There is nothing that bugs me more when talking about video games, when people state that Wario-Ware invented the minigame collection. Ugh! Even Bishi Bashi didn’t invent it, but its one of the most dedicated games I can think of that first emerged. Bishi Bashi is quick, quirky and relentless. There isn’t time at all to think about any kind of context for the game you’re playing, screw cutscenes or even loading time, thats irrelevant bollocks, there is a game that needs playing.
A typical Bishi Bashi fan
Although perhaps now ’slow’ compared to the manic progression of Wario Ware, I see Bishi Bashi as its own thing. Unlike Wario Ware, where you often have to complete the game using one swift motion, each one of Bishi Bashi’s games has its own rules and mode of progression. Whilst games such as “Place finger in nose”, “Drop the trap at the right time to capture the animal” and “Balance broom on hand” in Wario Ware are all simply success and failure occurances, games in Bishi Bashi whilst quick, have a competivite progression to the structure of its design, which can be recognized and measured. In simpler terms, if you lose in Bishi Bashi, its never ‘unfair’, its just ‘unfortunate’.
All I hear for 6 hours in my brain after I play this game
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Personal favorites from Bishi Bashi for me include “Perm Disco Man” where you pull off totally gay dance moves to a cheesy synth, in order to impress the center-dude, and make your afro spontaniously expand until it fills the screen. As well as that, theres “Pull pixelly photorealistic fish out of a lake”, the faster the game gets, the faster they just fly in your face, it always gives me a chuckle. One more, “Jumping Girl”, you make a girl jump left and right, erratically. Not only that, she just looks monstrously happy as you continue to force her to dance, like a puppet. The concept of a complex human’s only purpose being that to jump left and right, and gain such a pure happiness from only that, its quite profound, and makes you truly realize how mondain and needless modern culture really is.
Next time you have an urge, to grab an expensive meal, or save for a new car or gadget; if you cant find love, or you’re staring death in the face… take advice from Konami. Jump left and right, continuously.
Theres a greater level of skill in Bishi Bashi’s quirky games. When it comes to playing Wario-ware or Bishi Bashi with my friends in the south, Bishi Bashi is the game that always triumphs. Now if only I could grab the imported sequels, we’ve been playing ’special’ for almost 10 years!
Buy Bishi Bashi Special now from the Playstation Store
Bishi Bashi Special (C) Konami
