History VideoGame / RetroGameChallenge

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A huge portion of the games in ''[=GameFan=]''[='s] Top 5 charts are basically [[MixAndMatch mashups of the other games' names]], but then there is a couple that would actually show up in the sequel: ''Muteki-Ken Kung Fu'' and ''Detective Kacho''.

''Retro Game Challenge'' (a.k.a. ''Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge'') is a Nintendo DS game based on the Japanese TV series ''Series/RetroGameMaster''. In the game, your character is pulled back in time to TheEighties and the childhood of one Shinya Arino (based on the host of the show himself), and are tasked with meeting the challenges of his evil-self-from-the-present by playing eight different 8-bit games, which emulate the style of actual Family Computer games of that time. Only then will you be able to return to your own world.

Absolutely ''no'' marketing in America led to poor sales, which means that XSEED [[NoExportForYou didn't bring the sequel to America]]. But have no fear: a FanTranslation [[http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2217/ is available now!]]

* {{Platformer}}: the ''Robot Ninja Haggle Man'' trilogy (the first two are based on a Japan-only Jaleco game titled ''Ninja Jajamaru-Kun'', while the third is a ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' pastiche). The sequel adds Demon Returns and Super Demon Returns (essentially a combination of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'' and ''VideoGame/AdventureIsland'') ''Go! Edge Jump MAX'' is also one, although done as an {{endless|Game}} pseudo-LCD game.

* ShootEmUp: ''Cosmic Gate'' (modeled after ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}''), ''Star Prince'' (a pastiche of ''VideoGame/StarSoldier'') and ''[=GunDuel=]''.

!!Cosmic Gate provides examples of:

* EndlessGame: Averted - the game ends when you beat the last of 64 stages. But if you want to keep building your score higher and higher, you can [[spoiler:open a final Cosmic Gate during stage 64...]]

* WarpZone: the titular Cosmic Gates.

!!Haggle Man 1 and Haggle Man 2 provide examples of:

** The rivalry between two scientists is also a really obvious nod to ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan a certain classic series of the games...]]'' Apart from the popular opinion, however, the gameplay is not.

* AssistCharacter: Koume, Little Zenmai and Cyborg K9, as soon as you collect three scrolls that summon one of them.

* DubNameChange: The Princess's actual name, never mentioned in the localizations, appears to be Hoozuki; Cyborg K9 is actually Karakuri Ken. Speaking of "karakuri", which roughly means "wind-up toy", if you stick to the Japanese title of the series, Haggle Man would be less of a stereotypical "intellegent robot" to you.

* GoodBadTranslation: [[invoked]] Intentional: his original name is Haguruman, which is a pun on the Japanese word for "gear". Extended in the 3rd game, where he can equip Hagglegears, or [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Geargears]].
* MercyInvincibility: Given to both Haggle Man and [=HM2=]'s bosses.

* SequelDifficultySpike: The second game wastes no time in overwhelming you with enemies. Also, all bosses now have multiple HP.
* SpellingBonus: A partial example: entering any 3 doors in the alphabetical order changes all the doors in the level to the same color, allowing you to operate all of them at the same time until they become desynchronized, and entering them in the reverse alphabetical order repairs Haggleman if he's damaged, allowing him to take another hit.

!!Rally King and Rally King SP provide examples of:

* NitroBoost: In Rally King and Rally King SP, doing drifts can give you boosts.
* ProductPlacement: ''Rally King SP'' is a joint venture between ''Rally King''[='=]s developer, [=GameFan=] Magazine, and a ramen noodle company.
** And also TruthInTelevision, as special "sponsor editions" of games (such as ''[[http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/fc/gradiusa.html Archimendes Gradius]]'' and ''[[http://www.nindb.net/ann-super-mario-bros.html All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.]]'') were not unheard of back in the Famicom era.
* PaletteSwap: In ''SP'', the palettes for all the tracks past 3 are changed, to be set at night.

!!Star Prince provides examples of:
* CombiningMecha: One of the minibosses. Defeat it before it completely links up to get a technical bonus. Since the whole game is a big ShoutOut to ''Star Soldier'', this miniboss is a joke on Lalios, a miniboss from ''Star Force'' who behaves in the exact same way and offers the same opportunity for a technical bonus.

