Bakushou! Star Monomane Shitenou (Famicom) Guide by E. Phelps, ver. 1.0 (aka LastBossKiller) - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Disclaimer === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission by the author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2015 E. Phelps ---Viewing This Document--- This document contains Japanese text. To view it correctly, set your browser or word processor to view "Shift-JIS" format. For example, if you are using Internet Explorer, using the dropdown menu, go to View -> Encoding -> More -> Japanese (Shift-JIS). You could, instead, open this document with Microsoft Word, and it will ask you about the encoding automatically, allowing you to select Shift-JIS. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Intro ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - Bakushou! Star Monomane Shitenou (or "LOL! Star Imitation: The Big Four") is a board game style game for the NES/Famicom, released by Pack-In- Video in 1990. Monomane is a style of Japanese theatre that is based on imitations. It is basically a variety show in which comedians do impersonations, sing, and tell jokes. In this game, you are one of these performers, competing for popularity against other such performers. The four characters you can choose from are all real, famous performers in Japan, and pretty easy to find on youtube if you want to see what it's all about. They are Korokke, the Busy Four (a group of performers), Akira Shimizu, and Kanichi Kurita. The box cover for the game looks really stupid, but if you imagine the people on the cover are actually Jim Carrey or Will Ferrell or something, then you'll better understand the appeal of the cover to a Japanese audience. I love this game. It's so hyperactive and bizarre. But when you finally get to understand the game mechanics, you'll see there's a lot to it, and it's actually pretty well designed and unique. The game is only in Japanese. Despite this fact, I hope you will manage to understand what's happening in the game with the help of this guide, even if you don't know Japanese. - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ==== Contents ==== = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - Search words are in square brackets [] 1. Getting Started [sec1] 2. How To Play [sec2] 3. Game Map [sec3] 4. Dice Rolls [sec4] 5. Mini-Games [sec5] 6. Strategies [sec6] - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = = Getting Started = = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - [sec1] At the beginning of the game, you must decide which characters are human controlled, computer controlled, or excluded from play. The four characters are: Korokke (コロッケ) - Blue player. The Busy Four (ビジーフォー) - Red player. Akira Shimizu (しみずあきら) - Green player. Kanichi Kurita (くりたかんいち) - Yellow player. Press "Left" or "Right" to change whether each character is human controlled (にんげん), computer controlled (コンピュータ), or not used (いらない). You must have a minimum of two active players. Press "A" when you are happy with the settings to move on to the next set of options. You will see the following options: スピード - "Speed". Changes the game speed supposedly, although I can't tell the difference. The options are はやい ("fast"), ふつう ("normal"), and おそい ("slow"). ゲーム - "Game". Switch between ノーマル ("normal") and ショート ("short") modes. In "short", all players begin with all of their impersonations as usuable, whereas you have to activate them first in "normal" mode. はさん - "Bankruptcy". Set to あり ("there is") and the two imitation personas at the top of your list will disappear after you perform at the Toyoko Dome for the first time. Set to なし ("without") and these imitations will remain with you for the duration of the game. アクション - "Action". Set to あり ("there is") if you want to control your player during the mini-games, or set it to なし ("without") if you want the computer to control all players during mini-games. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === How to Play === = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - [sec2] ---Overview------------------------------------------------------------------ The flow of the game is explained in the chart below. Each of these topics is explained in detail in its own section. 1. During your turn, you generally will: a. Roll the dice and move. b. Perform at the location you stop on. c. Roll the letter/number dice for a miscellaneous effect. 2. To improve the effectiveness of your performances, you must: a. Increase your Imitation Power by accumulating fans and performing at the Toyoko Dome. b. Maintain the Humor levels of each of your imitation personas. 3. To increase your final score tally, you must: a. Win Imitation Battles that are televised on TV. b. Impress your teacher, Sensei Awaya. c. Do the tasks mentioned above in points 2a and 2b. 4. The game ends when one player completely changes Sensei Awaya's mood meter from angry faces to happy faces. ---Movement------------------------------------------------------------------ You move around a rectangular board with various types of locations on each space. See the "Game Map" [sec3] for an ascii image. The types of locations are: 1. Houses. 2. Stages. 3. Sensei Awaya. 