History VideoGame / TakeshisChallenge

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Drinking the tequila, in particular, will actually restore your health, but only one heart at a time, and {{Yakuza}} will come in to beat you up after enough time passes, potentially starting a ViciousCycle where you drink, heal, fight, get hurt, drink, repeat. You can drink until you get completely hammered. [[spoiler: You need to in order to complete the game.]]

-->''[if the player sucks at Karaoke]'' THAT WAS SHIT. GET OUTTA HERE.
-->''[shouting too loudly into the microphone]'' SHUT UP, YOU DICK!
--> DON'T BE A DICK. STOP HOGGING THE MIC!

** Forget to buy [[spoiler: hang-gliding lessons]] before leaving for the South Pacific? You'll be stuck on the island, unable to reach the treasure island. No other lessons work, by the way. You can also miss out on getting [[spoiler: shamisen and lessons for it, or the language lessons]], but that doesn't make the game unwinnable, just more difficult. What does cause un-winnability is not grabbing [[spoiler:a canteen]] before leaving for the treasure island.

* WideOpenSandbox: A [=2D=] version, where you go across a city and later an island and have to enter their different establishments and perform a variety of tasks to progress the game. Some activities and interactions are purely optional and won't affect anything, and you can start a dialogue with just about every character that you come across, including some enemies.

* ControllableHelplessness: Instead of the hang glider, you can use any vehicle that you know how to use to reach the treasure island. Except not; the boat and scuba gear can't fly, the hot-air balloon can't move up or down, and the Cessna can't land. Essentially, picking anything besides the hang glider leads to this.

** On the last island, you can enter any house, but they will keep you trapped for no reason. There's a big "exit" sign with a huge open window, you can move around all you want, but you will be stuck in the house with no way out.

** On the last island, you can enter any house, but one of them will keep you trapped for no reason. There's a big "exit" sign with a huge open window, you can move around all you want, but you will be stuck in the house with no way out. The kicker? If you use a password, you'll pop back up ''in the house where you're stuck.''

''Takeshi no Chousenjou'' (Takeshi's Challenge) was a 1986 troll VideoGame on the Famicom, made by Creator/{{Taito}} under the direction of Japanese comedian and film director Creator/TakeshiKitano, known as ''Beat Takeshi''. The player controls a despondent {{salaryman}} that must go through a lot of tribulations to find great riches.

The game has a WideOpenSandbox world and ImmersiveSim elements, and allows players to get up to all kinds of shenanigans in an urban city, making it like a distant precursor to something like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''.

* EasterEgg: If you choose to stare at the blank map for an hour, [[spoiler:a TV-show signing-off message appears, and the screen goes dark. Wait three more hours, and the standard TV test pattern appears. Wait another hour, you see a "good morning" text box, and the game resumes.]]

* GuideDangIt: ''The entire game.'' In fact, an official strategy guide was released alongside the game, but it wasn't enough (it literally didn't contain all the steps needed to beat the game), so another was published not too long after. The company has claimed that this happened because the original guide's author literally ''died'' while writing it, though according to later interviews this was a lie they put out because they couldn't handle the volume of calls about the game.

** Have too much money on hand before divorcing your wife? You'll lose so much from alimony you can't buy anything. You have to avoid giving her money by spending what you can beforehand.

** Forget to buy [[spoiler: hang-gliding lessons]] before leaving for the South Pacific? You'll be stuck on the island, unable to reach the treasure island. No other lessons work, by the way. You can also miss out on getting [[spoiler: shamisen and lessons for it, or the language lessons]], but that doesn't make the game unwinnable, just more difficult. What does cause unwinnability is not grabbing [[spoiler:a canteen]] before leaving for the treasure island.
** The most cruel of them: Don't [[spoiler:beat up the old man who gives you the treasure map]]? The game allows you to progress... until the very end, where [[spoiler:the old man comes out and steals the treasure when it's in your grasp]]. Have fun ''starting all over''.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You have the option to punch just about anyone in the game, regardless if [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption it will help]] or not. You can beat ''your own wife and children to death'' in the game.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Going around punching random people can instantly result in security or the police to get involved. In the case of the password screen, you instantly game over.

* EasterEgg: If you choose to stare at the blank map for an hour, [[spoiler:A TV-show signing-off message appears, and the screen goes dark. Wait three more hours, and the standard TV test pattern appears. Wait another hour, you see a "good morning" text box, and the game resumes.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: For whatever reason, the whole world is conspiring to see a lowly salaryman dead. Then again, to win the game he ends up [[spoiler: quitting his job, leaving his wife and kids while giving them as little money as possible in alimony payment, killing an old man, and flying out to the south pacific to go treasure hunting]]. [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist So yeah maybe he deserves it.]]

* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: In the hang gliding section, you need to hit gusts of wind to increase your altitude. Shooting a gust of wind ''destroys it''.

* BlackComedy: The game has funny options like beating up your wife and kids, getting fired from your job or drinking alcohol to restore your health. And that's just the beginning.

* EasterEgg: If you choose to stare at the blank map for an hour, [[spoiler:A TV-show signing off message appears, and the screen goes dark. Wait three more hours, and the standard TV test pattern appears. Wait another hour, you see a "good morning" text box, and the game resumes.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: For whatever reason, the whole world is conspiring to see a lowly salaryman dead. Then again, to win the game he ends up [[spoiler: quitting his job, leave his wife and kids while giving them as little money as possible in alimony payment, kill an old man, and fly out to the south pacific to go treasure hunting]]. [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist So yeah maybe he deserves it.]]

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Drinking the tequila in particular will actually restore your health, but only one heart at a time, and {{Yakuza}} will come in to beat you up after enough time passes, potentially starting a ViciousCycle where you drink, heal, fight, get hurt, drink, repeat. You can drink until you get completely hammered. [[spoiler: You need to in order to complete the game.]]
* JokeItem: Half of what you can buy serves no purpose whatsoever. Half of those that do have a purpose do nothing to help you progress. In the barber shop, you can even ''pay to get damaged''.

* LostInTranslation: That restaurant from the English localization [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext titled "Grilled Mormons"]]? That's actually a perfectly accurate translation of the joke in Japanese, but the intent of it got mangled up -- in the original, its sign was a play on grilled "horumon" (ホルモン), a type of beef/pork cuisine, changing its "h" to an "m" to make it "morumon", as a basic joke on wordplay. No actual TakeThat mentality towards Mormons were intended (as far as we know).
* MagicalAsian: Ruthlessly parodied when one shows up to give you the paper that turns out to be a map to hidden treasure. The player ends up beating him to death in the middle of the bar. [[spoiler:He functions as a KaizoTrap, predating the {{Trope Namer|s}}.]]
* MoonLogicPuzzle: Tons. Good luck figuring out that you need to dip that piece of paper you get in water when any sane human being would just read it as is.

** If you get social dance lessons, and try to use them to get out of the island chief's pot, he's so impressed he makes you marry his daughter. The wedding isn't seen, as the game quite literally says goodbye and tells you to reset. Trying any other option (or the right option without the skills to do it) just leads to a little dialogue before you get boiled, leading to the standard game over screen.

* StealthParody: Of the concept of videogames as a whole, being deliberately designed to annoy the player. Granted it's about as stealthy as a grizzly bear armed with chainsaws crashing a jeep into your living room.

* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Let's put this in perspective. The very first thing you have to do is ignore the very first conversation option in the game (who is right next to your spawn point), walk all the way out of the building, run straight for the bank (dodging Yakuza mooks) and empty your bank account. If you do ''any''thing else, you will probably run out of either money or health.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: You play as a salaryman whose goal is to quit the job that he hates, leave his family with as little money that he can give them, and go treasure hunting to make himself rich, all while deciding to punch everything in sight to get there. It's little wonder why [[EverythingTryingToKillYou the world wants him dead]].

* WideOpenSandbox: A [=2D=] version, where you go across a city and later an island and have to enter their different establishments and perform a variety of tasks to progress the game. Some activities and interactions are purely optional and won't affect anything, and you can start dialogue with just about every character that you come across, including some enemies.
* AWinnerIsYou: The ending screen does not give you a real ending so much as it shows Creator/TakeshiKitano's cartoon face, and the words ''Amazing'' and "The End". If the player waits a few minutes afterwards, [[TakeThatAudience he calls you out]] on taking this "crappy game" seriously enough to actually finish it through.

* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: You can punch everybody and in many cases, it will help you advance in the game! You can punch your wife and kids! [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids You can end up murdering them if you really want to!]] Yay!

** On the last island, you can enter any house, but one of them will keep you trapped for no reason. There’s a big "exit" sign with a huge open window, you can move around all you want, but you will be stuck in the house with no way out. The kicker? If you use a password, you’ll pop back up ''in the house where you’re stuck.''