* ShoutOut: An in game example, the purple power up acts the same way the as the powerup in Cosmic Gate.
** As stated, the entire game is a ShoutOut to VideoGame/StarSoldier: this is made even more obvious in the sequel, where there's a special tournament edition with 3- and 5-minute modes.

!!Guadia Quest provides examples of:
* AffectionateParody: Of VideoGame/DragonQuest.

* BondCreatures: The [[{{Mon}} Guadias]], whom you must defeat [[BossInMookClothing in a random battle]] if you want to earn their services. However, unlike usual [[SummonMagic Summoned Monsters]], Guadias will act automatically after building up their attack for a few moves.
* BonusBoss: [[spoiler:[=GameGuadia=], represented by Arino's disembodied head. It comes in various colors, often in [[ConspicuouslyLightPatch obvious locations]] and the stronger ones reward you with both {{Lethal Joke Item}}s and [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 Swords]] when defeated. Don't expect to beat them too soon.]]
* ContinuityNod: There are more references to the show, apart from [[spoiler:[=GameGuadia=]]]. Say, if you've watched ''[[Series/RetroGameMaster Game Center CX]]'', doesn't the king in the Centraan castle look familiar to you?
** There's also Guadianip, which was called "Kacho's Business Card" before the game went overseas! ...and if you thought showing Arino's business card to Guadias to increase their pact probability was drugged in and out, then check out the weapon dropped by [[spoiler:the white [=GameGuadia=]]]... Which is Slapstick. Of course, given that Arino is a comedian, even if he doesn't specialize in slapstick humor...

* ForcedLevelGrinding: Apart from that you will ''obviously'' need to grind to defeat monsters, bosses and unneeded Guadias, Arino himself will set you a goal to get level 7 for the second ''Guadia Quest'' challenge.
* GratuitousJapanese: A lot of the endgame equipment has untranslated Japanese names, possibly as a way to try to work around the {{enforced|Trope}} 8 letter item name limit.
* GuideDangIt: While the [=GameFan=] magazines help you through some of the tougher parts of the dungeons, many of the items and spells have incomprehensible names with single letter variations with only a small number of them explained in the ingame manual.
** Thankfully averted in the sequel, where pressing Select gives you a description on any item, spell or skill.
* MasculineFeminineAndrogyneTrio: The party consists of three characters- one who is clearly male, one who is clearly female, and a third whose art is ambiguous (though their sprite makes it more likely that they're intended to also be female).
* MetalSlime: The Fool enemies found in the lower levels of The Dungeon, which only take damage from spells, cast spells to put your party to sleep, run away often and give the most EXP of any enemy if killed.
* {{Mon}}: The Guadia, as can largely be expected, although they're pretty limited compared to most other examples: each one has a fixed level of strength, you can only have one at a time and they mostly exist to give you an additional attack, heal or stat increase every few turns.

* MonsterAllies: Part of the gameplay in Guadia Quest is to make pacts with special "Guadia" monsters, who then pop in during battle to do attacks. Some Guadias are better suited to certain foes, making getting the best Guadia for the job part of the strategy.

* NoFourthWall: [[spoiler:The hidden NPC that allows you to skip to the credits flat out states that by doing so it will unlock the emblem pointing out you beat the game in the menu, which is required for the last challenge. ''The fourth wall breaking is not even in-universe'']].
* ScheduleSlip: ''Guadia Quest''[='=]s release date gets pushed back twice.
* ShoutOut: A twofer - one of the towns has a duck hanging out in the graveyard, which only says "Aclaf!" when you talk to it - a reference to both the old Aflac Duck and ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania II|SimonsQuest}}'s'' infamous "graveyard duck".
** There's a multilayered joke in an item that only someone who's played ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' will get. In ''Dragon Quest'', the 'warp to town' item is called a Chimera Wing. In Guadia Quest, the equivalent item is called a Naga Wing... and the monsters labeled "Chimeras" look suspiciously like nagas.

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:The king's excuses to send the scions off his various errands get flimsier as the game progresses, but you still have to do them.]]

