Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-Kun: Ganmadan no Yabou

Welcome to Papuwa Island, where the wildlife is strange and the locals are even weirder!

This is a solid little Action Puzzle game based on an old comedy manga/anime series that doesn’t seem to be very well known outside of Japan. The title may ring a bell thanks to the Super Famicom game of the same name (with its own fan translation provided by Frank Hughes), which, while both looking and playing completely differently to this game, was actually released on the exact same day!

The aim of this game is to destroy all of the blocks in a level in one punch (after charging the strength of the punch with the A button). The blocks will regenerate after a couple of seconds if you didn’t manage to take them all out at the same time. By pushing and pulling barrels into the correct position - while avoiding enemies - you can force the shockwave from Papuwa’s punch to split off into different directions. By failing to destroy all of the blocks with the first punch, you do actually get the opportunity to collect some items, which can come in handy for boss battles. Those take place on every 5th stage.