, also known as ''Retro Game Master'' in other regions, is a Japanese

gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playin ...

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

produced by

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

and Gascoin Company. The name is a combination of "game center" (the Japanese term for an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

) and Fuji TV's

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

, JOCX-TV. It stars Shinya Arino, a member of comedy duo

Yowiko is a Japanese comic duo from Osaka working for Shōchiku Geinō, the second largest comedy talent agency in Japan following Yoshimoto Kōgyō. Yowiko are known otakus, even appearing on the variety show ''LINCOLN'' cosplaying as Char Aznable ...

, who plays home console video games from previous decades and usually attempts to get the game's ending within a single day. The show has been on-air since November 4, 2003, with a new episode airing bi-weekly at Thursday midnight on Fuji TV One. 18 DVD sets have been released in Japan. In 2008,

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sys ...

was looking for international distributors for subtitled DVDs.Game Center CX debuts in New York City
/ref>Subtitled Retro Game Master DVDs seek distributor
/ref>

Premise

The show is presented as a gaming

which follows a commentary-based long-play format. Shinya Arino challenges several games from previous eras, presented by his producers in order to get each ending. He is supported by the show's assistant directors (referred to as ADs) and sometimes other staff, both via moral support and actual gameplay. He also is featured in segments interspersed throughout the episodes where he goes to local arcade centers, as well as segments where he does a variety of things, such as interviews with game designers, showcasing classic console hardware or games, or a made-up game show where the staff participates.

GameCenter CX as a company

Arino is presented as an employee of the fictitious GameCenter CX company. His jumpsuit attire is adorned with the GameCenter CX logo, which with the second season onward lost the original brackets around the "CX". Arino formally greets anyone of status by serving him/her a business card. The CX company even promotes Arino depending on how well he does during the season. The phrase Arino says right before turning on the console, "''Kachō'' on!", signifies his role as chief of the aforementioned company. To continue on with the corporate theme of the show, a stock certificate was included with the second DVD collection to have the buyers feel like they owned stock in the company. In the last episode of season 7,

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

president Ishikawa made Arino an honorary employee and presented him with a company card.

The assistant directors help provide creative input, construct settings, and work as a camera crew at times, especially when on location. Their on-screen presence is typically precipitated by Arino struggling with a spot in a game. They will offer help of a varying degree, enough to dislodge Arino from his despair, but not so much as to raise questions about whether he beat the game on his own. These members of staff start as interns, and often they are promoted to various paid positions surrounding the show's production. Many have moved on to other Japanese TV shows. After they left the staff, sometimes they reappeared in next seasons or special DVD challenges. * - Season 1 * - Seasons 1 & 2 (first episode only) * - Season 2 * - Seasons 3 & 4 * , a.k.a. - Seasons 5 & 6, become part of main staff since the end of season 13 as director * , a.k.a. - Season 7 * - Season 8 * - Seasons 9 & 10 * , a.k.a. - Seasons 11 & 12 * - Seasons 11 & 12 & 13 * , a.k.a. - Seasons 13 & 14 & 15 * - Seasons 13 & 14 & 15 * - Season 16 * - Seasons 16 & 17 & 18 * - Seasons 18 & 19 * - Seasons 19 & 20 * - Seasons 20 & 21 * - Seasons 21 & 22 * - Seasons 22 & 23 * - Season 23 * - Season 23 & 24 * - Season 25

Miscellaneous staff

* - Cameraman * - Art Director, Writer * - Producer, Narrator * - Video Editor * , a.k.a. - Voice Mixing * - Planner * - Assistant Director, left the staff in the 12th season. Came back as director in 17th season. * - Assistant Director * - Production * - Assistant Director (AD) * - Promotion (PR)

Music

* Audio clips from the videogame ''

Kid Icarus ''Kid Icarus'' is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe and North America. It was released in Japan in December 1986, in Europe in Feb ...

'' (光神話パルテナの鏡) are often used to intro segments with The King. * The song used during Arino's arcade field trip adventures is called 異国のしらべ from HEAT WAVE. * The song during his trip north is "Between the expansive sky and large land" by Chiharu Matsuyama. * The second and third seasons made extensive use of the soundtracks from the games ''

Headhunter Headhunter or head hunter may refer to: * Headhunting, hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing them * Executive search, informally called headhunting, a specialized recruitment service Arts and entertainment Film and telev ...

