story | gameplay | my thoughts |
level structure | controls | options
BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise
Players ..... 1
Genre ....... platform
Subgenre .... n/a
Platform .... Game Boy (1990)
STORY:"In this high skill action adventure game, Mr. Chin is in hot pusuit of his favorite treat. He has come all the way from China to eat as many luscious gourmet peaches as he can before anyone else discovers how to eat this unique treat. As Mr. Chin, you must pursue the mysterious Momos and zap them into peaches with your demoe beam. So hurry up and run, jump, zap and eat as many peaches as you can before they make dinner out of you!"
GAMEPLAY:
In Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise, your goal is to eat every enemy on the screen. By doing so, you advance to a new, more difficult stage, where you are once again tasked with eating all the enemies. And so on.
In order to eat an enemy, you must first make it safe to touch. To do so, you must trap it between two fryers*. You can set 1 fryer down with the B button; if you set a 2nd fryer down on the same horizontal plane as another, they will immediately zap anything that lays between them. If an enemy is zapped, it turns into a walking white peach. Touch it to eat it.
Only 4 enemies can appear on-screen at any given time, including edible enemies. However, a stage may require you to defeat more than 4 before moving onto the next stage. In such a case, when you eat an enemy, the next 1 spawns from the top of the screen.
Each stage is strongly reminiscent of a stage from the classic Mario Bros. arcade game, with a few Super Mario Bros. elements thrown in. Stages are composed of multiple, thin platforms upon which you and the enemies walk. These platforms are composed of bricks which you can destroy by jumping up repeatedly into them. Occasionally, power-ups are revealed within bricks. They are as follows:
- bomb ... turns all on-screen enemies into edible peaches (most common)
- flan ... grants Mr. Chin the ability to fly by repeatedly pressing the A button (2nd least common)
- sushi ... grants Mr. Chin temporary invincibility (2nd most common)
- Mr. Chin head ... extra life (least common)
For the first 8 stages, platforms have dashed holes which only Mr. Chin can drop through. After beating the 8th stage and being sent again to the 1st stage, enemies will begin dropping through these holes, as well.
There is a bonus round every 2 stages. These seem to serve no particular purpose other than giving you a chance to earn points (counted as KCAL). Points do not appear to do anything.
Game play appears to be endless. Each stage gets progressively harder for at least the first 16 stages (enemies start dropping through holes they couldn't before, and more enemies spawn). After a while it just repeats.
*The fryers actually look like half a head of lettuce, and act like bug zappers. The game doesn't give them a name. I'm calling them fryers, cuz why not?
THOUGHTS:
The game has an old, arcade-y kind of feel and simplicity to it. I played it for several hours in one go while hiding in my hotel room from the Nevada heat. I found it very relaxing and kind of interesting, in that 'window into the past' sort of way.
Objectively, I will say that this is not a very good game. The gameplay is far too repetitive, and I mean that as literally as possible. After a few minutes of play, the levels repeat themselves, over and over, without significant change. If you are looking for hidden gems of the era, you can pass this one by.
However, if you are interested in gaming history and curiosities of the era, keep an eye out for this one. Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise, with its blatant cosmetic and gameplay similarities to Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros., is a great example of the kind of highly derivative content found during that era.
LEVEL STRUCTURE:
There are 8 levels. Upon completing the 8th level, the levels repeat, with slightly increased difficulty. Levels appear to repeat indefinitely. After every 2 levels, there is a timed bonus stage.
CONTROLS:
D-pad .... move Mr. Chin
select ... (doesn't appear to do anything)
start .... pause/unpause
A ........ jump; press repeatedly to fly (with power-up)
B ........ place fryer
OPTIONS:
None.
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