4. Toyoko Dome. 5. A TV truck randomly appears upon occasion. The purpose of each location is explained in the sections below. When it is your turn, you will see the following menu options: サイコロ　ふる - "Roll Dice". Roll the dice to move. ものまね　みる - "View Imitations". Shows imitation personas. See the "Imitation Screen" section below for details. マップにする - "Go to Map". Toggle between a view of the street and a view of the map. This option becomes ストリートにする ("Go to Street") if you are on the map view. While viewing this menu, you can also press "B" to see the imitation screens of the other players. When you decide to roll, two dice will be shaken. Press "A" to stop them. You will be able to move the rolled number of spaces, or any number smaller than that if you like, but you have to move at least one space. To move forward, press "Right". You can press "Left" to go back if you change your mind. Press "A" and select the option ここでとまる ("Stop here") when you want to stop on a location. ---Imitation Screen---------------------------------------------------------- The imitation screen is shown when selected during your turn and also when you are about to perform at a location. You will see your character's name at the top of the menu and the total number of fans (ファン) that you currently have just below that. Next is shown a list of all of your imitation personas. You see their name on the left, and each persona has a bar below their name that signifies their "Imitation Power" and a face on the right side that represents their Humor (きげん). See the "Imitation Power" and "Humor" sections for details about these. At the very bottom of the screen (where there's usually a blank space), you might see the following phrases: かち - "Win" まけ - "Lose" まんてん - "Perfect score" If you have any of these status effects, it will affect you during the Imitation Battles. See the "Imitation Battles" section for details. There are also two status effects that individual personas can have. If they have these statuses, they will be indicated just to the left of the smily face of the corresponding persona. They are: まんねり - "In a rut". This character's performance power is temporarily weakened. ブーム - "Boom". This character's performance power is temporarily strengthened. A character may be inflicted with the "In a rut" status randomly at any time that they perform. Some ugly looking heads will be circling above the performer's head. The status will randomly disappear at some later time. The "Boom" status will randomly happen to a persona while performing at Toyoko Dome and is signified by music notes floating around a performer's head. It will randomly disappear at some later time. Both status effects can also occur due to certain dice rolls. ---Performing---------------------------------------------------------------- Performing at places will have various affects depending on the location. Here is the goal for performing in each location: House: Perform at a house that's the same color as your character to increase the Humor (きげん) of the imitation persona that this house represents. See the "Humor" section for details. You can also perform at a house that's the color of another player to reduce the Humor of one of his personas. Stage: Perform at a stage to increase your number of fans. Sensei Awaya: Perform for Sensei Awaya (the mean old lady) to increase her opinion of you. See the "Sensei Awaya" section for details. Toyoko Dome: Perform at the Toyoko Dome to increase the Imitation Power (ものまねパワー) of your imitation personas. See the "Imitation Power" section for details. While performing, you will be shown the "Imitation Screen" described in the above section. You can choose up to three imitation personas to perform with during a single performance, but they must be next to each other in the list of personas. If you have two or more personas next to each other that are able to perform, press "Right". The cursor will highlight up to three personas. Press "A" to use the highlighted personas. Using multiple personas is usually much more effective than using just one. Your performance will have a greater effect if you use personas with a high Imitation Power. They will have a weaker power if they are inflicted with the まんねり ("In a rut") status, and stronger power if they have the ブーム ("Boom") statsu. You will only be allowed to use personas for your performance if they have a smily face next to their name that's the same color as your character. If the face is frowning or a different color, you will not be able to use this persona. ---Humor--------------------------------------------------------------------- Each of your imitation personas has a Humor (きげん) stat, represented by the face next to the persona's name on the imitation screen. If it is a smily face (or an even happier wide open mouthed smily face), then that persona's Humor is good. This means your fans like this impersonation, and you will be able to use it while performing. It is possible that this smily face will become an angry face if you roll an F6 or if you tell a lot of dirty jokes while performing on TV (see "Imitation Battles" for details). When that happens, you will not be able to use this imitation while performing (since people no longer like it). To switch it back to a happy face, you have to visit the corresponding house for this persona and perform. Each house on the game map that is the same color as your character represents one of your imitation personas (excluding the top two personas on the imitation screen list). When you approach a house on the map, you will see the name of the persona that it represents and the current Humor of the persona. If you perform at a house that is your character's color, you can improve the Humor of the corresponding persona. This can revert their Humor back from an angry face to a smily face. If you perform at a house that is a different color, you can decrease the Humor of one of your opponents' personas. If a face for a persona is the wrong color, that persona cannot be used during performances. Like the angry face, this can be fixed by performing at the corresponding house. Sometimes, when you stop at