I’ve always been interested in the Shubibinman series since seeing import screenshots in EGM. The early days of the Turbo Grafx held a lot of promise before reality came crushing down and Shubibinman seemed like the system’s answer to Mega Man. Ironically the second game, which leaned even more into that comparison, was the only one released in America. If you are confused as to why they skipped the first game, don’t be. Kaizō Choujin Shubibinman is not a good game and would have required a complete overhaul to be decent. We missed nothing by skipping its release.
You can be forgiven for comparing Shubibinman to Mega Man as the similarities are obvious. Tasuke and Kyapiko are androids built by Doc. By day they are school students. But when the forces of Dark Skull appear they transform into armored superheroes named Shubibinman. Skull Force has taken over the city and our heroes must take it back one district at a time and rescue hostages in the process. While it may look like Mega Man the first in the series is very different. Unfortunately the Shubibinman series does not have a great start thanks to bad controls, repetitive action, and average production values. But it would at least get better.
Almost immediately you will notice the slippery controls. As either Tasuke or Kyapiko both characters slide around performing even the simplest actions. But even worse than the sliding are the jumping controls. To put it bluntly they suck. For a game that relies as heavily on platforming the controls could have and should have been better. You can learn to adjust but it makes the game less enjoyable as a whole. Not to say that the level design is great to begin with and the game holds it back. But what should have been the game’s more enjoyable moments are hampered by shoddy controls.
Initially you are limited in your actions. You can only jump and slash with your sword. But as you progress you collect gold from enemies that can be used to purchase items or upgrades between levels. These range from life bar upgrades, increased strength, and the Schubibin buster, a powerful charged attack. These upgrades are costly and require hopping around the map to earn cash. But they are optional and not really necessary.
If there is one saving grace of the staid gameplay its that Shubibinman isn’t so much difficult as it is frustrating. The frequent missed jumps are mitigated by conveniently dropped health items. You’ll take a lot of surprise hits but can also take a lot of punishment as well. The levels are sparsely populated and the fodder enemies easy to kill. The bosses have simple patterns as well. Usually when a game has problems the difficulty sky rockets. But in this case I say it is frustrating because you can see the times where they tried but the game’s’ failings ultimately let it down.
Possibly the sole redeeming element of Shubibinman is its nonlinear map. The world map is laid out like Star Fox, with all paths leading to Dark Skull’s hideout. Unlike that game you aren’t restricted to one set path and are free to create your own route to the end. You can even backtrack to previous stages on the map to earn extra gold or items. It gives the game some replay value but the control issues mean most will not want to even bother.
Shubibinman was an early PC Engine release and it shows. Unlike most PC Engine/Turbo Grafx games the sprites are very small and feature the bare minimum of animation. The Skull Force enemies are impressive in their design but are extremely limited in variety. That actually extends to the bosses and backgrounds as well. While the map gives the impression of a sprawling city it is incredibly repetitive. Shubibinman seems to have three or four level themes that are recycled heavily. The time of day may change but it is still the same environments. You’ll fight the same dragon and large mech boss multiple times which kills any incentive to want to replay the game and see the levels you skipped. It is disappointing as there are many NES games that look better despite the weaker hardware. But at least the music is decent.
In Closing
Even compared to a launch title like Keith Courage Kaizō Choujin Shubibinman is a bad game. I wanted to like it, whether out of misplaced youthful enthusiasm or because it resembled Mega Man. But I can’t. There are plenty of better action sidescrollers to spend your money on, like its sequels.
