「この番組的には、流行語大賞はＯｈ！ガメオベールと思います」

「ラーク？タバコを吸う奴おったっけな・・・・　神宮寺しかおらへんで！」

『ゲームセンターＣＸ　134:  解決しろ！「探偵神宮寺三郎 新宿中央公園殺人事件」』

"A Lark cigarette? Was there a suspect who smoked...? Jinguuji is the only one smoking!"

"Game Center CX 134: Solve it! Detective Jinguuji Saburou Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case"

So this might be because of the whole connection with Japanese culture and the average age of bloggers out there, but is the only blog dedicated to detective fiction that actually discusses (detective) games at all? Am I the only one who uses a 'game' tag? I really can't see why a mystery fan wouldn't try the Ace Attorney games for example...

Anyway, I have discussed my random thoughts about observing other people while they are tackling a piece of detective fiction earlier, using the fantastic program Game Center CX as an example. In the program, section chief Arino Shinya (of comedy duo Yoiko) is locked up with a retro (and usually hard) videogame in a room, which he needs to beat. He has challenged detective games earlier, but luck has it that this week's episode was actually of the section chief playing Detective Jinguuji Saburou - The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case, the first game in a series I absolutely love and have mentioned quite often here. In fact, I have sorta reviewed the game here too, so for the basic game mechanics I refer to that post. Anyway, as a fan of both the game and the program itself, I was really interested to see how section chief Arino would handle the role of the hardboiled detective and the case of the mysterious murdered girl who was found in the middle of Shinjuku Central Park.

What makes the Game Center CX's episodes with graphic adventure games so fun is the fact that Arino is forced to talk a lot more than usual. In most episodes, Arino's challenges concern action games and humour is derived from the fact that Arino is, to put it lightly, usually not very good at those games. And with not good I mean that is very likely that he will get stuck for hours on on just one level. Maybe just one part of a level (looking at you, Castlevania III episode!). Thus much time of a episode is spent on just watching Arino falling from a cliff again. Or walking into an enemy. Or accidently forgetting to press continue. Or forgetting to equip the super special awesome rare sword he spent hours forging, making him unable to fight back and die miserably. Which makes it seem likes Game Center CX is only fun if you have like to see others fail, which isn't true. It is so awesome because Arino keeps on trying despite failing constantly.

These events just don't happen often in adventure games though. Though to be honest, I was quite surprised to see Arino getting a game over screen almost immediately in The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case, because he insisted on treating the police detective in charge of the case as a suspect. Interactivity and unpredicability of videogames at his best. Heck, I didn't even know you could get a game over screen so soon! Seeing him running around looking for 'the disappeared' Youko for a long time in the park only for him to find out that Youko is Jinguuji's assistent and just waiting at the office is just hilarious.

To make up for the lack of action and humour derived from the footage itself in this game, Arino just talks a lot. Usually it is just seeing him making hilarous comments about the game and the dialogue (he is technically a tsukkomi in Yoiko, or at least the lesser boke). But at other times you hear him seriously voicing his thoughts about the case and see an 'actual' detective at work. This is something really fun you'd practically never see in real life: see how a fellow 'reader' (in this case a gamer) handles a piece of detective fiction: how he interprets the evidence, how he thinks about the suspects, how he connects the little puzzles of the plot into one cohesive net of murder. To aid the TV audience, but especially himself, Arino for example has the neat habit of writing everything down on a whiteboard in a chart. He organises all the evidence, testimonies and his own suspicions in a grand scheme, with arrows pointing here and there. I know that some people indeed sometimes write these things down when reading detective fiction (I tend to keep it all in my head), so it is really funny to see how someone handles a detective story.

