Aa Yakyū Jinsei Icchokusen
Aa Yakyū Jinsei Icchokusen (嗚呼! 野球人生一直線, lit. translation - The Baseball Life?)[2] is a Famicom/NES video game. The plot of the game involves playing the character of a rising young baseball star and turning him into a professional baseball player. During the course of the game, the player must brave the advantages and disadvantages of growing up and becoming a man as the temptations of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood threaten to undermine his ability to make money as a professional ball player.
[edit] Evolution of the Game Play
[edit] Childhood and adolescence
As the player advances in age and intellectual capacity, the system used to move a player evolves as the game progresses from early childhood to young adulthood. The game starts out with Rock-paper-scissors to provide an element of childhood diplomacy and the innocence of the elementary school years. Once the player graduates to high school and matures in his thinking, the childhood diplomacy is replaced by a power meter. The longer the player waits to hit the action button, the further he goes on the board. But if he waits too long, then he doesn't move at all and misses a turn.[3]
When transfering between elementary school and high school or between high school and the real world, the player must impress both his father and the head coach by doing interactive miniature games involving physical fitness exercises that are suitable for baseball. Weight and height play an important role in how successful the exercises turn out to be. If he passes, the self-esteem is boosted as the player either goes to a more prestigious high school or goes to the best minor league team. Should the player fail the athletic test, then his father will get angry - causing a decrease in self-esteem. The player also has to go to either a less prestigious high school or play for a second rate minor league team because of his performance at the miniature game.[4]
[edit] Adulthood
After the player graduates from high school, this method is replaced by a virtual batting screen. This is meant to represent real world baseball and if the player misses the ball when he is up to bat, the consequence involves losing a turn. When the baseball connects with the bat, the baseball lands on a number between 1 and 6 that is on a wall. The player automatically follows the direction and moves the player around a baseball field in the hopes of getting drafted in the end. Otherwise, the player must take a vacation and train to get drafted in the next round. In the end, after the player gets drafted, there is a mini-game to determine the player's starting annual salary. This can range between 200,000,000 yen and more than 1,000,000,000 yen depending on his timing at the mini-game and how his character performed in the "board game" segments. After the starting salary is determined, the player's avatar signs with the professional baseball team. The game ends with the newly minted pro baseball player looking up in the starry sky as part of the game's closing title. That is where his father showed him all the stars in the game's opening title.
[edit] Humiliation and the occult
If the player lands in a humiliation square, he gets his underwear placed on top of his head - making him lose 3 points in every statistic. During the game, the player can use the powers of the occult to either help him improve his stats or to hinder an opponent in many different ways.
[edit] Limitations
However, it is impossible for the player to become a father himself because the primary goal of the game is to become the number one draft choice of a professional baseball team. Also excluded from the game are the concepts of marriage, divorce, purchasing a house, and retirement. There are five stats to worry about in the game: weight (in kilograms); affected by eating food, height (in centimetres); affected by drinking milk, physical, intellectual, and self-esteem (face). It is only possible to make a male character due to the subject matter of the game. There is no possible way of making a female character using either normal methods or any form of cheating.
[edit] Gallery
The player is drafted near the end of the game for a 200,000,000 yen per year contract.
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Landing on a humiliation square got this player with his underwear placed on his head, resulting in a reduction in his physical, intellectual, and self-esteem statistics.
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A young man (the player) is looking up a skirt of a young woman who is unintentionally revealing her panties underneath her clothes.
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[edit] References
- ^ Release date. Game FAQs. Retrieved on 2008-04-29.
- ^ Japanese title. Geocities Japan. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
- ^ Game review #2. Geocities Japan. Retrieved on 2008-04-30.
- ^ Game Review #1. Moby Games. Retrieved on 2008-04-29.
[edit] External links
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