Baraduke

Baraduke
Arcade flyer of Baraduke.
Arcade flyer
Developer(s) Namco
Dempa (Sharp X68000)
Publisher(s)
  • JP: Dempa (Sharp X68000)
Platform(s) Arcade, Sharp X68000, Wii (Virtual Console)
Release Arcade
  • JP: July 1985
Sharp X68000
  • JP: May 26, 1995
Wii Virtual Console
  • JP: October 13, 2009
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter
Mode(s) Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Cabinet Upright, cabaret, and cocktail
Arcade system Namco Pac-Land
CPU 1x Motorola M6809 @ 1.536 MHz,
1x Hitachi HD63701 @ 1.536 MHz
Sound 1x Namco WSG @ 1.536 MHz
Display Horizontal orientation, Raster, 288 x 224 resolution

Baraduke (バラデューク, Baradyūku), also known as Alien Sector, is a scrolling shooter arcade game originally released by Namco in 1985.

Gameplay

Arcade screenshot

The player takes control of a spacewoman in a biohazard suit, Player 1 is Kissy and Player 2 is Takky. They must clear eight worlds of increasing difficulty (each one is composed of five regular floors and one boss floor) by using their wave guns to destroy all the enemies populating them. They must also save the one-eyed Paccets for extra points and the chance to earn another shield in the end-of-floor bonus games.

On each floor there are a certain number of enemies known as Octy, which will leave power-up capsules behind when defeated. Defeating all the Octy on the current floor will open up a pipe at the bottom of the floor, and the player will have to find and enter it in order to proceed to the next one. The boss floors feature a giant enemy (a Blue Worm in Worlds 1, 3, 5 and 7, a Turning Eye in Worlds 2, 4 and 6, and the Octy King himself in World 8) who must be killed in order to proceed to the next world.

Release

Baraduke runs on Namco Pac-Land hardware, but with a video system like that used in Metro-Cross and Dragon Buster (modified to support vertical scrolling and a 2048-color palette). In 1995, ten years after its original arcade release, it was ported to the Sharp X68000, and was also included in the fifth volume of the Namco Museum series on the PlayStation.

Alikeness

The game's primary protagonist, Toby "Kissy" Masuyo is actually a female although her face is not revealed until she defeats the Octy King at the end. This predates by one year Samus Aran from Metroid as a human female playable character. In both games, gamers are led on to believe that the protagonist is a male when at the end of the game she is revealed to be a female.[1] This female reveal tactic is then used by Radoslav Akwuegbu for Sunsoft in his game The Wing of Madoola.[2]

Legacy

A sequel titled Bakutotsu Kijūtei was released in 1988, but only in Japan. It was the second game from the company to allow scores not ending in "0" (the first was Hopping Mappy, which was released in 1986).

In the Mr. Driller series of games, Kissy Masuyo is a supporting character under the name Toby Masuyo (they refer to "Kissy" as being her nickname). She has married and divorced Taizo Hori (better known as Dig Dug, the protagonist of the 1982 arcade game of the same name) and they have three children, Susumu Hori (who is the main character of Mr. Driller), Ataru Hori, and Taiyo Toby. Kissy is also a playable character in the Japan-only tactical role-playing video game Namco x Capcom, where she is teamed up with Hiromi Tengenji from Burning Force. Because of her divorce, she seems to have a grudge against Taizo Hori, who too appears in this game (a reference to the Mr. Driller series). Tron Bonne, from Capcom's Mega Man Legends game, mistakes her for a boy.

A Paccet (which is a small, round yellow alien with only one eye) appears in the background as a painting in Tales of Destiny. Elle Mel Marta's backpack in Tales of Xillia 2 is also a Paccet, with a small charm shaped like Kissy attached to it. Paccet makes a cameo in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as part of Pac-Man's Taunt, "Namco Roulette".

References

  1. ↑ "Hardcore Gaming 101: Baraduke". hg101.kontek.net. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
  2. ↑ "Female Protagonists (Concept) - Giant Bomb". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
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