!!Haggle Man 3 provides examples of:

* CheckpointStarvation: While Haggleman still respawns in the room where he died, you can save your game only, and only inbetween levels. This would be, of course, exploited by Game Master Arino, who would automatically turn the console off every time you beat a challenge, forcing you to watch the same Amatsumi intro cutscene at least three times.

* ExtendedGameplay: So you think defeating Choi in episode three ends the game? [[spoiler:Well, there is also Dark Haggle Man to be defeated. And then Haggleman Lady. Which is, three bosses in a row.]]
* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler: Haggleman Lady challenges you after your victory.]]

* GenreShift: ''Haggle Man 3'' looks and plays vastly different than the first two ''Haggle Man'' games, resembling something closer to the NES ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' titles.

* {{Metroidvania}}: The game is divided to three levels, which are, however, pretty huge and are still comprised of Hagglegears, local VideoGameTools, and tons of BackTracking...

!!Wiz-Man provides examples of:
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: White enemies can be killed with any magic rod, blue enemies can only be killed with a fire rod and red enemies can only be killed with an ice rod. Dark purple enemies can only be killed with a golden rod. Interestingly enough, while the white enemies are usually the slowest and least aggressive and the dark purple enemies are the opposite, white wizards are the fastest ones of their type, possibly as an attempt to prevent them from becoming {{Demonic Spider}}s, not that the dark purple wizards are much slower.
* GuideDangIt: In something of a shout out to ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga'', most of the golden wands have ridiculously obscure requirements to make them appear, including but not limited to: touch a specific maze wall, kill enemies in a specific order, input a series of directions as a ClassicCheatCode, press the otherwise unused Select button or circle the maze clockwise: furthermore, each one of these only works in a specific level and to get additional golden wands to appear, you need to fulfill another requirement that's a variation of the original one. Thankfully, none of them are required to beat the game or any of the challenges and outside of the gameplay benefit of letting you collect both colors of dots at the same time and attack any enemy, they only determine your cosmetic endgame rank.

!!Mutekiken [=KungFu=] provides examples of:
* CallingYourAttacks: When under the effects of the Muteki Ken power-up, every one of main character's attacks causes a subtitle for the said attack to pop up if it hits an enemy, much like in Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar.
* WarpZone: Each level has a hidden [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shachihoko shachihoko]] that can be revealed by hitting a specific invisible spot multiple times: doing so and then grabbing it afterwards quickly zooms the main character to the end of the level while he struggles to hold on to the fish.

!![=GunDuel=] provides examples of:
* CombiningMecha: If you play the game in 2-player mode with young Arino and kill enough enemies, a large G will appear: collecting it will merge the ships together and give you a powerful forward shot with a homing secondary weapon as well as a pair of {{Attack Drone}}s that rotate around your ship. It wears off at the end of the stage and making the power-up appear again in the following level requires an increasing number of kills, making it unlikely that you see it more than twice in a single playthrough, unless you make it a point to do the opposite of what comes naturally with your superpowered ship and stop racking up kills when you get close to the unseen threshold value so that you don't reach another one when you already have it active.

!!Guadia Quest Saga provides examples of:
* ActionBomb: The Demon Dungeon has an encounter with a pair of enemies resembling bombs: if you don't kill them both on the same turn, the other one explodes and more than likely causes a TotalPartyWipe unless you have the foresight to use the DefendCommand beforehand.
* {{Mon}}: The Guadia again. The way they work is somewhat different from the original game: each character can have a Guadia set to them that gives them 2 additional skills, you can choose to power yourself up with them that gives you a different basic attack command and stat boosts at a cost of a constant HP drain every turn, and when you fight enough battles with one, they rank up and learn new skills you can replace old ones with. The old AssistCharacter function of the Guadias from the first game has been replaced with Guadia Meisters, [=NPCs=] that can also use Guadias that you need to beat in a 1-on-1 battle with your Guadia in powerup mode to make them join, and unlike in the first game, they can help you multiple turns in a row. You can also trade your Guadia with young Arino who has a [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo different version]] of the game, much like in the [[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} games]] that inspired the mechanic, complete with a competition-exclusive [=GameFan=] Guadia [[DeusExMachina that he naturally manages to win 2 of so that you won't be screwed out of one since he refuses to give his only one to you]].
* ScheduleSlip: Much like the original Guadia Quest as well as its unseen sequel, this game also ends up being delayed.
* StandardStatusEffects: In addition to Sleep from the first game, there's also Poison, Silence and Confusion.
* UnInstallment: Actually the third game in the Guadia Quest series, released for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy {{Expy}} [=GameComputer=] Mini. This is probably due to the actual [[Series/RetroGameMaster show's]] tendency to skip over some of the games in the series or having Arino challenge them out of order as well as the fact that the second VideoGame/DragonQuest (which the series is an obvious homage to) wasn't as much of a gameplay upgrade over the first one as the third one was. Finally, as stated below, this game places more emphasis on the {{Mon}}s, much like the Game Boy-originated spinoff ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' did originally.

