Valiant Something Awful members have translated, subtitled, and posted the recent two-hour Game Center CX special in which Arino and his crew visit California. You can see the episode in the YouTube video above, or download it here when the video is inevitably pulled.

In this episode, we see Arino play vintage games at the Musee Mecanique, irritate a serious Skee-Ball player, and compare the owner of a suburban game shop to a tired Mario. There are also appearances by Ray Barnholt and Attract Mode’s Adam Robezzoli! So awesome.

The challenge this time is Data East’s Robocop game for NES, which looks really, really bad.

Buy: Retro Game Challenge

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

[Via GameSetWatch]

tags / game center cx / gaming / jc / retro game master / shinya arino

I’m late posting this, but I still think every time a new episode of Kotaku’s localization of Game Center CX runs, it’s a momentous enough occasion to tell you about. So!

This week, it’s season 5, episode 3, in which Arino challenges Bonanza Bros, a Mega Drive game about burglarizing buildings and hiding from the cops, starring two guys whose toys I would get constantly from capsule machines in Shenmue. The episode is up right now, so enjoy!

Buy: Retro Game Challenge

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

tags / retro game master / jc / game center cx

Sometime around Thursday at 8PM EST, depending on whether or not the Viddler servers are up, Kotaku will “premiere” its next episode of the localized Game Center CX. This week’s Retro Game Master is Season 8’s Super Fantasy Zone challenge, in which Arino attempts the Mega Drive’s Defender-style cute-em-up.

You can see a trailer on Kotaku — sadly, I couldn’t figure out a way to embed it here, so my ability to advertise for their show is impaired. (Ahem.) And if you’d like to play along, Super Fantasy Zone is out on Virtual Console.

Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($12.81!)

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

tags / retro game master / jc / game center cx / kotaku / jc

Despite some initial technical difficulties with the video stream, Kotaku has posted the first U.S. episode of Game Center CX/Retro Game Master — well, it’s actually the ninth episode from the Japanese show’s fourth season, but no matter, it’s subtitled and released!

I didn’t see if the video includes some of the show’s tangential bits (the Japanese airing included a trip to an arcade in Ebisu), but I can see why Kotaku would cut those scenes, as they don’t relate to Arino’s game challenge, which this time is beating Ninja Gaiden.

Anyway, you can stream the episode for free here so long as you’re in U.S. Sorry, Europe/Canada. :o(

Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($13.58!)

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

tags / game center cx / retro game master / retro game challenge / kotaku / gaming / ec / ninja gaiden

Despite early reports that the show would be dubbed — and that it would be the first season — a new preview on Kotaku reveals that the first episode of the website’s English-language run of Game Center CX will be subtitled when it “airs” tomorrow, mostly. In the trailer, a new English voiceover provides narration, while star Shinya Arino is subtitled. Good news, since his jokes and increasing exasperation are, like, the whole show.

The episode shown in the trailer also isn’t the first episode from the Japanese run at all — it’s season four, episode nine, in which Arino takes on Ninja Gaiden. So Kotaku didn’t just license the first season of the show after all. I guess it’ll be a sort of “best of.” Too bad for people trying to keep up with all the assistant directors!

Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($13.99!)

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: More Game Center CX posts

tags / game center cx / retro game master / jc / kotaku

To ring in the New Year, Game Center CX is holding a 12-hour live show that Google Translate tells me is “the collaboration of miracles”!

So far, the show has featured an acoustic performance of the theme song from The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (unfortunately the original performance is offline) and a Japanese punk version of “Camptown Races”, so I’m inclined to believe that translation is sound.

I believe the show began four hours ago, but it’s still entertaining to watch whenever you jump in. Ray Barnholt (of course) posted a link to a Japanese live stream, so you, too, can celebrate the last day of 2010 with Arino!

Buy: Retro Game Challenge ($13.99!)

Import: Game Center CX 2

See also: Lots of Game Center CX posts

[Via @rdb_aaa]

tags / game center cx / retro game challenge / retro game master / live stream / new years / ec

I’ve mentioned before that you can buy the same Duo Rest Chair model featured in episodes of Game Center CX (if you have $559+ to blow), but you can now acquire the actual chair that GCCX section chief Shinya Arino sits on when filming the retro video game show!

SKY PerfecTV is auctioning off the autographed office chair for charity, sending all the proceeds to Japan’s UNESCO association. The auction ends in five days, and the current highest bid is at ¥12,000, $142.

Now you, too, can play classic games in your office while enjoying maximum comfort in a teal chair. And after you finally defeat Bowser in Super Mario World following dozens of failed attempts that leave you with only one life left, when you lean back and throw your arms up in victory, know that it wasn’t just a chair supporting you during this trial, it was Arino’s spirit that empowered you.

Who knows what strange powers might still be imbued in the seat, and whether it’s capable of passing on that arcane force from Arino’s butt to yours?

Import: Game Center CX 2

Buy: Retro Game Challenge

[Via rdb_aaa]

tags / auctions / shinya arino / game center cx / retro game challenge / retro game master / imports / ec

On the official Game Center CX: Arino no Chousenjou 2 homepage, Bandai Namco has announced a contest in which lucky winners will “appear” as extras in the detective game-within-a-game Chief Arino is a Great Detective. These two new screenshots are included on the page. Here’s an artist’s rendering of the contest winner. (…)

Entry is probably restricted to Japan, but just for the hell of it, you can enter by sending a postcard to Fuji TV containing the following information:

• Your name, in four hiragana or katakana characters
• A one-word response to the question (delivered in-game by Arino) “Excuse me, do you like games?”
• Your full name
• Gender
• Postal code address
• Your profession

In other GCCX news, Gamespot has new screens of the localized Retro Game Challenge.

tags / game center cx / bandai namco / game center cx 2 / retro game master / jc