Dekoboko Densetsu Hashiru Wagamanma

~ LEGEND OF DEKOBOKO ~

Renovation / Telenet

CD-ROM

1990

For those who aren't familiar with the legend, this Dekoboko is an overhead-perspective "combat racing" game that leans heavily towards the "cutesy" side of things. You drive through (or leap over) ponds, ice patches, lava streams, and snowy wastelands...

...while evading cows, snowmen, fish, birds, elephants, and flame-spitting dinosaur-things...

...and walloping your opponents with weapons bought at shop screens in between stages.

The silly courses should be the colorful highlights of Dekoboko, but they get rather boring as the game goes along. Some canvases are dominated by ugly yellows and browns, and a simplistic Lego-land can't exactly compete with Mario Kart's Rainbow Road.

The musical tracks are forgettable except for the two vocal numbers (a goofy male vocal at the title screen and a decent female vocal at the end) and the Stage One theme, which is remarkably reminiscent of Basted's soundtrack.

Superficial disappointments could've been overlooked if the gameplay were solid, but it isn't. Dekoboko was basically designed with five-player action in mind, as it insists on all cars being on the screen at all times. This means that if you're leading the pack, you'll be a mere centimeter or so away from the very top of the playfield and have no time to avoid obstacles that suddenly appear. On the other hand, if you hang back, you run the risk of being knocked around by the bottom of the screen, which will send you into a spinout. The spinouts are the most irritating part of the experience, as it can be very difficult to "right the ship," and you often end up caught in an inescapable chain of spins.

So you pretty much have to hang out somewhere in the middle, conserving your energy and avoiding the devastating spinouts until the very last stretch of a given track, when you can finally make your move and go for the win.

Ultimately, this is more of an obstacle course run than it is a racing game, and there isn't much of a speed element anyway, as the cars basically just roll along. Give Dekoboko a try and you'll probably end up agreeing with me that the coolest thing about it is that Yuko and Megas make brief appearances during the opening cinema.