GameCenter CX

After 13 hours of playing, Arino died mere inches from the flag at level 8-2. Exhausted and depressed our intrepid host threw in the towel. Revenge shall be had in this special episode of Game Center CX! Meanwhile, Arino and the staff visit a variety of hot spring resorts to learn more about the retro game centers that can be found there.

Arino starts the journey at Tonekko no Yu, an indoor hot spring center in Monbetsu-cho. He steps into the game center, where the "Money Exchanger" sign is bigger than the actual "Game Corner" sign. Consider it all too telling: as soon as he steps in, Arino’s surprised by the small size of the place compared to the rest of the building. And there are more prize and pachislo machines than video games.

In the first episode of Game Center CX, Arino visits Taito to learn it's history and play one of it's most difficult and cruel games Takeshi no Chousenjou. Upon first entering Taito he marvels at the Space Invaders machine. Tomohiro Nishikado, the creator of Space Invaders comes and discusses with Arino the history and impact of the game and they challenge one another to a game. After this Arino meets Akira Saito to discuss the Densha de GO! series. As the tour continues he finds out nobody from the original development team of Takeshi no Chousenjou is left so he meets Tetsuo Egawa instead to discuss it. To find out more about the legendary game he talks to Kazuhiro Hayashi who presents Arino with guidebooks for the game. Finally we see Arino tackle Takeshi no Chousenjou which includes various hilarious snippits of him getting frustrated at the game's bizarre challenges such as singing karaoke, and waiting one hour without pushing anything.

Arino visits the headquarters of Koei to speak with the two men behind the Dynasty Warriors and Nobunaga’s Ambition series of games. He then speaks to a PR representative about another of their popular series, Angelique before taking on the latest addition to the dating sim series, Angelique Trois. It's quite a change of pace from Arino's last challenge but that may work against him as he relaxes and opens his heart to his many suitors. Contains interviews with Kou Shibusawa, Takazumi Tomoike, and Tomomi Matsushita.

Arino enters the Capcom building in Osaka and meets his first interviewee: Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man and Onimusha, among others. Then he interviews Hiroyuki Kobayash and Atsushi Inaba. Lastly, Arino takes a seat in the Fuji Multi-Theater for some extra-special playtime with Tekki (Steel Battalion).

Arino faces the challenging platformer for the NES, Atlantis no Nazo. Will Arino get the hang of its difficult controls and unforgiving level design? We follow Arino on the first ever arcade trip (TamaGe) to the roof of a department store where he plays a number of classic prize games before being introduced to his newest assistant director. Arino then conducts an interview with Game Republic founder and the creator of a number of classic Capcom games, Yoshiki Okamoto.

Arino challenges "Challenger" for Famicom (1986). In a game that often changes the gameplay style, can he prevail? Meanwhile, he continues his search for the legendary sit-down arcade cabinet, Hang-On.

Arino tackles one of the scariest games of them all, Ghouls 'N Ghosts! At least it's not all doom and gloom as Arino continues his visit to the TRY Amusement Arcade. After encountering one of the more brutal game over screens Arino manages to recover to play a boat load of classic games but he still pines to get a chance at Xevious. Arino then speaks to one of the most revered game creators of all time, Sega's Yu Suzuki. They speak about a number of his cherished creations and even have a bout in Championship Boxing.

Season 3 opens with Arino being officially "promoted" to Kacho Dairi (Deputy Section Chief). The first challenge of the season is Hudson’s Kato-chan & Ken-chan, for the PC-Engine. A quirky platformer starring a Japanese comedy duo, the game was localized overseas as JJ & Jeff.

Arino's body is pushed to its limit as he challenges the power pad game, Attack! Takeshi's Castle Showdown. Based on the hit TV series of the same name, it stars the maniacal Beat Takeshi, who you may remember as the star of the eponymous, Takeshi's Challenge. To take a break, Arino visits a lovely convenience store in Odawara containing a number of addicting prize games. There is one prize game in particular that catches Arino's fancy and before he even has a chance to buy some candy, might end up bankrupting him. Arino continues his quest for glory in Ring Ring Tactics by trying to solve the mystery of the vanishing battle screen.

