Pistol Daimyo no Bōken
Pistol Daimyo no Bōken (ピストル大名の冒険, lit. "The Adventure of the Pistol Feudal Lord") is a horizontal scrolling shooter arcade game, which was released by Namco in 1990 only in Japan; it runs on Namco System 1 hardware, and was the last game from the company to have two players alternating turns at the controls except for the carbon copies of Pac-Man, Rally-X, Galaga, Dig Dug, Xevious and Mappy which were a part of the compilation arcade games Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 and 2. It is also spin-off of Bravoman, as the game's main character (who is the eponymous "Pistol Daimyo") first appeared in the eighth and twenty-second stages of that game as a boss who put up an invisible wall in front of himself.
| Pistol Daimyo no Bōken | |
|---|---|
 Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Composer(s) | Seiichi Sakurai Yoshie Takayanagi Shinji Hosoe |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Horizontal scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet | Upright, cabaret, and cocktail |
| Arcade system | Namco System 1 |
| CPU | 2x Motorola M6809 @ 2.048 MHz, 1x Motorola M6809 @ 1.536 MHz, 1x Hitachi HD63701 @ 1.536 MHz |
| Sound | 1x Yamaha YM2151 @ 3.57958 MHz, 1x Namco CUS30 @ 96 kHz, 1x DAC |
| Display | Horizontal orientation, Raster, 288 x 224 resolution |
Gameplay
As mentioned above, the player must take control of Pistol Daimyo, a small Japanese lord, who has a pistol strapped to his head (and two fans strapped to his feet); he faces to the right side of the screen, and is always moving forward with the backgrounds scrolling to the left, bringing enemies into view, which are very reminiscent of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Similar to Kissy, Takky, and Hommy from Baraduke and Bakutotsu Kijūtei, he will float down to the ground if you stop holding the joystick up while he is in mid-air - and pressing that Firing Button will make his pistol fire a small cannonball. However, holding down the button will charge the pistol (much like Alice's bubble blower in Märchen Maze, and Apollo's sword in Phelios), and upon releasing the button the pistol will fire a medium or large cannonball; but even the smallest enemies take multiple hits to kill, so the small cannonballs are of little use. There are also blue (and yellow) vases which can be broken open with a medium or large cannonball, and will leave Hanafuda 花札 (Hanafuda)) cards behind, for Pistol Daimyo to collect - and once he collects three of them, it shall cause a Kusudama くす玉 (Kusu-dama) ball to come down into view from the top of the screen (which can also be broken open with a medium or large cannonball). If he manages to do it before it goes back up off the top of the screen again, it shall leave a suit of wooden (or metal if he is already wearing the wooden one) armour behind; once he has put it on, it shall prevent him from getting killed after a single hit.
This game was never released in the United States, probably due to its slightly questionable content; when Pistol Daimyo gets killed after being hit without any armour, players have to watch him dance naked (using his fans to hide his shame), as he falls off the bottom of the screen. Also, at the end of the game, he is seen dancing fully clothed in front of a picture (which caricatures the game's staff) on a beach, and the bald person upon the extreme right of the picture is completely naked (but again, he is doing a dance in mid-air and positioned his right leg to hide his shame).[1]
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Pistol Daimyo no Bōken on their November 15, 1990 issue as being the third most-successful table arcade game of the year.[2]
References
- Pistol Daimyo no Bōken at MamEnd
- "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 392. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 November 1990. p. 25.