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Recent Subtitled Releases:
Ep. #239 - Go by Train! 64
Ep. #283 - Athena
Ep. #288 - Super Werewolf Chronicle WARWOLF
Ep. #297 - Castlevania Rondo of Blood (Part 1)
Ep. #298 - Castlevania Rondo of Blood (Part 2)
DVD Special Challenge - Resident Evil Director's Cut
Ep. #299 - The House of the Dead
Ep. #213 - China Warrior
Ep. #305 - Pokemon Snap
Ep. #253 - It's Bazar de Gozarre's Game, If You Please
Ep. #205 - Mole Mania
Ep. #249 - Photo Boy
Ep. #317 - The Legend of Zelda (Part 1 of 2)
Ep. #318 - The Legend of Zelda (Part 2 of 2)
Ep. #277 - Pac-Land
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A Japanese TV series about the escapades of an employee (Shinya Arino, aka the "Kacho" or "Chief") of the fictional company "GameCenter CX". Each episode details his attempts at defeating one selected retro video game, usually over the course of a day, or sometimes longer. Arino, who is actually a comedian, portrays himself on the series as someone who is hopeless at most video games, though he claims to be skilled at certain genres. Whether he is actually any good or not, well, that's up to the viewer to decide.
During the course of an episode, there are various interludes where Arino is shown traveling across Japan, usually to an arcade (or "game center") suggested by a viewer of the series. Other humourous segments are also interspersed throughout an episode to offer a reprieve from the gaming action.
The show has aired regularly on Fuji TV in Japan since 2003 and continues to this day. An English dubbed version of the series called "Retro Game Master" was briefly streamed online, but (to my knowledge?) is no longer available through legal means. Many episodes of the series have been subtitled and released online by fans; the group which had been best known for this has all but retired, but a new group has recently taken up the mantle and new releases are being posted regularly! For a listing of episodes and whether they have been subtitled, see here.
In addition to the main series, various special episodes have been released, such as Arino's trips to USA and Paris, and the live on-stage Super Mario 30th Anniversary special featuring Super Mario Maker. Nintendo has also collaborated with GCCX to release a number of episodes through their own services, obviously featuring various Nintendo games, both modern and classic. The Balloon Fight episode with the late Satoru Iwata is especially great, so give it a watch!
Basically anywhere is fine, so either ask for recommendations, or just look at the list and watch an episode whose featured game tickles your fancy. There is no need to start from the beginning. In fact, the first season is structured somewhat differently from the others, so you may want to start elsewhere to get a good idea of what the series is like.
In this house we appreciate Clov
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