History VideoGame / RetroGameChallenge

* BaitAndSwitch: ''Arino Ace Detective: Part 2'' comes out, so you'd expect to have to challenge your way through it... but Game Master Arino can't think of any challenges. The game then skips straight to the release of ''Triotos'' and you end up challenging that instead.

* OneUp: A tomato icon with "[-1UP=]" on it is revealed when you destroy enough mid-sized asteroids in an asteroid field.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Generally averted. Stat-affecting spells are useful in tougher battles, and status effects like instant death have a decent chance of working in a pinch. Dormi is of particular note, as sleeping enemies do not wake up when hit, and it takes a long time for it to wear off naturally.

** In the second game, ''Demon Returns'' and ''Super Demon Returns'' (essentially a combination of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins'', and ''VideoGame/AdventureIsland'').

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

[[folder:''Go! Edge Jump MAX'']]
* CallBack: The [[PunnyName Happi Men]] that occasionally fly by and give [[ArcNumber 7,650]] 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.
[[/folder]]

* AlternateHistory: These games essentially fulfill the same role as ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' in this universe - not only are they puzzle games, but the original ''Triotos'' is 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). Both games also feature distinctive national imagery: Russian in ''Tetris'', Japanese in ''Triotos''.

* {{Retraux}}: The first game takes inspiration for its games entirely from the Famicom. The second game mixes things up a bit by giving you multiple game systems with different technical capabilities.

* ExcitedShowTitle

* RolePlayingGame: ''Guadia Quest'' (heavily based on ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'', even having the menu you need to bring up to talk to people) and ''Guadia Quest Saga'' (more like ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsters'', being a handheld installment focused on {{Mons|Genre}}).

* RolePlayingGame: ''Guadia Quest'' (heavily based on ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'', even having the menu you need to bring up to talk to people) and ''Guadia Quest Saga''.

* MazeGame: ''Wiz-Man''.

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

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

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** The "[=GameFan=] Magazine" parody extends as far as its staff writers, thinly-veiled references to actual game journalists. Dan Sock stands in for Dan "Shoe" Hsu, Johnny England for John Davison, "Milkman" for James Mielke, and so on. One of the editorial letters is penned by "Dave H."; the real-life ''[=GameFan=]'' magazine was founded and ran by Dave Halverson.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Young Arino will often comment on playground rumors. Sometimes they provide real tips and secrets, but more often than not they'll be just that, rumors.

** Thoroughly averted with Dormi, your mage’s second spell. It has a very high success rate on just about everything in all four of Arino’s challenges, and can even be used to win Meistr fights without taking non-passive Guadia damage.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the second game, Arino [[spoiler: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]]...]]

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Compared to all the previous titles, ''Guadia Quest'' takes a lot more hours to beat, features a lot more strategy to it, and is the first out of the bunch to have a save feature.

The game was successful enough to get a DS sequel in 2009 and a 3DS one in 2014, but [[NoExportForYou only in Japan]]. The first game's US release had absolutely no marketing, which led to poor sales there, though a FanTranslation [[http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2217/ is available]] for the second game.

* StandardStatusEffects: In addition to Sleep from the first game, there's also Poison, Silence, and Confusion.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Less so than in the first game, thanks to a number of unique weapons that can cast StandardStatusEffects-inflicting spells when you trigger the strongest possible hit with them, meaning you don't have to waste turns and MP casting the said spells normally. The damage-dealing spells are also more powerful by default and won't be outclassed by physical attacks quite as early.

* AffectionateParody: Of ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''.

* CheckpointStarvation: While Haggleman still respawns in the room where he died, you can save your game only between levels. This is exploited by Game Master Arino, who automatically turns the console off every time you beat a challenge, forcing you to watch the same Amatsumi intro cutscene at least three times.
* DarkerAndEdgier
* DistaffCounterpart: Haggleman Lady.
* ExtendedGameplay: So you think defeating Choi in Episode 3 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.]]

* [[ForcedLevelGrinding Forced Money Grinding]]: You need to buy the 3-shot no less than three times, since as stated above, finishing a challenge ends the game instantly and doesn't give you a chance to save.

** TookALevelInBadass: The title character, able to upgrade himself, use a sword, able to take more than two hits, and overall looks cooler.
* TheImperialRegalia: The Imperial Regalia of Japan serve as the game's {{Plot Coupon}}s.
* {{Metroidvania}}: The game is divided into three levels, which are pretty huge and are still comprised of Hagglegears, local VideoGameTools, and tons of BackTracking.
* PowersAsPrograms: Hagglegears are equipped this way.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The trio from Cameraman Abe's very own manga, ''Delinquent Daimyos'', acts as this game's boss characters. Gets subverted, however, since they are separate from each other between the episodes.

