Bazaaru de Gozaaru no Game de Gozaaru

~ BAZAARU DE GOZAARU ~

NEC Home Electronics / GAME FREAK

Super CD-ROM

1996

To be honest, I wanted this game primarily because I thought it'd be a nice collection piece, as it seems pretty darn rare, and to satisfy my curiosity, as I'd long thought to myself, "What the hell is that monkey game all about?" I went in thinking that any enjoyment I'd get out of it would be gravy. Much to my surprise, I found myself addicted to it almost at once and blazed right through its eighty levels, having a great time the whole way through.

It looks kind of like a platformer, but it's really a trial-and-error-style puzzle game. In each stage, you've got to guide Bazaaru from the starting point to the goal while dealing with the usual springs and pitfalls, along with FIERCE ENEMIES... such as little white puppies.

Every level has a number of "action points," and you have to choose moves for Bazaaru to carry out at each point. He can jump or roll or spin... or dance or doze or do the moonwalk.

Once you've settled on your moves, you can sit back and watch the zaniness unfold, as the crazy monkey tiptoes past sleeping mutts, gobbles up bananas to extend the time he's allotted to finish the mission, and snags moneybags that are scattered about the various environments (which include a desert, an amusement park, and the moon).

There are one hundred moneybags to grab, and some are in tough-to-reach places, which adds a "sidequest" element to the basic gameplay. You may use the money you collect to buy furniture for Bazaaru's house, which starts off as little more than an empty box. You can eventually have it decked out with curtains, a bed, a computer, and other such stuff, much to the monkey's delight.

The game isn't all that challenging, which is fine with me. I enjoy tough stuff like Tricky Kick once in a while, but there are also times when I prefer an easier ride with a puzzle game, and this one fits the bill for those instances. The music is decent and appropriate, and the graphics are simple but nice looking. Yellowish-orange hues dominate the drawings; so, uh, be prepared for that.

This is the sort of game that definitely won't appeal to everyone, but the folks to whom it does appeal will have an awful lot of fun with it. There are those who'll have a blast solving the puzzles and those who'll dig the monkey and his goofy antics. And then there's my well-off cousin Zigfriedoslov, who sure does love collecting those moneybags.