Rakugaki Showtime INFO BOX SYSTEMS Playstation RELEASE DATES Japan - 06/30/99 PUBLISHER Enix Rakugaki Showtime is a four player, arena based, fighting/action game of sorts. You could compare it to something like Poy Poy, Power Stone, or maybe even Smash Brother. What sets Rakugaki Showtime apart from the others is the games crazy style and action. The first thing you'll notice when playing Rakugaki Showtime are the graphics. It's an interesting idea, making all the characters paper cut outs of crayon drawings, complete with poorly scribbled in colour. The characters really pop out, until the action starts that is. Once everyone on the playing field starts dashing around, throwing everything at everybody, and explosions fill the screen things get messy. It's like some kid is going crazy with his new box of crayons and scribbling all over the screen. Once you get used to the madness, and screen filling action you'll find the game is fairly easy to learn. Each character has a small selection of attacks you can perform, but most of the time you will be picking up the objects on the playing field and tossing them at your enemy. You'll find missiles, giant rocks, bombs, and most importantly, the smiley ball. The smiley ball is a very special weapon that you will want to get your hands on because as you throw the smiley ball it gets very angry and eventually turns in to the super smiley ball. Grab yourself a super smiley ball and you will unleash one of three character specific super smiley ball attacks. Super smiley ball attacks are terrifying things and will most likely take one or more players out of the match if it connects. To make things even more terrifying is your ability to perform a homing dash to any dash plate on the ground, or you can dash directly to the smiley ball creating some pretty exciting moments when the smiley ball gets fully charged. The characters themselves are just as crazy as the action. You've got your standard male and female character who both play predictably, but the rest of the cast is filled out with some of the most ridiculous characters you've ever seen. Old drunk men who use their vomit as an attack, alien dogs, a kid with a giant sword who can't even pick up items, little girls who turn in to very scary sumo women if they get their hands on the super smiley ball. Even Marina from Mischief Makers makes an appearence complete with her ability to shake the smiley ball until it gets angry enough to turn in to the super smiley ball. There is a lot of variety, and although it may not be the most balanced cast of characters you're sure to have a good time playing around with them. Playing alone is not a very satisfying experience, but you can have some fun playing with the single player mode. The game will adjust the difficulty level depending on how well you play. If you can easily get through the first few stages without ever losing the game will bump you up to hard mode, but if you find yourself retrying multiple times the game will bump you down to easy mode. You will have to play through a few times to unlock all the characters as well, but there is a code to unlock them all if all you want to do is play with your friends. Rakugaki Showtime is a seriously good time if you've got some friends who will actually play the game. Unfortunately, if you're going it alone, the single player experience isn't all the impressive.