The game sold 800,000 copies in its lifetime and was made available in Japan's UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} in 2009.

** Forget to buy [[spoiler: hang-gliding lessons]] before leaving for the South Pacific? You'll be stuck on the island, unable to reach the treasure island. No other lessons work, by the way. You can also miss out on getting [[spoiler: shamisan and lessons for it, or the language lessons]], but that doesn't make the game unwinnable, just more difficult. What does cause unwinnability is not grabbing [[spoiler:a canteen]] before leaving for the treasure island.

* MagicalAsian: Ruthlessly parodied when one shows up to give you the paper that turns out to be a map to hidden treasure. The player ends up beating him to death in the middle of the bar. [[spoiler:He functions as a KaizoTrap, predating the TropeMaker.]]

* FinalDeath: One thing that makes this game NintendoHard is that there are no lives; lose all your health and you're dead without a special code.

-->--'''Intro text'''

The game sold 800,000 copies in its lifetime and was made available in Japan's Virtual Console for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} in 2009.

--> '''[=JonTron=]''': Never in my life have I said "Goddammit, I shot the wind again!" and meant it. And '''meant''' that.

--> '''[=JonTron=]''': "Game Over"? Heh, I think there has to be a ''game'' first for it to be over. Maybe they're talkin' about the game of life.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You have the option to punch just about anyone in the game, regardless if [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption it will help]] or not. You can beat ''your own wife and children to death'' in the game. ''WebVideo/JonTron'' was suitably horrified when he found out.
--> '''[=JonTron=]''': Also I'd just like to point out that [[SuddenlyShouting there is a licensed Nintendo game WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN IT!!]]

* WeirdnessMagnet: The salarmyan has a natural talent for attracting the weirdest situations and their equally insane solutions.

* WideOpenSandbox: A [=2D=] version, where you go across a city and later an island and have to enter their different establishments and perform a variety of tasks to progress the game. Some activates are purely optional and won't affect anything, and you can start dialogue with just about every character that you come across, including some enemies.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: You play as a salaryman whose goal is to quit the job that he hates, leave his family with as little money that he can give them, and go treasure hunting to make himself rich, all while deciding to punch everything in sight to get there. It's little wonder why [[EverythingTryingToKillYou the world wants him dead]], and though it all seems pretty funny at the start, it will quickly get on your nerves if you actually intend to beat the game.

%%* WideOpenSandbox

* ClassicVideoGameScrewYous: In the hang-gliding section, you need to hit gusts of wind to increase your altitude. Shooting a gust of wind ''destroys it''.

* ControllableHelplessness: Instead of the hang-glider, you can use any vehicle that you know how to use to reach the treasure island. Except not; the boat and scuba gear can't fly, the hot-air balloon can't move up or down, and the Cessna can't land. Essentially, picking anything besides the hang-glider leads to this.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You have the option to punch jsut about anyone in the game, regardless if [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption it will help]] or not. You can beat ''your own wife and children to death'' in the game. ''WebVideo/JonTron'' was suitably horrified when he found out.

* MagicalAsian: Ruthlessly parodied when one shows up to give you the paper that turns out to be a map to hidden treasure. The player ends up beating him to death in the middle of the bar. He functions as a KaizoTrap, predating the TropeMaker.

* StealthParody: Granted it's about as stealthy as a grizzly bear armed with chainsaws crashing a jeep into your living room.

* WaitingPuzzle: The infamous piece of paper. [[GuideDangIt Unless you]] [[spoiler:yell into the microphone after waiting at least 5 minutes, but no more than ten after you get the paper wet - too early or too late and you ruin it.]]

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can beat your own wife and children to death in the game. WebVideo/JonTron was suitably horrified when he found out.
--> '''[=JonTron=]''': Also I'd just like to point out that [[SuddenlyShouting there is a licensed Nintendo game WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN IT!!]]

* FinalDeath: One thing that makes this game NintendoHard is that there's no lives; lose all your health and you're dead without a special code.

* DeathOfAChild: You can beat up your own children in the game and kill them (insofar as any character in the game dies.)

* GuideDangIt: ''The entire game.'' In fact, an official strategy guide was released alongside the game, but it wasn't enough (it literally didn't contain all the steps needed to beat the game), so another was published not too long after. The company has claimed that this happened because the original guide's author literally ''died'' while writing it.
* HopelessBossFight:

%%* ImmersiveSim

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: For whatever reason, the whole world is conspiring to see a lowly salaryman dead.