!!Arino Ace Detective parts 1 and 2 provide examples of:
* BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine: A gameplay mechanic: you have the option to play either role and need to do so often to proceed.

** The "Think" command that gives hints on what to do next involves Arino applying a cooling sheet on his forehead, again, like he does in the show.
* GameBreakingBug: As a plot point: the Love&Game cult have [[spoiler: tampered the CX Industries' newest game to display a message from them and then permanently destroy the Gamecom it's played on]].
* HilariousInHindsight: [[spoiler: In the second game, Arino ends up in a wrestling ring with Inoko MAX when his investigation leads him to search an underground wrestling arena and he's given a participation ticket instead of just a spectator one, where he clumsily struggles through a round with Inoko and ends up winning in the end. He keeps complaining that he's never done it before, but it sure wouldn't [[Machinima/VideoGameChampionshipWrestling be his last]]...]]

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: Considering the rest of them are essentially {{Visual Novel}}s, [[spoiler: a top-down racing minigame where you need to dodge obstacles and throw balls at your opponent towards the end of each one that can be replayed with a ClassicCheatCode]] is hardly something most people would expect.

!!Demon Returns and Super Demon Returns provide examples of:
* ChargedAttack: The sequel has a chargeable SpinAttack that can be executed either vertically or horizontally and is needed to break grey skull blocks, but since it's used by holding down the otherwise unused Y or X button, it seems to be more trouble than it's worth.
* CraniumRide: Inverted, the main gameplay mechanic Devil Ride instead involves flipping enemies over, making them spin around perpetually and riding on their undersides. Doing this increases Damon's movement speed and jump height depending on the type of enemy being ridden on and may also allow him to damage other enemies with the one he's riding on if the enemy in question is spiked from that side: if not, the enemy you're riding on is killed and you need to repeat the process to get another one, and regardless of what direction the enemy hits you from, riding on an enemy saves you from taking a hit. You can also use them to pull off a single-use DoubleJump that also kills the enemy.
** However, you have less traction when riding on an enemy and you also keep moving forward constantly, unless you hold down to stop.
* CursedWithAwesome: The hero: he's turned into a purple imp-like demon by the BigBad of the game, but all it does is to give him sharp claws from which he can fire small tornadoes when sufficiently powered up and the ability to use any enemies he runs across as his personal form of transportation. It does seem to hinder him in that he needs to [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly consume apples constantly to stay alive, though.]]
* NintendoHard: By far, the hardest pair of games to complete when it comes to plain skill: some of the later levels require a ridiculous degree of acrobatics with the Demon Ride, especially in the second game, and if you want to collect all the [[SpellingBonus DEMON]] letters for HundredPercentCompletion, good luck figuring out where most of them are located. The second game practically requires the 99 lives code to beat it in any reasonable amount of time.
* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: A minor example: the way souls work as a demonic equivalent to Franchise/SuperMarioBros's coins, the game gives the implication that Damon eats them. One of the [=GameFan=] magazines points out that he's actually saving them by collecting them.
* RatchetScrolling: In the first game, much like in the original VideoGame/SuperMarioBros
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The main hero is called both Damon and Demon: the manual and [=GameFan=] magazines call him the former, but the name above the score display in the game reads Demon, and the end credits for the second game also calls all his forms Demon. The unseen SpinOff comic also calls him Demon instead of Damon, which young Arino complains about, along with the comic turning into a series of silly misadventures where everyone [[DenserAndWackier "just horses around"]].

