of detail and variety that’s missing from similar such games, elements that go that bit further in endearing Bishi Bashi to the player. Achieve a huge feat of button-mashing on Shake the Can into Outer Space for instance and you’ll be treated to your rocket-style drink not only launching into space, but a comical animation of said Can wedging itself in the moon. It’s one amongst a litany of examples of Konami going the extra mile for our amusement, whilst the madcap Banzai!-esque announcers and marvellously catchy music all add to the charm.
And as a culmination of all of the above, Bishi Bashi Special comes to life when playing it with others. Teaming up for Marathons is endless fun, but there are also round robin/knockout options catering for up to eight competitors. The option to have a third player join in simultaneous play (something that’s now much simpler should you buy it from the PlayStation Network as you won’t need a multitap) is also a bonus. At the turn of the millennium, Bishi Bashi Special seemed the ideal way to waste an evening in a haze of uncomplicated fun, and almost fifteen years down the line, its remarkable, one-of-a-kind design holds up phenomenally well. Few games can count their lifespan in years, but it speaks volumes for Bishi Bashi’s appeal that, in a genre more typically populated by quick-fire, short-in-the-memory video games, that it's seconds-long events still live long in the memory nearly fifteen years on.
And as a culmination of all of the above, Bishi Bashi Special comes to life when playing it with others. Teaming up for Marathons is endless fun, but there are also round robin/knockout options catering for up to eight competitors. The option to have a third player join in simultaneous play (something that’s now much simpler should you buy it from the PlayStation Network as you won’t need a multitap) is also a bonus. At the turn of the millennium, Bishi Bashi Special seemed the ideal way to waste an evening in a haze of uncomplicated fun, and almost fifteen years down the line, its remarkable, one-of-a-kind design holds up phenomenally well. Few games can count their lifespan in years, but it speaks volumes for Bishi Bashi’s appeal that, in a genre more typically populated by quick-fire, short-in-the-memory video games, that it's seconds-long events still live long in the memory nearly fifteen years on.
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VERDICT
Visual: 6/10
Audio: 7/10 Gameplay: 9/10 Longevity: 9/10 OVERALL: 9/10 |