D.J. Tatsujin of GemuBaka

THESE ARE TWO HUN-
GRY DINO-MIGHTS
AND THEY’VE GOT
BUBBLE FIGHT’N
FUN DOWN TIGHT.

Four weekends, four arcades!

I've been doing a lot of traveling before the kids go back to school and it's one of the busier times of the year at work for me, but I've recorded footage of arcade gameplay on a variety of games ranging from the brand new to games released in the 1990s.

This week hasn't given me a lot of time to turn these videos around, but I was able to trim out a game from a live stream I did Saturday night at Galloping Ghost Arcade. This is a Taito game called Monkey Mole Panic, which is a video version of the classic games where players use some form of a mallet to strike poor animals that pop up from the machine.

Monkey Mole Panic uses a unique cabinet design with a yellow housing and nine buttons spread out in a three-by-three pattern. This game is obviously geared toward younger players, but what is very interesting is that Taito uses this cabinet design in its very-not-for-younger-players game The First Funky Fighter (pictured at the top of the chost).

T.F.F.F. was also played on this live stream, and this title tasks players to madly mash the cabinet's buttons to punch out enemies on land and slash them with a knife while underwater. When a shark boss attacks you, your solution, if you succeed, is to grab it by its mouth and rip it in half.

I was familiar first with T.F.F.F., so that's why it's so humorous to me that Monkey Mole Panic flips this in the opposite direction and gives players an opportunity to tackle an easier mission filled with cartoony animals in a bid to win redemption tickets. This game has two routes - facing off against troublesome moles or mischievous monkeys. There are a few subtle differences in the routes, but each mode is largely the same - alternate between two basic rounds and two special rounds in an attempt to reach the target score. If you succeed, a bonus game awaits you at the end, asking you to mash out buttons in the same fashion used to utterly destroy the bosses in T.F.F.F.

When you finish the game, you are ranked from 1-5 in four different categories. My favorite thing about this is, if you achieve a perfect 20-point rating, the game declares you have earned the "BEST CONDITION!"

This is just one of those goofy little games that puts a smile on your face, and I still laugh a little thinking about that bear trying to do chin-ups over a bar.