a house, you will see a message telling you that the persona is not home right now and you will not be able to perform there on that turn. This is completely random. Similarly, the persona could have the status バカンス ("Vacation"), and you cannot perform there at that time either, but this status is determined by a dice roll. ---Imitation Power----------------------------------------------------------- The power bar shown below your imitation personas' name shows how much Imitation Power (ものまねパワー) they have. To increase this power, you must first accumulate fans. To do this, stop at the stages on the map and perform. After your performance, you will gain fans. Next, go to the Toyoko Dome, located at the bottom-left part of the map. Perform here, and you will "spend" fans to increase the Imitation Power of the performing personas. Your fans will disappear, but don't worry, that's what you're supposed to do. As the Imitation Power of your personas increases, a symbol might drop down next to them, indicating that they have upgraded to a new level of fame. The symbols are (in order from lowest to highest): 梅, 竹, 松, 名. These symbols will be shown next to the smily face of the character that has acquired them. ---Letter/Number Dice Rolls-------------------------------------------------- After moving and performing, you will roll a dice with a letter and another with a number. A miscellaneous event will occur depending on the combination rolled. The event is always the same if you roll the same letter/number combination, so I have included a list in the "Dice Rolls" [sec5] section for you to refer to to see the results of all the dice rolls. You will trigger a mini-game with this dice roll if you roll a "C" as your letter. See the "Mini-Games" section for details. ---Imitation Battles--------------------------------------------------------- Occasionally, you will see a "TV" symbol over a stage. Landing on the stage at this time will trigger an "Imitation Battle". All players will participate in this battle. It is a single elimination tournament style face-off in which players battle one-on-one by performing their routines, and judges give them a score to decide who wins each match-up. The winner will gain 500 points toward their final score tally at the end of the game (see the "Final Score Tally" section for details). When it is your turn to battle, you will first choose which personas to use as per usual. But once the performance begins, you will see these menu options: うた - "Song" キャグ - "Gag" ふざけたネタ - "Dirty joke" Move the cursor up and down to change between these. Simply having the cursor hover over the option means that the character is performing this task (you don't need to press "A" or anything). To maximize your score, you want to balance the time that you hover over the song and gag options. Watch how the computer does it to get an idea of the timing that you should be aiming for. The dirty joke option isn't always there. If you use it, you will get a higher score. The downside is that it can cause your persona's Humor to become a frowny face. However, winning these events is big for your final score, so it's worth the punishment if it helps you win. Due to certain letter/number dice rolls, you could have some statuses that will affect these Imitation Battles. The statuses are indicated on your Imitation Screen at the bottom of the window. They can be the following: かち - "Win". Automatically win one Imitation Battle face-off. Acquired by rolling an A1. まけ - "Lose". Automatically lose one Imitation Battle face-off. Acquired by rolling an A2. まんてん - "Perfect Score". Automatically get a score of 100 on one Imitation Battle face-off. Acquired by rolling an A3. These statuses, acquired by rolling the indicated dice combinations, are only temporary, and can randomly disappear, so you have to be lucky to have one of the good ones at the time that an Imitation Battle is initiated. ---Sensei Awaya-------------------------------------------------------------- Sensei Awaya is the mean old lady who is in the building on the right side of the map. When you come to this building, you will see a row of angry faces, one for each player color. Perform for her several times, and these faces will slowly change from angry to happy faces. When one player manages to change all of the faces to happy faces, the game will end. Randomly, when you pass Sensei Awaya's building, she will stop you and force you to perform for her, even if you had planned on passing her by. This can happen for several turns in a row, and you'll be stuck performing for her a lot, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since it helps your final score. One potential negative about performing for Sensei Awaya is that it seems the まんねり ("In a rut") status is inflicted with higher likelihood on your personas while performing here. I don't know this for sure, but it just seemed that way to me after playing for awhile. ---Final Score Tally--------------------------------------------------------- When a player converts all of Sensei Awaya's faces to smily faces, the game will instantly end. The final score will be tallied based on four parameters. They are: あわや - "Awaya" スター - "Star" ものまね - "Imitation" ゆうしょう - "Championship" I explain each below. Awaya: Your teacher, Sensei Awaya, resides in the building on the middle-right part of the map. When you approach this building, you will see rows of frowning faces, one row for each player's color. When a player performs at this location, these frowning faces will slowly be changed to happy faces. The more happy faces, the higher your "Awaya" score will be when the game ends. Star: The "Star" score will be higher if