* AsteroidThicket: Asteroid levels serve as the game's BonusStage. Shooting asteroids provides points, and mid-sized aster

* OneUp: Revealed when you destroy enough mid-sized asteroids in an asteroid field.

** The plot of the games is a sendup to ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'': the protagonist is a robot with "Man" in his name created by a scientist, his allies include the scientist's daughter (though unlike Roll, Koume isn't a robot) and a robot dog, and the villain is a rival scientist with an army of robots and an EvilKnockoff of the protagonist.
* AdjectiveNounFred: Robot Ninja Haggle Man.
* AssistCharacter: Koume, Little Zenmai, and Cyborg K9, as soon as you collect three scrolls that summon one of them.
** AwesomeButImpractical: In the original ''Haggle Man'', it would be more probable that you'd summon your buddy in the completely wrong time (for instance, K9 when the enemies are on the other floor or Koume when they're outside the screen range), thanks to the fact that they're summoned instantly when you pick up the third scroll that's required to summon them. That would be later "fixed" for the sequel where you can choose when to summon them by pressing Up+B once you've collected three scrolls.
* BigEater: Koume, by the time of ''2''.

* DubNameChange: The Princess' actual name, never mentioned in the localization, 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, Haggleman would be less of a stereotypical "intelligent robot" to you.

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

* ReverseShrapnel / DeflectorShields: The "Spark Shot", which fires shots in all directions when you absorb three enemy bullets with your barrier. It even [[MercyInvincibility makes you invincible for a moment]], making it excellent for use as a point-blank weapon.

* AsteroidThicket / BonusStage
* BigCreepyCrawlies / BugWar

* WarpZone: The titular Cosmic Gates.

* AffectionateParody: Well yeah, it does derive some of the gameplay elements from ''Ninja Jajamaru-Kun'', going as far that both series feature ninja protagonists and introduce vertical stage scrolling by part two.
** The rivalry between two scientists is also a really obvious nod to [[VideoGame/MegaMan a certain classic series of games]]. Apart from the popular opinion, however, the gameplay is not.

* DamselInDistress
* TheDoorSlamsYou: Haggleman can enter and exit doors to kill enemies close to them. Helpfully, entering a door affects all on-screen ones that share its color.
* DubNameChange: The Princess' 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, Haggleman would be less of a stereotypical "intelligent robot" to you.
* GoombaStomp: One way to stun and then kill enemies in the two games.

* MercyInvincibility: Given to the bosses.
* MultiMookMelee: On each level.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: It's ''all'' in the title. He even throws gear shuriken!
* SequelDifficultySpike: ''2'' wastes no time in overwhelming you with enemies. Also, all bosses now have multiple HP.
* SpellingBonus: A partial example - entering any 3 doors in 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.

* ProductPlacement: ''SP'' is a joint venture between ''Rally King''[='s=] developer, ''[=GameFan=] Magazine'', and a ramen noodle company.
** 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.

* 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 ''VideoGame/StarSoldier'', this miniboss is basically Lalios, a miniboss from ''Star Force'' who behaves in the exact same way and offers the same opportunity for a technical bonus.
* MutuallyExclusivePowerups
* OneUp: Hidden beneath certain tiles.

* ShoutOut: An in-game example - the purple powerup acts the same way as the powerup in ''Cosmic Gate''.
** As stated, the entire game is one to ''Star Soldier''. This is made even more obvious in the sequel, where there's a special tournament edition with 3- and 5-minute modes.
* SmartBomb: Available by, get this, shooting a powerup instead of collecting it.

* 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 GameCenter CX]]'', doesn't the king in the Centraan castle look familiar?
** 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=]]] - Slapstick. Of course, given that Arino is a comedian, even if he doesn't specialize in slapstick humor...

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Even though you vanquished the Dark Scream, you still killed the Dark Lord and Holy King on his orders, violated the treaty, and completely shattered the peace between the three worlds. NiceJobBreakingItHero. It is inferred that for all you did, you at least brought hope, and that the people's desire for peace could still lead to something good in the long run, "[[SequelHook but that is a tale for another day.]]"]]
* EscapeRope: Naga Wings and the first hero's Warp ability.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Celestial Tower, the "reaching infinitely into the sky" type.
* 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 to 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 in-game manual.
** Thankfully averted in the sequel, where pressing Select gives you a description on any item, spell, or skill.

