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Linquesan
Joined: 29 Jan 2004
Posts: 20
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 Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:06 pm Post subject: Spanky's Orifuru Puzzle (SFC) |
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Has anyone heard of this? It appears to be an unreleased, but seemingly complete, puzzle game by Natsume and Workman (all I could find about them is this: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Workman ) from 1995. All I could find was a youtube video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIq4Y2BMiKU ) and a cursory search for details just came back to this video with an uploader seemingly uninterested in it any further.
It has me curious. Was it advertised or previewed at all? It doesn't look that bad to me, but I am partial to puzzle games. Maybe it's the bizarre 'stop-a-poacher' theme that appeals to me.
Also of note but maybe unrelated, Natsume came out with a platformer called "Spanky's Quest" 4 years earlier, but that Spanky is definitely a monkey, while the species of the Orifuru Puzzle one is a mystery to me (a cat? a fox? tanuki?). It would be odd to me, though, that the same company would release another game with the same name for two different characters. |
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Johnny Undaunted
Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 306
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| Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:00 pm Post subject: Re: Spanky's Orifuru Puzzle (SFC) |
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| Linquesan wrote: | | Also of note but maybe unrelated, Natsume came out with a platformer called "Spanky's Quest" 4 years earlier, but that Spanky is definitely a monkey, while the species of the Orifuru Puzzle one is a mystery to me (a cat? a fox? tanuki?). It would be odd to me, though, that the same company would release another game with the same name for two different characters. |
That's because Spanky the monkey had a different name in Japan. He was actually called "Sarujiro", so there's no confusion with Spanky the fox. I'm more curious to know who the hell names a monkey "Spanky" in the first place. I get the impression it was a sarcastic suggestion made by someone in Natsume's U.S. branch and the joke went over the Japanese staff's head.
I searched online for the game's title and it shows up for sale in a lot of secondhand game stores. I wonder if it was a Satellaview release. It isn't listed on the archived Nintendo Power site. |
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Hamtaro126
Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 48
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:38 am Post subject: |
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| Maybe the main character was planned to change in japan? |
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GDRI
Joined: 29 Nov 2006
Posts: 352
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 11:38 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by GDRI on Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Johnny Undaunted
Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 306
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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I misread the Japanese title in the previous post. The ape in Spanky's Quest is called Jirō (not Sarujiro as I previously said). The title is meant to be read as Hansei Zaru Jirō-kun no Daibōken (反省ザル ジローくんの大冒険, The Adventures of Jiro, a Monkey to Reflect on).
http://gamemeter.net/g/B000068I7S
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9902758 |
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Tongueman
Joined: 27 Feb 2004
Posts: 631
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:09 am Post subject: |
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Actually, "Hansei Zaru" is a phrase in Japan made popular perhaps by trained monkey performers (coming from Nikko). "Nikko Saru Gundan" (my wife says) is a troupe of monkeys with names like Jiro, Taro, etc, who could perform tricks and poses, one of which is the popular "reflecting/regretting" pose that shows up in TV commercials, the SFC game, etc.
So the title is not "a monkey to reflect on" but more like "the reflecting monkey Jiro"
Google Images |
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Johnny Undaunted
Joined: 08 Sep 2003
Posts: 306
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the correction. I looked up both, "反省ザル" and "monkey", and got a few results for "A Monkey to Reflect On", which led to believe it was a referenced to something (especially considering "Zaru" is spelled in kana). |
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