Kanshakudama Nage Kantarō no Tōkaidō Gojūsan Tsugi

ABOUT THE ORIGINAL GAME

Kanshakudama Nage Kantarō no Tōkaidō Gojūsan Tsugi starts with a wonderfully odd hook: a fireworks maker trudging from Kyoto toward Edo, lobbing bombs at anyone who gets in his way. That simple setup gives its side-scrolling action a little more personality than the usual rescue-the-world chase, and the hidden-item trick encourages you to throw explosives at suspicious spots instead of only at enemies.The catch is its harshness. Kantarō has three lives, and one touch from an enemy or projectile costs one immediately, so loose platforming and careless bombing can turn a promising run into a short one. It is a compact, old-school action game for gamers who enjoy learning a stage through repetition and can accept that the road home will demand patience.