Bravoman

Bravoman;, known in Japan as Chouzetsu Rinjin Beraboh Man (超絶倫人ベラボーマン lit. "Transcendental Ethical Man: Bravo Man), sometimes referred to as Berabow Man' is a 1988 platformer/beat-em-up hybrid arcade game developed and released by Namco for the arcades only in Japan. It was later ported to the NEC TurboGrafx-16 in 1990. This version was also released outside of Japan simply as Bravoman. In 2007, this same version was released on the Wii Virtual Console.

The game described by Namco themselves as a "comical action game", which takes a light and humorous approach to an otherwise trite theme, by using a lot of humorous elements, both graphics, plot and sound-wise, usually ridiculing or parodying stereotypical elements of Japanese tokusatsu and videogames, in a manner similar to the Konami game series Parodius.

Plot
The plot starts when Arnold (known in Japan as Hitoshi Nakamura (中村 仁 Nakamura Hitoshi)), a typical insurance company salaryman (who is also a caricature of Namco's founder, Masaya Nakamura) encounters an alien name Alpha Man (α遊星人) from Planet Alpha (misspelled as "Alfa" in the English TurboGrafx-16 version). The alien tells Hitoshi Nakamura that an evil scientist named Dr. Bomb (known in Japan as Dr. Bakuda (爆田博士 Bakuda-hakase)) is planning to set an "End the World" weapon. Then the alien gives Hitoshi Nakamura an odd metal rod, a fork and a coin, which turns him into Bravoman, a bionic tokusatsu hero who possesses telescopic limbs that can be used to fight against Dr. Bomb's henchmen.

Gameplay
Bravoman can mainly use his telescopic limbs to attack enemies. Depending on his position (jumping, crouching etc.) he will either use his arms, legs or head to attack. The arcade had 6 pressure sensitive buttons that allowed the player to control how strong an attack and how high a jump would be.

Most enemy projectiles can be blocked by Bravoman's attacks. Also, Bravoman can occasionally collect some bonuses giving him greater range, temporary invincibility, increased speed, powerful punches, the ability to fly through most of the level without being hurt or the ability to fire energy bolts for a short while. Bravoman can reach quite high when jumping. It essentially means performing an attack at the top of one's jump, which will cause Bravoman to stop for a while in mid-air. At that point, pressing the jump button again will result in a smaller, mid-air jump. This technique gives Bravoman a little extra jumping height, which is essential in some stages of the game. This can only be done once per jump. Bravoman has sufficient jumping power on the most powerful setting, and this technique is neither possible nor necessary. In underwater stages, Bravoman turns into a submarine, and the game then works like most horizontal-scrolling shoot-em-up games. The attack buttons shoot torpedoes while the jump buttons drop depth charges. At the end of the game or after the player gives up, a scene showing Bravoman walking back to his home while morphing back into his true form telling his wife and two children he's home. After that, they walk outside and face the player.

Throughout the game, Bravoman's sort-of-partner name Lottery Man (known in Japan as Fukubiki Man (福引男)), will be aiding him with various bonuses during gameplay. Lottery Man is a yellow robot riding a fat unicycle, and floats in the game's screen each time Bravoman collects a special bonus, offering him a random item, usually points, health or power ups. Also, during most stages, Bravoman can collect some special "lottery tickets" bonuses. After a stage's boss is defeated, Bravoman meets Lottery Man, who gives Bravoman some health bonuses which appear to be onigiri, depending on how many "tickets" he has collected during the stage. In one stage, Bravoman saves Lottery Man from a tragedy.