NAMCOT

13 JULY 1990

Although 'superheroes' are not nearly as common in Japan as they are here in the west, there is no doubting the extraordinary powers of this one. Berabo Man is a strange game - a platformer with underwater shoot 'em up stages (sound familiar? Schbibin Man 2?), but the hero here doesn't just use a gun - instead, his whole body is elastic, so you'll find yourself taking out enemies with extending legs, arms and even neck! Along the way, you'll pick up items from destroyed enemies and some weird floating thing that I'll not even begin to describe. And with a boss at the end of each level, a hero's work is never done.

Berabo Man is a hard game to have a solid opinion of. While the graphics are a bit sketchy and not particularly well drawn, they are also big and there is some impressive full-on parallax scrolling. Also, the gameplay is a bit clunky but at the same time I find it sort of fun. It's one of those games that, despite looking and playing a bit B-grade, it has a certain indefinable charm to it. This is probably partly down to the inherent Japaneseness of it, as well as the quirky gameplay and sampled speech. Try before you buy, but give it a chance because it isn't as bad as it first may seem.