* 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.
* MoneySpider

* [[spoiler:NiceJobBreakingItHero]]

* 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 ''Dragon Quest'' 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.

** And then there's [[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul frickin' Edge]]!

* UselessUsefulSpell: Both played straight and averted. While they're naturally useless against random encounters, status spells (especially the Dormi sleep spell obtained early on) have a decent enough success rate to cripple opponents for a long period of time, if not the rest of the battle. Dormi is of particular note, as sleeping enemies do not wake up when hit, and it takes a long time for it to wear off naturally.
* WithThisHerring: The party starts out woefully underequipped despite being sent off to do the king's will. He, however, also gives 500 ducats so the party would get all the needed equipment by themselves.

The game was successful enough to get a DS sequel in 2009 and a 3DS one in 2014, but [[NoExportForYou only in Japan]]. The first game's US release had absolutely ''no'' marketing, which led to poor sales there, though a FanTranslation [[http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2217/ is available]] for the second game.

* {{Platformer}}:

[[folder:''Retro Game Challenge'' 1 and 2 in general]]
* AddressingThePlayer: Parodied in the first two games - the name you enter in the beginning is only used at the 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.
* AuthorAvatar: Arino appears both as a young boy and a disembodied [[VideoGame/BrainAge Kawashima]]-style head.
** The latter also appears as [[spoiler:top-secret Guadia monsters 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.
* BigBad: Game Master Arino is an evil digital version of Shinya Arino who sends the protagonist back in time to his childhood and challenges him to beat his various games to be able to return to his/her time.
* BitingTheHandHumor: TOMATO is basically this universe's 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 created ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Wiz-Man]]'' two years after ''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 two genres the real Arino is the best and worst at, respectively.

* UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars: Young Arino and his friend get into one late in the second game, with Arino rooting for Game Computer and its upgrades, with his friend staying loyal to the ENTER series.
* DeusExMachina: Played for laughs in the second game - the 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.

* ExcusePlot: A mean virtual Arino sends you to the past to play retro video games.
* {{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 ''Haggle Man 3'' turns out to have a DarkerAndEdgier makeover.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Young Arino wonders if he'll actually be like ''that'' when he grows up, though he's glad that his future self is still a gamer.
* 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.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* 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 Touch Screen to reveal them.
* IntentionalEngrishForFunny: "Your adventure is not end!", etc.
** ''Star Prince'' has the especially hilarious "'''''GREAT!'''''" in big flashing letters, followed by "Finaly you saved ancient times ROYAL POWER!" "Thanks for playing - And you will get final bonus!", before counting up the bonus points for however many lives you have left. TOMATO seems to like "FINALY" in particular.
* 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.
* NoExportForYou: It's a series created by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment and the first one didn't sell. What do you think?
** 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.
* NoFairCheating: You're allowed to use even the most [[GameBreaker game-breaking]] cheats and shortcuts to win the challenges Game Master Arino sends you, but most of the cheats in Free Play Mode are disabled.
** Relaxed in the sequel: if you simply can't beat a challenge no matter how hard you try and you've played the game at least 5 times, you can call Arino and forfeit it to move onto the next one, but there's no way to complete them later and you can't forfeit any of the endgame challenges.
* OneHitPointWonder: In ''Cosmic Gate'' and ''Star Prince''.
* {{Pastiche}}
* PaletteSwap

* 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.

** ''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 one huge WaitingPuzzle!]]

** John Garland, Clarissa Arvin, and Marvin P. Android are claimed to be the men behind ''Guadia Quest'' in one of the ''[=GameFan=]'' articles as game programmer, scriptwriter, and monster designer respectively. [[spoiler:Not that these names appear in the credits, though - 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 ''[=GameCenter=] CX'' cast! InconsistentDub ahoy.]]

** ''Rally King'' has two: the promotional tie-in ''SP'' and the tournament-based ''ex''.
** ''Haggle Man'' has a ''Koume Edition''.
** ''Star Prince'' has a ''Score Attack Version''.
** ''Cosmic Gate'' on the [[UsefulNotes/{{MSX}} MASA-X]] which, with all the gameplay extras such as actual bosses, could be considered an in-universe PolishedPort, although it suffers from a more limited color palette due to running on a fictional counterpart to the MSX. Interestingly enough, despite the various extras, the in-universe company who made the original game apparently didn't like the end result.

* AWinnerIsYou: The endings to most of the games.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler:''Haggle Man'', ''Haggle Man 2'', and ''Star Prince'' all have a second loop, absolutely not unlike ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins''.]]

