Codex Gamicus
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Aa Yakyū Jinsei Icchokusen (literal translation - The Baseball Life?) is a Famicom video game released on December 25, 1992. Its plot involves playing the character of a rising young baseball star and turning him into a professional baseball player. On the way, the player must brave elementary school, high school, girlfriends, and eventually the real world. If the player doesn't play his metaphorical cards right, he gets his briefs placed on top of his head in a humiliation square. During the game, the player can use the powers of the occult to either help him improve his stats or to hinder an opponent in many different ways.

Even the system used to move a player evolves as the game progresses from early childhood to young adulthood. The game starts out with rock, paper, scissors during the early childhood and elementary school years. Once the player graduates to high school, the rock, paper, and scissors method is replaced by a power meter. The longer the player waits to hit the action button, the further he goes on the board. After the player graduates from high school, this method is replaced by a virtual batting screen. If the player doesn't hit the ball, then he loses a turn. Otherwise, it lands on a number between 1 and 6. The player automatically follows the direction and moves the player around a baseball field in the hopes of getting drafted in the end. Otherwise, the player must take a vacation and train to get drafted in the next round.

In the end, after the player gets drafted, there is a mini-game to determine the player's starting annual salary. This can range between 200,000,000 yen and more than 1,000,000,000 yen depending on his timing at the mini-game and how his character performed in the "board game" segments. After the starting salary is determined, the player's avatar signs with the professional baseball team. The game ends with the newly minted pro baseball player looking up in the starry sky as part of the game's closing title. That is where his father showed him all the stars in the game's opening title.

Trivia[ | ]

  • There are five stats to worry about in the game: weight (in kilograms); affected by eating food, height (in centimetres); affected by drinking milk, physical, intellectual, self-esteem (face).
  • The player can only play as a male; there is no possible way to play as a female.
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