To celebrate his recent engagement Arino is tasked with beating the dating sim, Tokimeki Memorial. The staff hope that his gameplay will instruct lovelorn viewers in how to succeed in the art of love. Even after being presented with the strategy guide Arino boldly declares that he won't be needing it as he embarks on his quest to win the heart of Fujisaki Shiori.

In this Season 4 opener, Arino challenges Ultraman for the Super Famicom! Having been promoted to Kacho, Arino sports a new blue suit and a cockier attitude.

A new season brings a new genre to the table with the beat 'em up classic, Final Fight. Hopefully Arino can take back Metro City from the evil gangs which now control it. An amusement park dating back to 1850 might seem dangerous but not for the Game Center CX crew and not for TamaGe! The staff enjoy a number of the amusement rides before closing out with some regular arcade gaming. To slow things down a bit enjoy a Xevious request in Secret Trick Jet Stream. Project: DVD is a short little segment where Arino and a few of the staff discuss what challenges should be included in the first Game Center CX DVD box set. The first challenge to make the cut was an early classic for both fans and the staff.

There won't be any Takahashi Meijin appearance to save Arino during his challenge of another Hudson classic, Adventure Island. Will the ADs be a suitable replacement for this brutally difficult game? An arcade with the unusual title of Amusement VIKING is the venue for this week's TamaGe. Things become even more unusual when Arino exhibits actual skill when taking on a prize machine before moving on to play some of the rare VS. Super Mario Bros. For Secret Trick Jet Stream Arino receives a request for an Ice Climber glitch. In Project: DVD the staff continue their discussion over what challenges deserve to make it onto the set. The challenge that they finally settle on was one of the longest in the show's short history.

Six months later, everyone’s favorite section chief arrives back on the scene. Due to Arino’s family commitments, season 5 is only a scant six episodes long, but it promises to be as entertaining as ever. His first challenge Umihara Kawase is a unique game, but his new AD Inoue might be more unique than the game itself.

Arino challenges Konami's classic action game, and he doen't even use the Konami Code! AD Inoue a.k.a. Inoko MAX tries to aid Arino after his previous blunder.

Arino challenges Bonanza Bros, a Mega Drive game about burglarizing buildings and hiding from the cops.

It's Arino's first fighting game challenge! Arino tries to clear the game but first he must find which of Street Fighter's iconic brawlers suits him best.

Arino has tried out many difficult games throughout the show, but his first Castlevania game Castlevania III, is probably not the best to try out first.

Ultra Seven is the sequel to Ultraman, the game that opened season 4! And from the look of the game, it seems Arino’s in for yet another kaiju-driven hellride.

Two years ago Arino challenged Rockman 2, and though he got incredibly far, he just couldn’t quite get to that ending screen. But now he faces the original Rockman, arguably the toughest of the 8-bit originals.

Arino explores another forgotten Japanese action game: Namco’s Wagyan Land. Though clearly this is a game for little kids — it looks cute and colorful, and the boss "fights" are just memory and word games. This surely will be a cinch for Arino...

A month’s rest leaves Arino ready and willing to finish the game he had to give up; Kai No Bouken.

It was just a few months ago when Arino defeated the French classic Another World, and now he’s ready to take on another European classic, Flashback: The Quest for Identity. Flashback looks and plays very similarly, but with a greater emphasis on puzzle solving… and firepower.

Arino takes on "Bikkuriman World", a port of Wonder Boy in Monster Land on the PC Engine with characters from the Bikkuriman sticker franchise featured in the game.

Aired while Arino Kachou was hospitalized. Arino and the staff head to the Cannes Film Festival in hopes of selling the show overseas.

Arino was hospitalized after he discovered an abcess on his lung. Returning to work for the first time, Kibe "interrogates" the Kachou. Afterwords Arino enters "recovery mode". The staff decides it would be cruel to subject him to a usual challenge so soon. So Arino casually plays Super Mario Bros, and ends the episode playing Dr. Mario's VS mode with AD Nakayama.