Which is made even more clear by the fact that this is a videogame. While there are limits to your freedom within a game, especially in older adventure games, it is still clear that Arino moves according to his deductions. He visits the people he suspects first and is clearly less polite to them (there is a threaten command in the game) than to people he thinks are innoccent. There are some psychological researches on how people handle detective fiction, looking at how people come up with deductions and hypotheses based on the story itself, experience with the genre and knowledge of tropes (see the attic for some Japanese sources). Because of all these parameters, very different interpretations are made of the same situation and it is within the realm of interactive detective fiction that you really clearly see what for results this can have. The way the plot develops in The Shinjuku Central Park Murder Case is relatively an on-rails experience, but here it was clear that Arino did same stuff different from me. I for one didn't get a game over screen five minutes in the game.

Arino makes some big deductions during the episode and is asked to make his final thoughts clear just before the big finale. Receiving a pack of chocolate cigarettes of the director Inoue (the legendary assistant director who only seemed to work against Arino when in cooperative play), Arino mimicks the smoking private detective Jinguuji and actually comes up with some great deductions during his play of the game. Or were it guesses? Fact is that he has an impressive track record with detective games (Kamaitachi no Yoru and Ohotsk ni Kiyu) where he keeps on solving cases long before the finale. Seeing Arino actually being incredibly good at games is also fun at times.

It was strange to see no in-game smoking scenes though, even though there is a special command to smoke. Yes, you can actually opt to choose to smoke in this game series and sometimes, it is even required to advance in the game.

Anyway, it was interesting to see in details how someone else solves a detective story. And even better that it was a game I know and like, in the setting of a TV progam I love.

Original Japanese title(s): 『ゲームセンターＣＸ　134: 解決しろ！「探偵神宮寺三郎 新宿中央公園殺人事件」』

「心に並べても未完成なパズル 」

「事件に大きいも小さいも無い」

『踊る大捜査線』

"You don't judge cases by their size"

"Bayside Shakedown"

Welcome to another entry in Short Shorts. Or wait, this is actually the first Short Shorts. Am I really going to call this Short Shorts? Hmm. Anyway, this is where I post things that aren't nearly interesting enough to justify a whole post on their own, but are somewhat acceptable if thrown in with some other bits and pieces. The bits and pieces are unrelated, but who cares?

I bought Speak of The Devil over a year ago and decided yesterday to finally read it. Speak of the Devil was a radio drama (this being the script) written by John Dickson Carr and is basically an enhanced version of She Slept Lightly (which is collected in 13 to the Gallows). A historic mystery where a man is haunted by his desire to meet a girl who is supposed to have been hanged some years earlier, but the mystery is rather light and the sappy love story really asked a lot of tolerance of my part. Speak of the Devil and She Slept Lightly are also extremely similar, so there is actually no need to read both stories. Are there actually scripts available for Suspense? Carr had some interesting stories there, which would have been much more enjoyable to read than Speak of the Devil.

Reverse Thieves has a pretty interesting segment where they discuss homages / parodies to detectives in non-related anime/manga series. To name some of my own favorites: The Serizawa Family Murder Case, a chapter in the classic Golgo 13. In fact, Golgo 13 is a name that might be mentioned more often from now on. The titular Golgo 13 is the world's number one professional assassin. And that's pretty all to the story. The stories often involve international politics in the background, but most of the interesting stories are when Golgo is forced to make an impossible snipe. Thieves like Lupin might be experts on how to make a seemingly impossible theft, but Golgo 13 is an expert in overcoming the odds and assassinate people in seemingly impossible situations. You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I really should write something more extensive about Golgo 13 sometime.

But anyway, The Serizawa Family Murder Case is might be an origin story for the perfect assassin. The story has a slow start, but presents the reader with a very interesting impossible disappearance halfway through the story. A woman is seen entering a hotel room, shortly after followed by a man. Police officers have all exits under surveillance. After some time however, the man exits the room, complaining that the woman still has not come! The police has no idea what's going on: they swear they saw the woman enter first, but the man says she was never there and simply thought that she was late. A search of the room shows that she has really disappeared from under the police's nose. The solution is a pretty suprising one if you weren't expecting a locked room mystery in your Golgo 13.