!!Go! Edge Jump MAX provides examples of:
* CallBack: The [[PunnyName Happi Men]] that occasionally fly by and give [[ArcNumber 7650]] points if caught are a reference to the stamp rally events in the actual show where the staff members who you'd get stamps from wore bright yellow happi coats.

* EndlessGame: The only one that really counts as this, since the point is to survive as long as possible and it's designated as a "game training tool" instead of an actual fully-realized minigame with a manual, Gamefan coverage and challenges.

!!Triotos and Triotos DX provide examples of:
* AlternateHistory: These games essentially fulfill the same role as VideoGame/{{Tetris}} in the game's universe: not only are they puzzle games, but the original Triotos is also implied to be a massively successful launch title for the [=GameCon=] mini much like Tetris was for the Game Boy, and it was also developed by an eastern European engineer (a Czechoslovakian mathematican in Triotos' case). Finally, both games also feature distinctive national imagery, Russian in Tetris' case and Japanese in Triotos' case.
* TheCameo: Seeing as the games were made by GEARS, Haggleman characters appear in them both as CPU opponents and as ClassicCheatCode -activated {{Assist Character}}s in the original.
* FallingBlocks: Naturally. The basic gameplay resembles a hybrid of VideoGame/{{Columns}} and VideoGame/{{Tetris}} (the 3 block setup of the former combined with the rotation of the latter), with a large focus on combos due to a relatively small playing field, the ability to wipe out any of the 3 colors on command by matching an entire row of blocks horizontally and easily acquired wildcard blocks that can match up with any type of block.

!!Retro Game Challenge 1 and 2 in general provide examples of:
* AddressingThePlayer: Parodied in both games: the name you enter in the beginning is only used as a very end and only because young Arino realized he never actually addressed you by your name, so he does it around 6 times in a row to make up for the fact he never did so earlier. Played slightly more straight in the second game, where it's also used whenever you call Game Master Arino.

** The latter also appears as a [[spoiler:top secret Guadia monster in both ''Guadia Quest'' games]] later on.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When Haggleman 2 is released, Arino wishes for Haggleman to be cooler, but he doesn't like the [[DarkerAndEdgier "too cool" look]] Haggleman gets in the third game.
* BitingTheHandHumor: TOMATO is basically an alternate universe version of [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]], complete with the ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' clone and its' logo's font used since ''Star Prince''. According to ''Retro Game Challenge 2'', they've also created ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Wiz-Man]]'' two years after the aforementioned ''Cosmic Gate''.
* CallBack: In the second game, young Arino praises the Gamecomputer Floppy Disk System, thinking it's cool the way you can rewrite games on them. He then asks what kinds of games you'd write on one, and the choices given are puzzle games and shooters, the 2 genres the real Arino is the best and worst at, respectively.
* ClassicCheatCode: Each of the games is loaded with cheat codes, but the most widespread would be [[spoiler:the [[VideoGame/MilonsSecretCastle Start+Left continue trick]], which is used in no less than four games from the first ''Retro Game Challenge'' alone!]]

* DeusExMachina: Played for laughs: in the second game, the likewise second game you need to challenge is Mutekiken Kung Fu, but it's only available for the western-made ENTER-2000 console, which young Arino doesn't own. Cue his father conveniently not only winning the lottery but also buying him the very console AND the right game with what's implied to be zero prompting from young Arino.
* EveryTenThousandPoints: Some of the games (such as TOMATO's two shooters) give you extra lives at certain numbers of points. This is most noticeable in [=GunDuel=] in the sequel, where the various massive score bonuses can give you 10-15 extra lives by the time you beat it.
* ExcusePlot: A mean virtual Arino sends you to the past to play retrogames.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: A huge portion of the games in [=GameFan=]'s Top 5 charts are basically [[MixAndMatch mashups of the other games' names]], but then there is a couple that would actually show up in the sequel: ''Muteki-Ken Kung Fu'' and ''Detective Kacho''.
** During the ''Haggle Man 2'' scenario, Kid Arino thinks that Haggle Man now looks cooler, either because it's a sequel or because he wants Haggle Man to look cool. Then the third Haggle Man game turns out to have a DarkerAndEdgier makeover.