In the first episode of the new season, Arino tackles a game based on one of his favorite comic book series, Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo is known for it's brutal challenge, can he clear it? He has the support of this season's A.D. Nakayama! Nakayama returns to the show for another season to help out Arino.

Data East’s Chelnov was part platformer, part shoot-em-up: the hero, Chelnov, always runs forward. And while he can stop, the screen always scrolls forward anyway. Even as he looks at the screenshots on the back of the box, he knows this is going to be a hard one.

Arino must assemble a team in hopes of defeating Yuuyu no Quiz de GO! GO!. Yuuyu is the nickname of Yukiko Iwai, a teen idol from the ’80s and early ’90s who was part of the musical group Onyanko Club and the host of the show this game is based upon.

The Game Center CX staff head to Fukuoka, the hometown of Cameraman Abe, Urukawa, and Inoko MAX, to promote GCCX's second DS game and meet fans. Along the way Arino visits two game centers with the staff.

LayLa must rescue her partner from the enemy base through eight stages that Arino has to get through.

Hoshi no Kirby: Yume no Izumi no Monogatari, the bigger, bolder sequel to the original Hoshi no Kirby 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.

Arino returns to his post, and for the start of the twelfth season, he’s playing Dragon Buster, Namco’s Famicom port of their arcade game. Arino must take the brave young hero through 12 worlds ("Rounds"), each dotted with dungeons, which are filled with monsters of all kinds.

For this episode, Arino takes on an original Famicom "classic," Vic Tokai’s Kakefu-kun no Jump Tengoku Speed Jigoku, which came out internationally as "Kid Kool." Kakefu-kun was a real-life kid celebrity, and his game looks like a regular platformer, with seven worlds to complete.

Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren (Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer) is a "roguelike" dungeon crawler, where death is swift and frequent.

Arino’s tasked with conquering Golgo 13 for Famicom, better known to English-speaking countries as Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode for NES. And coincidentally enough, it has 13 arduous stages for the kacho to try to get through as he assumes the role of the manga super spy for the first episode of the 13th season.

Arino challenges Super Puyo Puyo on the hardest difficulty, but it may prove to be to difficult even for the self proclaimed puzzle kacho.

Koshien takes its name after Koshien Stadium, the regular home of Japan’s National High School Baseball Championship. All Arino has to do is complete the tournament in the game, a six-team gauntlet. For the occasion, AP Ishida will be keeping score, and AD Katayama follows by giving Arino a baseball cap.

Today’s challenge, Paris-Dakar Rally Special, is considered a bad one. It’s low-quality all-around, from a Famicom-era publisher (CBS Sony) that was never known for quality in the first place. It’s a racing game, of course — taking place in the real-life Paris-Dakar Rally — but calling it a racing game is not entirely accurate. You’ll see.

Jerry is turned into a slime by an evil magician who also goes ahead and steals the princess. For Arino, this means he must complete all eight worlds in this cute platformer before midnight.

Arino takes on one of the greatest games ever made, and luck may be on his side.

The game that opens this new season is Sunsoft’s Gimmick! This platformer came at the peak of the Famicom’s life, and is a fantastic production both visually and musically. And though it may look cute and possess only six stages, it’s designed for platforming pros; a nice send-off for a system that more or less made the genre.

In his early 20's Arino played F-Zero on SNES more times than he can remember, because of this Arino must clear all of the original F-Zero's courses on Expert difficulty.

Arino's F-Zero challenge has been lowered from Expert to Standard difficulty, but even so it proves to be quite a hurdle.

Arino goes HIYA! in the first installment of the Super Chinese series on the Famicom.

Dynamite Heady is the strange hero of one of Mega Drive's finest, and hardest, platformers.

Arino continues his struggle with the detachable hero, Dynamite Headdy.

Season 17 is a special season, the 10th anniversary season! In the first episode of this special season, Arino plays his first Disney game, the Capcom-made Magical Quest for the SNES.