Bravo, man

There’s nothing a love extra for a Saturday than providing you with all the great phrase on a selected oddity becoming a member of the Arcade Archives vary — And this week’s entry sees “oddity” performing some heavy lifting, as Hamster unleashes Bandai Namco’s Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman onto PS4 and Swap.

Launched to the Japanese coin-op market in 1986, Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman, (additionally recognized by the far much less fascinating identify of Bravoman), is a simplistic side-scrolling actioner within the vein of the tokusatsu style, as a mild-mannered salaryman dons the costume of a robust superhero in an effort to cease the machinations of the evil Dr. Bakutu, (Dr. Bomb). Using his telescopic limbs, Bella Bowman battles a military of minions throughout 33 phases, gathering powerups, defeating bosses, and receiving occasional help from his super-heroic buddy, Lottery Man.
Take a look at the very sill motion within the video beneath, courtesy of YouTuber World of Longplays.

On launch, Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman was extremely praised for its colourful and satirical visuals, cute animation, in addition to its enjoyable rating, and use of pressure-sensitive buttons, (which often broke). Right now, nevertheless, it’s frankly fairly horrible, though there isn’t a denying absolutely the attraction with which it depicts the tokusatsu aesthetic.

Whereas frustratingly troublesome and never an entire lot of enjoyable, it’s nonetheless pleasing that this rarity is now lastly obtainable within the Arcade Archive catalog, because it represents not solely a window into gaming tradition, but additionally certainly one of Japanese popular culture. As such, it retains a stage of intrinsic worth regardless of its gameplay shortcomings.

Transcendent Lovers Bella Bowman is accessible to obtain now on PS4 and Nintendo Swap.

Chris Moyse

Senior Editor – Chris has been enjoying video video games for the reason that Nineteen Eighties and writing about them for the reason that Eighteen Eighties. Graduated from Galaxy Excessive with honors. Twitter: @ChrisxMoyse

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