* BigBad: Game Master Arino is an evil digital version of Shinya Arino who sends the protagonist back in time to his childhood and challenges him to beat his various games to be able to return to his time.

''Retro Game Challenge'' (a.k.a. ''[=GameCenter=] 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.

[[folder:''Retro Game Challenge'' 1 and 2 in general]]
* AddressingThePlayer: Parodied in the first two games - the name you enter in the beginning is only used at the 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.
* AuthorAvatar: Arino appears both as a young boy and a disembodied [[VideoGame/BrainAge Kawashima]]-style head.
** The latter also appears as [[spoiler:top-secret Guadia monsters 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 this universe's 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 created ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Wiz-Man]]'' two years after ''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 two 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 in the first ''Retro Game Challenge'' alone]].
* UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars: Young Arino and his friend get into one late in the second game, with Arino rooting for Game Computer and its upgrades, with his friend staying loyal to the ENTER series.
* DeusExMachina: Played for laughs in the second game - the 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 shooters) give you extra lives at certain numbers of points. This is most noticeable in ''[=GunDuel=]'', 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 retro video games.
* {{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 ''Haggle Man 3'' turns out to have a DarkerAndEdgier makeover.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Young Arino wonders if he'll actually be like ''that'' when he grows up, though he's glad that his future self is still a gamer.
* 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.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* 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 Touch Screen to reveal them.
* IntentionalEngrishForFunny: "Your adventure is not end!", etc.
** ''Star Prince'' has the especially hilarious "'''''GREAT!'''''" in big flashing letters, followed by "Finaly you saved ancient times ROYAL POWER!" "Thanks for playing - And you will get final bonus!", before counting up the bonus points for however many lives you have left. TOMATO seems to like "FINALY" in particular.
* 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.
* NoExportForYou: It's a series created by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment and the first one didn't sell. What do you think?
** 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.
* NoFairCheating: You're allowed to use even the most [[GameBreaker game-breaking]] cheats and shortcuts to win the challenges Game Master Arino sends you, but most of the cheats in Free Play Mode are disabled.
** Relaxed in the sequel: if you simply can't beat a challenge no matter how hard you try and you've played the game at least 5 times, you can call Arino and forfeit it to move onto the next one, but there's no way to complete them later and you can't forfeit any of the endgame challenges.
* OneHitPointWonder: In ''Cosmic Gate'' and ''Star Prince''.
* {{Pastiche}}
* PaletteSwap
* 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.
* {{Retraux}}: The first game takes inspiration for its games entirely from the Famicom. The second game mixes things up a bit by giving you multiple game systems with different technical capabilities.
* ScoringPoints: Most of the games have a point system. Free-play mode includes a high-score table allowing you to challenge your best performance.
* 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''.
** 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 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.
* TakeThat: Kid Arino is bothered by the ProductPlacement nature of ''Rally King SP'' and wonders if that'll be common in the future.
-->''"Games should be games, and ads should just be ads."''
* TooLongDidntDub: While the US version fared pretty well on adapting the source material to its target audience, there are still some goofs here and there.
** First, the Game Computer and all the cartridges for it look more similar to the original Famicom rather than the 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=]'' 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=]'' articles as game programmer, scriptwriter, and monster designer respectively. [[spoiler:Not that these names appear in the credits, though - 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 ''[=GameCenter=] CX'' cast! InconsistentDub ahoy.]]
* UpdatedRerelease:
** ''Rally King'' has two: the promotional tie-in ''SP'' and the tournament-based ''ex''.
** ''Haggle Man'' has a ''Koume Edition''.
** ''Star Prince'' has a ''Score Attack Version''.
** ''Cosmic Gate'' on the [[UsefulNotes/{{MSX}} MASA-X]] which, with all the gameplay extras such as actual bosses, could be considered an in-universe PolishedPort, although it suffers from a more limited color palette due to running on a fictional counterpart to the MSX. Interestingly enough, despite the various extras, the in-universe company who made the original game apparently didn't like the end result.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Young Arino will often comment on playground rumors. Sometimes they provide real tips and secrets, but more often than not they'll be just that, rumors.
* AWinnerIsYou: The endings to most of the games.
* 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'', where beating one of the bosses gives you a message almost identical to the original.
[[/folder]]

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: White enemies can be killed with any magic rod, blue enemies can only be killed with a fire rod, red enemies can only be killed with an ice rod, and dark purple enemies can only be killed with a golden rod. Interestingly, 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.