The people have been deprived of their favorite foods-fried rice and egg rolls! But fear not!!
The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Chew-Man-Fu!
Chew-Man-Fu was released in July 1990 in North America, the same month as Double Dungeons and Timeball.
To start, let's review the story and overview from the manual, which is graciously hosted at necretro.org
FROM THE MANUAL
Story
The people have been deprived of their favorite foods- fried rice and egg rolls! But fear not! Those two fiesty sisters, LaLa and LingLing are about to turn the tables on those evil-doers.
Normally I wouldn't just restate what I opened this article with, but since this is the extent of the story for this game, I decided to include it for completeness. Typically I have more to work with. LOL.
Objective of the game
In Chew-Man-Fu, you push, pull or kick colored balls around a room onto plates of the same color before one of Chew-Man-Fu's evil henchmen gets you. When all four balls have been put onto the correct plates, any remaining bad guys are destroyed, and the points screen is displayed. Team up with a friend as you fight off the evil Chew-Man-Fu's cronies through all 5 stages. There are 10 different games for a total of 550 rounds. Use Power-up Items to increase your advantage and collect diamonds to play "1 UP" games for extra lives.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
After reading through the manual I jumped into Chew-Man-Fu to see what it was all about.
While the title screen and intro are nothing too special, when the game starts I was surprised at how large the sprites were. The whole game is very colorful and reminds me of those one screen arcade classics. The basic gameplay is immediately apparent, with your character needing to move four different colored balls (black, red, blue and green) into a corresponding colored square. Once you move all of the balls into their corresponding squares you beat the level and move onto the next.
Depending how fast you do it, you get a bonus, and you also collect diamonds which can be traded at various times for extra lives (from what I've seen so far it's one extra life per five diamonds).
But this basic gameplay loop gets more involved and the enemies get smarter and harder to dodge as you clear stages. (Typical of games like this.)
Most of the stages in the beginning are pretty easy to clear, but you still have to be careful not to get turned around so your back is facing an enemy, since you can't simply turn around when you're pushing one of the balls.
The control scheme is actually quite thoughtfully designed, and adds an element of strategy to your movements, even though it can occasionally be very frustrating when it results in death.
You can see my very first time playing Chew-Man-Fu in the video below:
REVIEWS & COVERAGE
Most historic coverage I was able to find reviewed the PC Engine version of the game as an import, and I didn't see any US-based gaming magazines that reviewed it back in the day. Most of the US-based reviews were of the rereleased version on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Among the more notable reviews of the Virtual Console version:
- IGN gave it a 7 and noted that for most gamers the gameplay was too simplistic, but it was good for fans of classic games.
- Nintendo Life also gave it a 7, noting it wasn't going to be for everyone, but classic arcade fans would probably like it.
- GameSpot gave it a 6.7, and noted it wasn't for everyone but would likely be a hit with maze-based puzzle games.
PRICING
According to the TurboPlay review of Chew-Man-Fu, but clearly it wasn't a big hit back in the day, as copies tend to be a bit pricey today. According to PriceCharting.com, a complete-in-box (CIB) version of Chew-Man-Fu can cost around $150, and there aren't many sales to benchmark against, while a loose copy generally sells for around $80.
CHEAT CODES
Here are the following cheats I was able to verify for Chew-Man-Fu:
- Golden Balls: at the title screen hold I and Select while you press Left+Up on the D-pad. You'll hear a chime when done correctly. Now all the balls are gold colored and you can't tell which is which. Not sure why you would want this, except if the game simply isn't hard enough as it is for you.
- Fight Enemy: at the title screen choose the password option and then enter 075653. You will hear a chime. Now select 1 Player and you will fight in an arena where you only have one ball and you have to defeat waves of enemies.
REPLAY & OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
After reading through the manual, and more about how it recommends to play each game, I was ready to jump back in and see how the game would be after I knew more about it.
When playing the game for a second time, I finally understood better how your character moves and the ways to quickly maneuver the balls in the proper direction. This doesn't mean I didn't get hit occasionally though. Sometimes you have such little space to move around in that you still get stuck and the enemies kill you. I did finally understand how the different power ups work that you can walk over. I still didn't find them super useful but at least I knew what they would do when I activated them. I got a bit further on my second play session, but not super far. I think it's easy to get overwhelmed by the enemies in the later stages, and honestly it can get pretty frustrating.
Overall, Chew-Man-Fu is a lot more fun that I thought it might be, but some of the puzzles and the way you get turned around can be quite frustrating. On the flip side it's very colorful and another well made game for the TurboGrafx. Not sure how excited I would have been to get this game as a kid though.
I can see where IGN and Nintendo Life's reviews of its release on the Wii Virtual Console came in at a 7 out of 10. I think that's about the right score, and what I would give it as well.
NEXT UP
The next game I'll be playing is Double Dungeons!
I've owned this one for a while, but I was waiting to play it until I got to this part in the TurboGrafx chronology. Very excited to finally play it.
Until next time!
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