Another locked room mystery I had totally forgotten about is in King Ottokar's Sceptre, the eight album in the Adventures of Tintin series. I will refer to Tintin as Kuifje (his Dutch name) from now on by the way, because Tintin just feels strange. I haven't seen the new movie (and I seem to be the only one who genuinely enjoyed the videogame), but rewatching the 90's TV series reminded me of the locked room mystery in King Ottokar's Sceptre. In it, the titular sceptre disappears from a guarded room, with the only person inside being knocked out. While the solution is pretty simple and arguably maybe a bit childish, it's still a pretty entertaining story.

For me, reading/watching detective fiction is something I usually do on my own, so I naturally keep all my thoughts I have to myself. Occasionally I cry out some incoherent stuff, but it's usually a silent process. As I watched some episodes of (the awesome) Game Center CX however, I realized how strange it is to hear someone else think out loud while confronting a piece of detective fiction. In episodes 105 and 113, section chief Arino challenges the two detective games Hokkaidou Serial Murder Case - Disppear to Ohotsk (sequel to Portopia Serial Murder Case) and Kamaitachi no Yoru. While in episodes with action-based games, most of the fun of the show is derived from seeing how Arino struggles to progress in the game, these two episodes show a surprisingly sharp Arino trying to solve the murder cases in those games. Most Game Center CX episodes are filled with expressions like "Aaah, game over!", "Jump!!", "Need more lives!!", but as these kind of tensions are usually not present in detective games, Arino is forced to think out loud, to voice his deductions in order to fill out the 60 minutes of the show.

 And it's actually really fun, hearing how someone tackles a detective story. When you watch a detective show with someone else, you'll occasionally voice your deductions, but in these two episodes, Arino has to talk constantly because he is the only person in front of the camera and he has to pull the viewers in. It is really strange to follow a person's complete train of thought while playing a detective game, or engaging in any kind of detective fiction, but it's really interesting to see how people's way of thinking and deducing differ, even if the input (the story/clues) are the same. It's more fun that simply comparing solutions, because here we see the complete picture of how Arino progresses through the story and changes his ideas as he encounters new evidence. And sometimes bumbles around. Greatest moment of the Kamaitachi no Yoru episode? When the protagonist in the game exclaims he know who the murderer is, while Arino exclaims in return that he has no friggin' idea who the murderer is.

Thus ends this short short. I'll probably forget about the existence this type of post.... by the end of next month and will probably invoke it again in six months or so. That increasing pain in my head is also probably trying to tell me I should sleep now.

「パターン入った！パターン入った！」

 「これがクッパの恐ろしい所なんですよ」

「お前クッパの何知ってんねん！」

『ゲームセンターＣＸ』

"That is what makes Bowser so fearsome"

"Whattaheck would you know about Bowser?!"

"Game Center CX"

I don't watch that many TV programs (and the few ones I do watch get cancelled or something like that), but Game Center CX has to be my favorite at the moment. Arino Shinya (of manzai duo Yoiko) here plays the character of the kachou ('section chief') of the fictional company Game Center CX and his task is to play old, retro games and show the ending to the viewers. He usually has a time limit of one day to beat the game and the program tracks his progress throughout the games. Arino is not particularly good in videogames (except for puzzle games) and you'll probably shout countless of times at Arino throughout his challenges, but his sheer tenacity makes the program a delight to watch. Anyone plays one single stage for over 7 hours trying to get to the ending deserves some praise, right? For anyone who likes games, this program is a must-see. It's just inspiring watching Arino taking on games like Ninja Gaiden and Ghost'n Goblins.

And yes, it's a program about games, so it is not weird there is a game based on Game Center CX. Two games actually (only the first one is available in English). Both the Nintendo DS games have the same concept: they are a collection of faux-retro games: games that invoke the old NES/Famicom spirit, in looks, audio and gameplay (but made now). These aren't just mini-games, they are full-fledged games that really feel like they could have been released in the late eighties. The games even come complete with illustrated manuals and there are in-game game magazines with cheats and walkthroughs for these games! And for fans of the show, there are A LOT of inside jokes, including guest appearances by the assistent directors/producers and references to some of Arino's challenges. Who for example is surprised by the appearance of super-fast-and-deadly birds in the Ninja Gaiden inspired Haguruman 3?

