GameCenter CX Episode Rating Graph

In what is a first for the show Arino's challenge of Donkey Kong Country 2 was stretched into a third day. With only the last world standing between Arino and victory he'll be praying that this challenge won't throw up any more surprises than it already has. For this week's TamaGe Arino is tipped off about a miraculous toy store. First up Arino plays a class beat-em-up before speaking to the owner in order to discover the true nature of the miracle of which the postcard spoke. Arino will have to deal with a special guest who's quick on the draw if he hopes to guess the game in Famicom Sniper. This Project: Game Version 3 segment brings us what will undoubtedly be the first of many production meetings to discuss ideas for the third Retro Game Challenge title.

Arino once again heads for the sky in this live episode, seeking to clear the expert mode of Pilotwings.

Arino takes on Donkey Kong Country. Though he finds the game fun and grows fond of it, it's brutal difficulty and limited save system may be to much for him to handle.

To Arino's surprise, former ADs Tojima, Sasano and AD Urakawa appear before him.

Arino refuses to give up, He will not stop until he knows he's given it his all.

Previously bested by Super Mario Bros 2 (SMB: The Lost Levels), Arino vows revenge. Staff involved in the Pokemon games are interviewed.

Kirby Bowl (Kirby’s Dream Course) isn’t a regular Kirby game — it’s a crazy hybrid of mini-golf and elements of pool, with Kirby being the ball, and needing to get through the tricky courses by destroying all the enemies and dropping into the hole at the end.

Arino challenges the classic Famicom game Super Mario Bros. But will he be prepared for the horror of The Lost Levels?!

The classic Famicom Sci-Fi. Will Arino be able to unlock the rumoured secret ending?

After starting his Donkey Kong Country 2 challenge brimming with confidence Arino was quickly brought back to earth in the way only Rare games know how to do. With some 'words of encouragement' given by AD Matsui this is a quest Arino feels he must complete. A short GCCX News segment brings us to a press conference where a number of exciting announcements were made regarding the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the show. The size of Arino's ice cream is directly proportional to the size of the announcement so you know today's ice cream break is going to bring big news. Two suspicious fellows exchange a white package in the middle of a busy intersection but it's not the plot of a crime thriller, it's Famicom Sniper.

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

Arino takes on SEGA's original mascot game, Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the SEGA Master System.

Part 2 of the Battletoads challenge, Arino continues to struggle through the brutal difficulty of the game, but the fun factor seems to override the frustration factor.

Arino’s challenge this time is Hiryu no Ken for Famicom, a simple action game from the company that would become Culture Brain. You play as a young man named Ryuhi, martial arts master trying to recapture the secret scrolls of the Hiryu-no-Ken. The game alternates between platformer stages and one-on-one tournament battles, and Arino must finish the world tournament at the end of the game to win.

Arino takes on a Mega Drive game, and it’s another well-regarded title: Strider, Sega’s port of the Capcom arcade game. It’s a relatively short game — just five stages — and not as brutal as, say, Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts, but it still has its moments.

Battle Formula is hard, rare and expensive, making Arino even more nervous making sure he beats this hefty investment.

Arino recently played through the detective adventure Okhotsk ni Kiyu, and now he tackles another adventure, though this one is almost pure story: Kamaitachi no Yoru, Chun Soft’s Super Famicom visual novel.

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.

At 10:00 A.M. on August 29th, 2009 Arino embarked on his second live challenge. With a time limit of 24 hours he will try to clear Lemmings on the "Taxing" difficulty level. This episode recaps the 24 hour special with some additional behind-the-scenes moments.

Arino couldn't beat half of Donkey Kong Country before he ran out of time in the last episode.

First Samurai is a platform game published by Kemco, but originally made by Europeans on Amiga. While it’s not particularly great, and only five stages long, the hope, as always, is that it will give Arino a good challenge.

Satoshi Tajiri, head of Game Freak and creator of the Pokemon series idolized Namco, and in the mid-’80s he and Ken Sugimori created their own Famicom game, Quinty, and managed to sell it to Namco. And at the end of season 8, Quinty becomes Arino’s next challenge.

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.

50th Episode Special. In celebration of the 50th episode of of the show, Arino is leaving home and heading to South Korea! There he heads to many of South Korea's arcades, and interviews some of South Korea's pro gamers.

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...

With two losses in a row under his belt, Arino is convinced he lost because those two games were 16-bit games. What he doesn't realize though, is that his next challenge Adventure Island, is quite possibly one of the hardest games ever made.

Having lost in both Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Lost Levels, Arino tries to clear Super Mario World and finally gain a victory in the Mario Series.

To the shock of the staff of Game Center CX, Arino announced that he's getting married. Expecting to play Famicom Jump. AD Urakawa interrupts him and instead hands him the dating simulator Tokimeki Memorial, suggesting that the love adventure may help Arino teach young men a thing or two about real-life romancing techniques.

Konami’s all-star action platformer is the challenge this time. Konami Man and Konami Lady must rescue six of Konami’s heroes in their own game worlds. This time, Arino has the strategy guide right off the bat — two of them, in fact, thanks to the staff.

Doki Doki Panic (released in the west as Super Mario Brothers 2) is a welcome return to platforming for Arino, but proves to pack more of a punch than he is prepared for. Can our intrepid hero pull through and defeat the evil Frog King Wart? Fan support continues to pour in during Arino's journey through Super Monkey Adventures in the Ring Ring Tactics segment.

Arino is given three challenges, but can he clear a single one?! Features Yamaoka Akira (Silent Hill).

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 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.

Arino takes on the unique Western Side scroller Battletoads. Known in the west for both it's unique gameplay, and it's difficulty, Arino finds himself doing something he hasn't done in a while on the show...

Arino interviews the creators of Space Invaders and Densha de Go! at Taito. Back at HQ, he challenges the legendary crap-game, Takeshi's Challenge for Famicom. Unforgiving controls, bad karaoke, and much waiting and doing nothing!

After three consecutive losses, Arino is told that if he loses one more time, he'll lose the title of Kacho and be demoted.

"Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru" is a ninja Famicom game from Capcom. However, it was released outside Japan and heavily reworked into the NES game Yo! Noid.

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.

Daisuke Nagashima, the shows former producer, reappears before Arino. Like the Arinos, he had a baby girl and so he looks to the Kacho for advice on how to raise a child. In Arino's 3rd PS1 challenge he takes on Quiz My Angel which is both a quiz game, and a simulation game in which you raise a daughter to adulthood.

The game that AD Nakayama wanted Arino to try finally makes an appearance! Fatal Fury Special in addition to being one of Nakayama's favorite games, is Arino's second fighting game challenge. During the challenge Nakayama announces that this episode will be his last.

In celebration of the 150th episode of the show, Arino tries out his 4th PS1 challenge, Parappa the Rapper. It is the first music game to be challenged in the show. However in order to master a game about rap, he must become a rapper.

Arino interviews Inafune Keiji (Mega Man), Kobayashi Hiroyuki (Resident Evil), Inaba Atsushi (Viewtiful Joe), and challenges the Xbox mecha game Steel Battalion in a theatre.

Arino's first adventure game challenge. As the valiant Sir Cucumber, Arino must rescue Princess Tomato and stop the evil Minister Pumpkin.

Mere seconds after the brutal Mighty Bomb Jack challenge, Arino gets up to leave, but is called to sit back down. He’s handed Red Arremer II (known in the west as Gargoyle's Quest II) for the next challenge. Arino finally gets to play as his enemy the Red Arremer, but in an almost ironic twist, this Arremer moves nothing like his old foe.

The final challenge of this season is on-location, but rather than a fancy hotel, this time it’s at the headquarters of Bandai Namco Games! Today’s game: Namco’s Kai no Bouken! The second sequel to The Tower of Druaga; a side-scrolling platformer starring the princess Ki, whose magical powers let her float up through the tower.

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

Part 2 of the Ninja Gaiden II challenge. Arino continues to fight his way through the brutal game. In order to help him, Tojima returns with multiple AD's from past and present at his side. It will take the all of their combined power to finally put an end to Jaquio.

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’s challenge for this episode: GeGeGe no Kitaro: Fukkatsu! Tenma Daioh (Resurrection of the King of Demons) for the Super Famicom, the third Kitaro game and a pretty standard platformer. Arino must get through all 19 stages before seeing the ending; no small number for him.

From the creator of Dragon Quest, comes this adventure game. As a detective you must find out who is behind a series of murders in Hokkaido and stop them.

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 challenged the original Star Force way back in season 1, and Super Star Force would make the second ever shooting game featured in full on the show.

Arino takes on Sega's unique comic book styled beat-em up.

This time Arino tackles Bio Miracle: Bokutte Upa, a Konami Disk System game that was often pirated and sold as "Baby Mario.

Four years after tackling the original Ninja Ryukenden (Ninja Gaiden), our hero is forced to endure that game’s sequel: Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos.

Arino challenges this unique sports game based off the Japanese game show Fuuun! Takeshi Jou (Takeshi's Castle) using a Family Trainer Mat. The player must compete in all of the show’s trademark events before reaching the end, where they face off against Beat Takeshi himself.

Arino begins his last challenge: Youkai Dochuuki (a.k.a. Shadowland), the PC Engine version of a Namco arcade game starring Tarosuke, a boy trying to make it through a land full of demons.

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.

In this episode, Arino returns to another classic NES game. This time it’s the fan-favorite Tecmo game Ninja Gaiden. With a victory here, he can bring his record for the season to a tie, but the Ninja Gaiden series is considered one of the hardest game series ever made. After some time Arino comes to the realization that it may be the hardest game he's ever played in his life...

Arino challenges the third and final game in the GnG series. With only 5 continues, he must defeat the forces of hell and rescue Arthur's beloved.

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

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.

Unsurprisingly, Fushigi no Dungeon 2 left Arino beaten and bruised beyond recognition last time. His attempt to get through all 30 "floors" of the game’s dungeons fell pretty short of that number. It was a learning process the entire way, as Arino’s mistakeshd grave consequences — having to start all over with nothing.

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