* GameFavoredGender: An extremely minor example: if you choose a female avatar in the beginning, you can use autofire in the credits minigame by holding Y instead of having to mash the fire button. This was likely done as a joke to Arino's occasional jokey womanizing in the show.

* HintSystem: The second game's Gamefan magazines have this as an additional feature: in addition to finding the hints and codes in question in the magazine itself, you also need to scratch away the foil covering key words and codes on the touchscreen to reveal them.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The "[=GameFan=] Magazine" parody (see {{Woolseyism}} on the YMMV page) extends as far as its staff writers, thinly veiled {{Shout Out}}s to actual game journalists. For instance, Dan Sock standing in for Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Johnny England for John Davison, "Milkman" for James Mielke, and others.
** A particularly on-point extension is when one of the editorial letters is penned by "Dave H.". The real-life [=GameFan=] magazine was founded and ran by Dave Halverson.

** The first game wasn't released in Europe or Australia, either. However, the lack of UsefulNotes/RegionCoding in all DS cards DOES make up for it... At least for people living in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

* OneHitPointWonder: ''Cosmic Gate'' and ''Star Prince''.

* PlayEveryDay: The second game encourages this with its Daily Challenges: completing one each day for up to a week straight gives you bonus points, which are used to unlock additional t-shirt designs and power-on quotes for young Arino.
* ReadTheFreakingManual: For information on game mechanics, you should read them. True to his real life self, Young Arino comments early on that he feels like a cheater if he reads them.
* {{Retcon}}: The second game is essentially this to the first one: the exact same events happening for the second time is never touched on other than a "familliar feeling" from young Arino's part and any games that you're not given a challenge for that existed in the first game aren't mentioned outside of young Arino referring to them in the optional chats and possibly existing as alternate versions in Joyco Land.

** Young Arino also compliments your skills by comparing you to the kid in [[Film/TheWizard "that game movie where they run away to Los Angeles" that has "The Glove Of Power"]].
** ''Arino no Chousenjou'', the Japanese subtitle of this game, is very obviously based off ''VideoGame/TakeshisChallenge'', which also was featured [[Series/RetroGameMaster on the actual show]]. Oh, and that's not all yet: [[spoiler:even the post-credit sequence is basically a one huge WaitingPuzzle!]]
** The sequel has Arino puzzled over the first level midboss in Mutekiken Kung Fu, an Afro Karate Master. He wonders what kinds of enemies you might end up fighting later, and one of the guesses you can make is [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Velociboxer]].
** The game popularity rankings in the [=GameFan=] magazines feature made-up titles and mashups of certain games, but the very first list ends with the actual title for the anachronistic ''[[VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball]]'' series.
* StrategyGuide: Young Arino comments on the ascension of strategy guides made for specific games. He says that [=GameFan=] Magazine is enough for him.