So what does this have to do with detective fiction? Well, the second Game Center CX game actually contains a wonderful detective adventure game: Kachou wa Meitantei ("The Section Chief is the Great Detective"). It of course invokes the spirit of games like Famicom Tantei Club, Tantei Jinbuuji Saburou and Sanma no Meitantei, being a command-style adventure. This particular genre never did gain popularity in the West for some reasons or another (with PC adventures going the way of point and click adventures), but practically every Famicom adventure looked like this. Heck, Kachou wa Meitantei, like the first Famicom Tantei Club, is even split over two floppies (yes, despite the game not actually existing outside the DS world and thus not actually needing two floppies).

The protagonist is a new employee at CX Industries, a company that makes the actual game cartridges used in videogame consoles. He is asked by the president to assist section chief Arino in his investigation of the Seven Mysteries of CX Industries, seven 'urban legends' concerning the factory that are making employees feel uneasy. As the factory is busy with the upcoming release of Final Question 3, the president wants the mysteries cleared so everyone can focus on his work. The mysteries start out pretty innocent, ranging from 'The Locked Conference Room", 'the Crying Machines' to the 'Changing Quotum Charts', but as the game progresses Arino discovers a sinister plot of the 'Love and Game' cult which is bent on not only destroying CX Industries, but the whole gaming world! It's up to the section chief to solve the mystery behind the 'Love and Game' cult!

As a detective-adventure, it is a pretty close take on the old Famicom command-style adventures. As a player, you don't have to deduce much (there are only two instances where you actually have to input words yourself instead of just selecting commands) and the story is pretty straight-forward. Kachou wa Meitantei is a really light-hearted take on the genre, so don't expect complex murder plots like the one in Famicom Tantei Club or something like a locked room mystery set in Shinjuku Central Park like in the first Tantei Jinguuji Saburou.

But is that a bad thing? No, 'cause his game is really hilarious! True, most of the comedy relies on inside jokes, but fans of the show should love this. Most of the staff of the show make a guest appearence in the game (including assistant directors/producers's who have left the program already). Inside jokes like AD Sasano's sweaty hands (when playing games) and AD Urakawa's sense of direction (referencing how Urakawa got lost on the way to the studio on his first day on work) are actually integrated in the story pretty well! The writers even included references to some of the more memorable quotations from the show ("That is what makes America so fearsome" - "Whattaheck would you know about America!"). This does make the game a bit harder to 'get' for people who don't know the program, though it seems unlikely one would actually buy this game without knowing Game Center CX.

Arino's character is also used pretty good; his commands include both tsukkomi (retort) and boke (play the fool), referencing his manzai roots. Arino's inventory includes his card and while Jinguuji smokes when he needs to think, Arino slaps one of his hiepita on his head. These commands make the game feel pretty unique, which is pretty interesting, as this is a game that actually tries to copy other adventures. It pretty much shows how strong and unique the character of 'section chief Arino' in the TV program is.

This is a rather narrow recommendation, but if you a) like Game Center CX and b) old command-style detective adventures, then you really need to play this game. If you don't know the program, it's not really worth it. True, Kachou wa Meitantei has some novelty value as it succeeds wonderfully in invoking the feeling of the old games,. As a detective game it's pretty standard-fare (if compared to actual Famicom command style detectives), but it is pretty amazing how a faux-retro game like Kachou wa Meitantei manages to recreate that old nostalgic feeling.

But the game is funny and entertaining and everything positive because it builds on the enormous mythos surrounding the Game Center CX TV show, using the actual persons from the show, using quotes from the show, referencing situations Arino faced in the show. If you are not familiar with that framework, the game is just not nearly as funny or interesting. Of all the games included the Game Center CX games, Kachou wa Meitantei refers to the TV show the most blatantly and that is both its strong and its weak point.

Original Japanese title(s): 『ゲームセンターＣＸ　有野の挑戦状２』　「課長は名探偵　前編・後編」