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This week's Arcade Archives release is... Scrambled Egg (Technōs, 1983)


Only the Japanese ROM is included here- there was a localised Western release by Universal, Eggs, with completely different character designs, that isn't available here. No extra options either, sorry!

Jaleco and SNK are one thing- their last ACA releases prior to this month were in 2021- but Technōs is going all the way back, their last ACA release was Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 2016. Almost a decade ago! I was definitely not expecting them to ever return to ACA as they recently put out their own half-arcade game collection, Super Technōs World: River City & Technōs Arcade Classics, but this game isn't included on there, so while I wouldn't expect any of the games on there to show up on ACA, maybe we'll get a Mysterious Stones or a Minky Monkey out of this. What older company will come back next, I wonder?

Anyway, as for Scrambled Egg itself, this game is weird, I'd sort-of never heard of it before! By that I mean I was only familiar with the Datel bootleg ROCK DUCK which has incorrect colours but I mean, you can see the duck thrusting its crotch constantly, right? Anyway, this is a maze chase game with less of the emphasis on the 'maze' part, where as the hero, BOSS (some kind of strange robot thingy) you have to free all the chicks from the eggs by kicking them. Kicking an egg scoots it across in the direction you kicked it, and if it hits another egg, it'll send that one flying in the same direction, until an egg hits a wall, and the whole thing happens again in reverse until they're back in position, but with each egg a little closer to cracking open. Once the chicks are out, kick 'em off the screen to get them out of danger! Poor BOSS gets pestered by two enemy types, the Sukiyaki Bros. who can undo the damage you've done to the eggs or turn freed chicks blue to make them worth less points, and the Tuna Head who usually circles the edge of the screen but comes in from time to time to chase you. You can fire off your eyes (!) against the Sukiyaki Bros. to stun them, but that won't work against Tuna Head, so you need to kick an egg and hit them with it to take them out temporarily. You'll even find a red helper chick to swat away bad guys that can turn into a hen that helps crack the eggs too. Just be careful, if you get sandwiched between moving eggs, you're poached. Save all the chicks and move on to the next board!

I won't lie, on my first few credits I didn't get anywhere with this game and was ready to write it off, but I decided to persist and it does take a little getting used to, but it's pretty fun! The movement in particular is a little strange, it works on a grid system but since there's more open spaces than something like Pac-Man, it can be hard to see where one tile stops and another starts at times, so I found myself not quite moving where i wanted to. I haven't gotten much better at it, but you sort-of adjust to it in time. The main habit you have to stop yourself from indulging in is hanging around on the outer edges of the maze- Tuna Head will spend most of its time circling it, and you can't attack it from there. Instead, you're better off sticking inside the maze, taking potshots at Tuna Head when the opportunity presents itself and dealing with the Sukiyaki Bros. using your eyes while using chain reactions to work on as many eggs as you can at once. The egg patterns eventually become more complex and more Sukiyaki Bros. show up, so it starts challenging and only gets more so as you get through the boards. It'll take a few credits for you to start to 'get' it, but I think this is a neat little game! A few gameplay elements would show up in another Technōs game a year later, Mysterious Stones: Dr. John's Adventure although that game's a lot more elabarote with way more going on, but I suppose it shows just how quickly arcade games were advancing at that time, eh~

This week's Arcade Archives release is... Chopper I (SNK, 1988)

EU