* TooLongDidntDub: While the US version fared pretty well on adapting the source material to its target audience, there are still some goofs met here and there.
** First, the Game Computer and all the cartridges for it look more similar to the original Famicom rather than NES. Second, the [[IntentionalEngrishForFunny Engrish bits]] are left in one game [[UpdatedRerelease (roughly two)]], ''Rally King'', which, oddly enough, appears to be Western-developed, according to [=GameFan=] Magazine and their partnership that spawned ''Rally King SP''!
** John Garland, Clarissa Arvin and Marvin P. Android are claimed to be the men behind ''Guadia Quest'' in one of the [=GameFan=] Magazine's articles, as game programmer, scriptwriter and monster designer respectively. [[spoiler:Not that these names appear in the credits, though, since not only they are replaced with Shinyah Ibihara, Hasabaun Suzui, Ryuoujin Arisaka (that's right, there are ''two'' scriptwriters) and G-Ichiron Matsumoto, the entire staff appears to be Japanese, loosely based on the ''Game Center CX'''s cast! InconsistentDub ahoy.]]
* UpdatedRerelease: ''Rally King'' has two of them: ''SP'' in the original game and a tournament-based ''ex'' in the sequel. Talking of sequel, the first ''Haggle Man'' also has an expansion in the part of ''Koume Edition'', so does ''Star Prince'' with its' ''Score Attack Version''. Finally, there is ''Cosmic Gate'' on [[{{UsefulNotes/MSX}} MASA-X]], which, with all the gameplay extras such as actual bosses, could be considered an in-universe PolishedPort, although due to the fact that it runs on a fictional counterpart to the MSX, it suffers from a more limited color palette. Interestingly enough, despite the various extras, the ingame company who made the original game didn't apparently like the end result.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: ''Haggle Man'', ''Haggle Man 2'', and ''Star Prince'' all have a second loop, absolutely not unlike ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins''.]]
** Referenced in a more faithful manner in Demon Returns in the sequel, where beating one of the bosses gives you a message almost identical to the original.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Some of the names in the [=GameFan=] letters section are a bit racy for an E game, with joke names like [[PunnyName Hugh Jass, Mike Rotch]] and, as the icing on the cake, [[UnfortunateNames Homer]] [[CampGay Sexual]]. Doubles as a ShoutOut to WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons, since those also were the names Bart used to phoneprank Moe Szyslak.

* GuideDangIt: Most of the golden wands have ridiculously obscure requirements to make them appear, including but not limited to: touch a specific maze wall, kill enemies in a specific order, input a series of directions as a ClassicCheatCode, press the otherwise unused Select button or circle the maze clockwise: furthermore, each one of these only works in a specific level and to get additional golden wands to appear, you need to fulfill another requirement that's a variation of the original one. Thankfully, none of them are required to beat the game or any of the challenges and outside of the gameplay benefit of letting you collect both colors of dots at the same time and attack any enemy, they only determine your cosmetic endgame rank.

* {{Retraux}}
* ScoringPoints

* UnInstallment: Actually the third game in the Guadia Quest series, released for the GameBoy {{Expy}} [=GameComputer=] Mini. This is probably due to the actual [[Series/RetroGameMaster show's]] tendency to skip over some of the games in the series or having Arino challenge them out of order as well as the fact that the second VideoGame/DragonQuest (which the series is an obvious homage to) wasn't as much of a gameplay upgrade over the first one as the third one was. Finally, as stated below, this game places more emphasis on the {{Mon}}s, much like the Game Boy-originated spinoff ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' did originally.

* GoodBadTranslation: Intentional: his original name is Haguruman, which is a pun on the Japanese word for "gear". Extended in the 3rd game, where he can equip Hagglegears, or [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Geargears]].

** The game popularity rankings in the [=GameFan=] magazines feature made-up titles and mashups of certain games, but the very first list ends with an anachronistic ''[[VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball]]''.

** The game popularity rankings in the [=GameFan=] magazines feature made-up titles and mashups of certain games, but the very first list ends with an anachronistic ''[[VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball]]''. The joke is likely that the player wouldn't recognize the reference anyway, since westerns were denied of most games in that franchise.

* ShoutOut: The American translation references a few other XSEED-published game characters, including [[VideoGame/ShadowHearts John Garland]] and [[VideoGame/WildARMsXF Clarissa Arwin]] as "programmers" of ''Guadia Quest''.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[spoiler: In the second game, Arino ends up in a wrestling ring with Inoko MAX when his investigation leads him to search an underground wrestling arena and he's given a participation ticket instead of just a spectator one, where he clumsily struggles through a round with Inoko and ends up winning in the end. He keeps complaining that he's never done it before, but it sure wouldn't [[Webvideo/VideoGameChampionshipWrestling be his last]]...]]

** The first game wasn't released in Europe or Australia, either. However, the lack of RegionCoding in all DS cards DOES make up for it... At least for people living in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

* BitingTheHandHumor: TOMATO is basically an alternate universe version of [[Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment Namco]], complete with the ''{{Galaga}}'' clone and its' logo's font used since ''Star Prince''. According to ''Retro Game Challenge 2'', they've also created ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Wiz-Man]]'' two years after the aforementioned ''Cosmic Gate''.

