Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou

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Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega R&D 2
Licensor: Fujio Pro, Kodansha, Studio Pierrot
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1988-12-24 ¥5,5005,500 G-4005

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Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou (おそ松くん はちゃめちゃ劇場) is a Sega Mega Drive action game developed by Sega R&D 2 and published by Sega. Based on the Japanese media franchise Osomatsu-kun, it was released exclusively in Japan in December 1988, and alongside arcade ports like Super Thunder Blade and Altered Beast, was the first original game developed for Sega's new 16-bit platform. Notable for its overwhelmingly poor critical reception, the game gained a cult reputation as one of the worst games on the Sega Mega Drive.

As Osomatsu-kun predates the development of the TradeMark Security System, it will only function properly with Japanese or Asian Mega Drive consoles, or model 1 Mega Drive consoles which lack TMSS and does not have a defective RAM (revisions VA1 through VA5.) or with the Game Genie.

Story

Osomatsu-kun's five brothers Karamatsu, Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, Jyushimatsu, and Todomatsu have been kidnapped by rivals Iyami and Chibita. Armed with only his slingshot and pachinko balls, Osomatsu-kun sets out to rescue his brothers.

Gameplay

The game plays as an action platformer with frequent maze elements, featuring controls that have been unanimously described as "floaty". Osomatsu-kun can jump with , fire projectiles from his slingshot with , and has access to various items acquired throughout the game by pressing  START  and using them with .

Stages

Each of the game's three stages is further divided into four segments: the main area, sky area, water area, and underground area.

	Round 1: Momotarou no Sekai (Legend of Peachboy)
	Sub Boss: Momotarou Chibita Boss: Enma Iyami
	Round 2: Shirayukihime no Sekai (Snow White)
	Sub Boss: Witch Dekapan Boss: Snow White Iyami
	Round 3: Kyouryuu no Sekai (Prehistory)
	Sub Boss: Smilodon Iyami Boss: Dinosaur Iyami

History

Development

Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou was originally developed for a 4-Megabit cartridge, but due to chip shortages being experienced by Japan, the game was notably reduced to a 2-Megabit cartridge. To accommodate this, Sega R&D 2 removed the second half of the game entirely, from the levels to the end-game credits.

Fujio Akatsuka, author of the original manga, was outspokenly critical about video games and considered them to be a problem plaguing Japanese youth. After the release of Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou, the author was so offended by its poor quality that during a meeting with Sega R&D 2, Akatsuka became enraged and threw an ashtray at one of the developers. Confirmed by multiple employees of both Sega and SIMS (which many Osomatsu-kun staff later migrated to), the story of Akatsuka's thrown ashtray spread to other employees within the company, and eventually to the gaming public.

Quotes

“	Sega was thinking about what titles to release with its new 16-bit platform. They ended up losing Tetris, and the titles they did release were just no good. Altered Beast and Osomatsu-kun… the quality of that one was really “shoddy.” They were worthless titles. For Altered Beast, I wanted to use the same large amount of memory as the System 16 arcade version. In that case, it would have been much better. However, when you significantly reduce the memory, the end result is not good. This happened with three or four titles. At the time, we held this huge promotional event. We had Seikō Itō [a Japanese celebrity] there. We announced that the 16-bit era had arrived, and we showed off several games. Everybody there was dumbfounded at how bad the games were. When I saw this, I thought that I had made a huge mistake in the design of the Mega Drive’s architecture. I thought that the hardware was only capable of putting out games like that. A bit later, I saw the shooting game Thunder Force II, which made great use of the specific functions of the 16-bit platform, such as line scrolling. And this was from a third party developer. When I saw that game, I finally felt relieved that I hadn’t been so wrong in the design of the architecture. Up to that point, the titles Sega had put out were worthless.	„
— Sega R&D Head and Mega Drive designer Hideki Sato

Reception

The game was universally panned for its short length, maze-like gameplay, frustrating controls, abrasive soundtrack, and frequent crashes (only on Mega Drives with the VA0 revision), and has gained a reputation as one of the worst games on the Sega Mega Drive as well as a cult following as a classic kusoge (shit game).

Magazine articles

Main article: Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

File:OsomatsuKun MD JP TVAdvert.mp4

TV advert

File:OsomatsuKun MD JP TVAdvert.mp4

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #0: "Extra issue of Beep!" (1989-04-27)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 64 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 40 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 58 Joystick (FR) NTSC-J 75 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 51 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 33

	53
Based on 6 reviews

Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Osomatsu-kun Hachamecha Gekijou/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 2453350c MD5 b415c3b6feeed744be6508ba4f62890f SHA-1 bf82cb1c4d2144bd0e0d45629f346988cc4cc5b2	256kB	1988-10	Cartridge (JP)

External links

• Osomatsu-kun: The Bizarre Story of the Mega Drive’s Most Infamous Game article by Gryson at Mega Drive Shock
• Original text of the MDSHOCK's quote. (Japanese)