you have high Humor (きげん) stats, meaning your personas have happy faces of the right color associated with them. Imitation: The "Imitation" score is higher if you have high Imitation Power (ものまねパワー) values, meaning your personas have the highest possible ranks out of the 梅, 竹, 松, 名 system. Championship: The "Championship" score is increased by winning "Imitation Battles" on TV, in increments of 500 points per victory. The final score is the sum of the above parameters. The highest score is the winner. After the game ends, the score of the four individual parameters will be shown. Press "A" to toggle back and forth between this screen and the total score screen. Press "Start" to see the final standings, olympic platform style. - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ==== Game Map ==== = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - [sec3] Here is the map that describes the game board. The symbols represent: R - Red house Y - Yellow house B - Blue house G - Green house S - Stage A - Sensei Awaya T - Toyoko Dome Stage: Nagaya | R B G v R Y G R o-o-o-o-S-o-o-o-o-S <- Stage: Sentai | | oG Yo | | Stage: Yutanaka -> S Bo | | oB A <- Sensei Awaya | | oY A | | o Go | | oG Ro | | oB S <- Stage: Sappoko | | Stage: Tappi -> S S | | oY Bo | | oR Yo | G R Y B | o-T-o-o-o-S-S-o-o-o ^ ^ | | Toyoko Stage: Fuguoka Dome - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Dice Rolls === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - [sec4] The letter/number dice roll combinations have miscellaneous effects. The effect is always the same for the same letter/number combination, so here is a table you can refer to to understand the effects of these dice rolls. A1 - Have かち ("Win") status for a limited time, allowing you to automatically win an Impersonation Battle. A2 - Have まけ ("Lose") status for a limited time, causing you to automatically lose an Impersonation Battle. A3 - Have まんてん ("Perfect score") status, causing you to get all tens on your next Impersonation Battle. A4 - Your imitation personalities go on vacation (バカンス). This means you cannot change their Humor (きげん) by visiting their houses for a limited time, but you can still use them to perform. A5 - All of your Imitation Powers (ものまねパワー) become zero for one turn. A6 - No one can perform at the Toyoko Dome (トーヨコドーム) for one turn. B1 - Convert any house to 100 Humor (きげん) in your favor, whether the house is your color or an opponent's. B2 - Warp to the Yutanaka Village Welcome Festival (ゆたなかむらおこしまつり), which is the stage in the upper-left part of the map. B3 - Convert all the fans of any stage to your fans. B4 - Warp to Sentai Hall (せんたいホール), the stage in the upper-right corner of the map. B5 - Choose another player and you will exchange all of your fans for all of that player's fans. B6 - Warp to Fuguoka Oolong Hotel (ふぐおかウーロンホテル), the stage at the bottom-middle part of the map. C1 - Skating mini-game. C2 - Swimming mini-game. C3 - Hurdles mini-game. C4 - Soccer mini-game. C5 - Volley ball mini-game. C6 - Trampoline mini-game. D1 - Your number of fans increases. D2 - Your number of fans doubles. D3 - Automatically exchange fans with a randomly chosen player. D4 - Receive fans from the other players. D5 - Your number of fans decreases by half. D6 - All your fans from a randomly chosen stage disappear. E1 - All of your impersonation personas receive a 20 Humor (きげん) increase. E2 - Perform one extra time at your current location. E3 - Get an extra turn to move and perform. No extra dice roll at the end of this extra turn. E4 - An ugly head blocks the road at your position, preventing other players from passing it for one turn. E5 - If you perform at the Toyoko Dome during your next two turns, your Impersonation Power increase will be doubled. E6 - Warp to Sensei Awaya's house and perform for her on the next turn. F1 - Exchange fans and Humor (きげん) of all your personas with a random player. F2 - Do not move or perform on your next turn. F3 - All of your Imitation Powers (ものまねパワー) decrease by 30. F4 - One of your personas is inflicted with まんねり status or ブーム status. F5 - Warp to Toyoko Dome (トーヨコドーム) and perform. F6 - One of your personas becomes in bad humor (a frowny face is indicated for its Humor (きげん)). - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Mini-Games === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - [sec5] During the letter/number dice roll, if you roll a "C" you will compete in a mini-game. Before the mini-game starts, you will have to choose which of the other players you want to play against. A number of fans will be shown for each player. If you defeat that player, you will gain this number of fans from him. You will also gain a 100 fan bonus, so it's still beneficial to defeat a player who has zero fans. Below, I explain each mini-game and the controls for those games. ---Skating (Dice roll = C1) The goal is to knock your opponent out of the skating rink. Use the direction arrows to move, and press "A" to jump. Jumping into an opponent will cause him to go sailing (and you too), so try to time it so that you knock him out of the rink. ---Swimming (Dice roll = C2) Reach the opposite side of the screen faster than your opponent. Simply tap "A" as fast as you can to move. ---Hurdles (Dice roll = C3) Reach the opposite side of the screen faster than your opponent. Hold "Right" to move, and press "A" to jump. Try to avoid the ugly faces and time your jumps to avoid them as they jump. ---Soccer (Dice roll = C4) Try to get the ball into the water on your opponent's side of the screen. Simply push the ball by running into it. ---Volleyball (Dice roll = C5) Try to get the ball to hit the ground on your opponent's side of the