* XMeetsY: Just about every game in here is an already existing product with a new gimmick, either new or reimagined from somewhere else. In particular, ''Rally King'' can be best described as ''Road Fighter'' meets ''R.C. Pro A.M.'', ''Guadia Quest'' is ''Dragon Quest'' fused with the monster recruitment scheme of ''Shin Megami Tensei'' and ''Haggle Man 3'' is basically ''Ninja Gaiden'' on {{Metroidvania}} rails.
** For the sequel, Wiz-Man is essentially ''VideoGame/PacMan'' combined with ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfDruaga''[='s=] ridiculously obscure requirements to make hidden items appear, Mutekiken Kung Fu is {{Karateka}} meets Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar and Demon Returns is VideoGame/SuperMarioBros meets VideoGame/AdventureIsland and VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins.

Absolutely ''no'' marketing in America led to poor sales, which means that XSEED [[NoExportForYou didn't bring the sequel to America]]. But have no fear: a FanTranslation [[http://web.archive.org/web/20161018100122/http://www.gccxpatch.com:80/index.html is available now!]]

* AffectionateParody: Of DragonQuest.

* NoExportForYou: It's a series created by BandaiNamcoEntertainment and the first one didn't sell. What do you think?

* NoExportForYou: It's a series created by NamcoBandai and the first one didn't sell. What do you think?

Absolutely ''no'' marketing in America led to poor sales, which means that XSEED [[NoExportForYou didn't bring the sequel to America]]. But have no fear: a FanTranslation [[http://www.gccxpatch.com/ is available now!]]

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Rally King'' has two of them: ''SP'' in the original game and a tournament-based ''ex'' in the sequel. Talking of sequel, the first ''Haggle Man'' also has an expansion in the part of ''Koume Edition'', so does ''Star Prince'' with its' ''Score Attack Version''. Finally, there is ''Cosmic Gate'' on [[{{MSX}} MASA-X]], which, with all the gameplay extras such as actual bosses, could be considered an in-universe PolishedPort, although due to the fact that it runs on a fictional counterpart to the MSX, it suffers from a more limited color palette. Interestingly enough, despite the various extras, the ingame company who made the original game didn't apparently like the end result.

* BitingTheHandHumor: TOMATO is basically an alternate universe version of {{Creator/Namco}}, complete with the ''{{Galaga}}'' clone and its' logo's font used since ''Star Prince''. According to ''Retro Game Challenge 2'', they've also created ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Wiz-Man]]'' two years after the aforementioned ''Cosmic Gate''.

* AuthorAvatar: Arino appears both as a young boy and a disembodied [[BrainAge Kawashima]]-style head.

* MissingEpisode: Actually the third game in the Guadia Quest series, released for the GameBoy {{Expy}} [=GameComputer=] Mini. This is probably due to the actual [[Series/RetroGameMaster show's]] tendency to skip over some of the games in the series or having Arino challenge them out of order as well as the fact that the second VideoGame/DragonQuest (which the series is an obvious homage to) wasn't as much of a gameplay upgrade over the first one as the third one was. Finally, as stated below, this game places more emphasis on the {{Mon}}s, much like the Game Boy-originated spinoff ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'' did originally.
** Arino's reasoning for why he doesn't own the second game is because he lent it to a friend who moved away and he doesn't want to buy games for the second time.

* WorkingTitle: [=GameFan=] Magazine appears to have something of a prototype version titled ''Cosmic Force''. And, for whatever reason, [[UnreliableIllustrator the title screen of this exact prototype can be spotted in one of the issues]]!

* BitingTheHandHumor: TOMATO is basically an alternate universe version of {{Creator/Namco}}, complete with the ''{{Galaga}}'' clone and its' logo's font used since ''Star Prince''. According to ''Retro Game Challenge 2'', they've also created ''[[{{VideoGame/Pac-Man}} Wiz-Man]]'' two years after the aforementioned ''Cosmic Gate''.

** For the sequel, Wiz-Man is essentially Pac-Man combined with TheTowerOfDruaga's ridiculously obscure requirements to make hidden items appear, Mutekiken Kung Fu is {{Karateka}} meets Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar and Demon Returns is VideoGame/SuperMarioBros meets VideoGame/AdventureIsland and VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins.