Baraduke, stage 46 through the ending. Magweasel has an awesome writeup of this somewhat forgotten Namco arcade game, which was recently released (along with its sequel) on Virtual Console in Japan.

This game introduces KISSY, who is notable for being the mother of Mr. Driller’s Susumu Hori. Magweasel’s Kevin Gifford notes that KISSY and TAKKY were nicknames for the programmer and designer (I totally didn’t know that!)

If you don’t have access to a Japanese Wii or an arcade machine, the other legal way to get at Baraduke is on the PlayStation’s Namco Museum Vol. 5 disc, from back when Namco Museum was good. I never made much progress in this game — both because it’s hard and because I spend way more of my Namco Museum Vol. 5 time playing Metro-Cross. No idea why.

Gifford notes that the aesthetic, the orange suit, and the ending all evoke Metroid, which Nintendo released a year later. I’m not going to accuse Nintendo of anything, but I’m sure some inspiration happened there, which is neat.

tags / namco / baraduke / jc