screen. Simply touch the ball to hit it. Press "A" to jump. ---Trampoline (Dice roll = C6) Stay off the ground longer than your opponent. Use the direction arrows to move the trampoline and put it under your player to keep him from hitting the ground. If he hits near the right side of the trapoline, he will sail left, and if he hits the left side he will sail right. - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Strategies === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - [sec6] There are so many options for what you can do during your turn, that it can be difficult to understand what you should be focusing on. Should you accumulate fans at each opportunity that you can stop at a stage? Should you stop and perform at Sensei Awaya's at each pass? If I roll a 12, but there is a stage only two spaces away, should I just move 2 spaces and perform, or should I use my large movement opportunity to get farther around the board? I'll give you advice that works for me in this game and hopefully you'll soon figure out a good strategy of your own. (1) Decreasing your opponents' Humor: It can be extremely debilitating to have another character turn your smily face to the wrong color, preventing you from using the corresponding imitation persona. So I would suggest being proactive on this account and change your opponents' smily faces to your color fairly often. Similarly, if your smily faces have been changed to an opponent's color, or the smily face is actually an angry face, stop at the corresponding house and fix it. I will neglect stage performances upon many an occasion to go out of my way and attack my opponents in this way. To do the most damage, target your opponents' personas that are in the middle of his persona list, breaking any three persona intervals that he might have, to prevent him from being able to use three personas at once during his performances. (2) Stage performances: You will be tempted to stop at each stage and perform to accumulate fans at each opportunity. But I will suggest you do this maybe three times on each go-around and spend the rest of your turns on attacking your opponents' Humor (as per point 1 above) or fixing your own. There's not really much point in performing at the small stage in the lower-left part of the map since the number of fans you can acquire is relatively small, and there is a good chance you will lose them by the time you make it all the way around to the dome. Do so if there's no other good options at the time, of course, but there are often a lot better things you can do with your turn. If you start to get a decent number of fans, try to hurry and reach the Toyoko Dome. It's too easy for other players to steal your fans with special dice rolls, so don't keep on trying to accumulate more and more and allow excess time to go by. Instead, cash them in right away if you have 500 or more fans or so by taking advantage of large number dice rolls to move around the board quicker. Also, note that if you roll an E5, you will get double the Imitation Power bonus when you visit the Toyoko Dome within the next two turns, so keep that in mind. If any player rolls an A6, you won't be able to perform at the Toyoko Dome for one turn, so try to pay attention to this possibility. (3) Sensei Awaya: Since one of the four criteria for accumulating a high final score is pleasing Sensei Awaya, you certainly don't want to neglect her. But if your Imitation Power (ものまねパワー) is low, performing for her won't improve her mood very much, so it's best to use your turns for other things until you start to get more Imitation Power. Just make sure you don't fall too far behind the other players as far as pleasing her goes. I would stop at her building maybe once every two or three times I go around the board, unless I feel I should try to end the game since I think I have the lead, in which case I would perform at each opportunity. Don't worry about being the person that ends the game by maximizing her mood meter to all smily faces. This isn't too important, but you do want to be getting close to that level to get a high score. (4) Imitation Battles: The TV imitation face-off battles are an important factor in getting a large score. If you win one of these battles, you will immediately get 500 points towards your final score. You don't necessary need to worry about winning all of them, but if you win a good majority, you are likely to fare well at the end of the game. Use the ふざけたネタ ("Dirty joke") option a lot to help ensure your victory. This will likely cause the Humor of your persona to become angry, so you will have to clean that up after the battle by performing at the appropriate house. When a "TV" symbol appears above a stage, check to see if players have the かち ("Win"), まけ ("Lose"), or まんてん ("Perfect score") status. If any have the "Win" or "Perfect score" status, or if you have the "Lose" status, avoid initiating an Imitation Battle. If you have the "Win" or "Perfect score" status, or if one or more opponents have the "Lose" status, then initiate the battle right away. - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Conclusion === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - I hope you found this guide useful. I think this game is a bit complicated for a board game, so let me know if I could have explained certain aspects better. If you have information that you'd like to contribute or other suggestions for how the guide can be made better, or if you find any mistakes, please send it to lastbosskiller@gmail.com. I will give you the proper credit for your help. Thanks to the NES FAQ Completion Project regulars for providing a fun environment for exploring old, obscure games!