'' and ''

Headhunter Redemption ''Headhunter Redemption'' is an action-adventure video game developed by Amuze and published by Sega for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is the sequel to '' Headhunter''. Plot Set twenty years after the Bloody Mary Virus (released in the original ...

'' to highlight the show's dramatic segments. * The show also frequently features popular music by contemporary artists such as

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

Jesse McCartney Jesse McCartney (born April 9, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama ''All My Children'' as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo mus ...

and

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, as well as music from film scores like ''Jurassic Park'' and Disney's ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''.

Segment Songs

* "Urawaza Jet Stream" uses the songs "The Intimacy of My Woman's Beautiful Eyes" by James Carter (for only one episode) and "

Romeo Is Bleeding ''Romeo Is Bleeding'' is a 1993 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Peter Medak, written and produced by Hilary Henkin, and starring Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, and Roy Scheider. It follows a psychosexual cat ...

" by

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

for the rest the segments. Episode 25 uses the song "Night Birds" by

Shakatak Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Nigel Wright and former Wigan Casino DJ Kev Roberts. Following an initial white label release 'Steppin', the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack. I ...

while Arino is reading the postcard. * "The Aces of Hardware Won't Disappear" uses (and is named after) the song "

Heart No Ace ga Detekonai The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

" by Candies. * "The Romance Never Ends" uses (and is named after) the song "" by

C-C-B C-C-B was a Japanese pop-rock band under Polydor Records label active in the years 1982–1989. At first, they were named CoConut Boys, however in 1985 the name changed to the initials, C-C-B. They became a nationwide success. In 2008, the band r ...

. * "Game & Watch, I Can't Leave You Alone" uses the song "" by . * "Famicom Manga Café"'s song is based on by

Yoshie Kashiwabara is a Japanese popular pop singer-songwriter and actress, who gained her popularity as a teen idol in the early 80s. Biography Born in Osaka, Yoshie Kashiwabara took part in, and won, the "Star Tanjo" contest in 1979, and rose to fame in 1980 ...

. * "Singing About Whatever the Hell You Want" uses (and is named after) the song "" by

Kenji Sawada is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor, best known for being the vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers. Nicknamed because of his self-professed adoration of Julie Andrews, he was born in Tsunoi, Iwami (now part of Totto ...

. * "Retro Read-Aloud" uses the song Naturish by Marsh and Nox Vahn. * "Everything Important in Life, I Learned From Video Game Strategy Guides" uses the theme song from the 1999 film '' The Road Home'', by . * "When I Looked Back, He Was There" uses the song " Yah Yah Yah" by

Chage and Aska were a Japanese popular music duo composed of male singer-songwriters from Fukuoka Prefecture: and . To date they have sold over 31 million albums and singles in Japan. History They were formed in the late 1970s at the suggestion of the A&R ...

. * "DJ Monster Battle" uses the song "Anasthasia" by

T99 T99 were a Belgium, Belgian music group best known for their song "Anasthasia", which reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1991. T99 was initially Patrick DeMeyer, who released three solo works under this pseudonym. However, he hea ...

. * "Chief Arino's Bonus Assessment" uses the song "En Aranjuez con Tu Amor" by

David Garrett David Christian Bongartz (born 4 September 1980), known by his stage name David Garrett, is a German classical and crossover violinist and recording artist. Early life When Garrett was four years old his father purchased a violin for his ol ...

Game challenges

Main games

NOTE: An asterisk (*) is noted beside the episode number to indicate the episode's localization and release on

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

. Western titles in "quotes" are unofficial names Kotaku uses to refer to Japan-only games. ;1st season (This season featured a game series or game company as its main focus with Arino's challenge game as a secondary feature) ;2nd season (episode numbering started with Arino's challenge games being the main feature) ;3rd season ;4th season (The season mascot changes from King to Queen) ;5th season (Season was shortened due to birth of Arino's daughter) ;6th season (The season mascot changes from Queen to Dark King) ;7th season (the season changes from Dark King to King. The Dark King makes a brief reappearance in #53) ;8th season ;9th season (Season was shortened due to Arino being hospitalized) ;10th season ;11th season ;12th season (The season mascot changes from King to Fallen Warrior) ;13th season (The season mascot changes from Fallen Warrior to King) ;14th season ;15th season ;16th season ;17th season ;18th season (The season mascot changes from the King to Elephant King) ;19th season ;20th season ;21st season (During Episode 244, the staff switched to a

CRT monitor A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms ( oscilloscope), pictu ...

during the

light gun A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing ...

stages.) ;22nd season ;23rd season ;24th season (The season mascot changes from King to Frozen King and then to Penguin King.) ;25th season (The season mascot changes from Penguin King back to the King) ;26th season

DVD-Exclusive Challenges

Each DVD-Box set released includes a game challenge exclusive to the DVD set. Most of these challenges were Famicom games.

Nintendo eShop-exclusive specials Challenges

Video releases

On June 23, 2011, gaming website

started streaming English translated episodes of the series. On January 13, 2012, Kotaku announced that their agreement to broadcast the show had ended; there would be no second season, and existing episodes would be removed when the rights expired. On February 28, 2012,

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

announced that they had acquired the rights to the 12 episodes shown on Kotaku, releasing them on DVD on September 18, 2012. So far there have been eighteen DVD sets put out with the latest released in December 2019. Each one contains key episodes, game center visits and a game challenge exclusive to the DVD set. They are not season compilations.

Segments

Each episode of ''GameCenter CX'' is made up of a number of different segments. The only segment which appears in every episode is Arino's Challenge. The other segments vary by episode and season. However, the episodes that appear on Kotaku omit these segments, instead of focusing only on the challenge of the week.Crunk Games Game Center CX Episode Guide
/ref>

Media

Video games

At the end of the sixth season, it was announced that there were plans to make a ''GameCenter CX'' video game. The game, entitled ''GameCenter CX: Arino's Challenge'', is for the Nintendo DS and was produced in a collaborative effort by Fuji TV and Bandai Namco Games. During the seventh season, certain parts of the show featured the development process of the game. The game was released in Japan on November 15, 2007, and in North America by

Xseed Games Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related mat ...

on February 10, 2009, under the title ''

Retro Game Challenge ''Retro Game Challenge'' is a Nintendo DS game developed by indieszero and published by Namco Bandai Games and Xseed Games in North America. It is based on the television series ''GameCenter CX'', and Shinya Arino gave much input into the game cre ...

''. A second game, ''GameCenter CX: Arino's Challenge 2'' was released in Japan on February 26, 2009. Xseed Games has stated that US release of the game is unlikely, due to its predecessor's not catching enough attention from the North American gaming community. A third game, ''GameCenter CX: 3-Choume no Arino'', was released in Japan on March 20, 2014, and is the first installment in the series to come to the Nintendo 3DS. Arino appears as a Mystery Mushroom figure in ''

Super Mario Maker is a 2015 side-scrolling platform game and game creation system developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U, released worldwide in September 2015. Players can create, play, and share courses online, free of charge, based on the styles o ...

'', which is unlocked by clearing one of his Event Courses added to the game on November 4, 2015.

Theatrical Film

''GameCenter CX: The Movie - 1986 Mighty Bomb Jack'' was released on February 22, 2014, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the show.

Spin-Offs & Advertising

''GameCenter DX'' starring another challenger (Masaru Hamaguchi, the other half of star Arino Kacho's comedy duo "Yoiko"), and featuring many staff of the original, began in 2015 to showcase contemporary Nintendo titles, such as the latest entries in the ''

Mario Bros. is a 1983 arcade game developed and published for arcades by Nintendo. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures emerging from the ...

'' and '' Starfox'' series.

Nintendo eShop-exclusive specials

On occasion, special ''GameCenter CX'' programs were produced for the

Nintendo Channel The Wii Menu is the graphical shell of the Wii and Wii U game console, as part of the Wii system software. It has four pages, each with a 4:3 grid, and each displaying the current time and date. Available applications, known as "channels", are ...

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

. Later, when the

Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...

succeeded the Nintendo Channel, additional specials were produced, such as a special where Arino and late Nintendo president

Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contr ...

interviewed each other and played ''

Balloon Fight is an action video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The original arcade version was released for the Nintendo VS. System internationally as ''Vs. Balloon Fight'', while its Nintendo Entertainment Syst ...

'', which Iwata had programmed during the early years of his career.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official GameCenter CX site (Japanese)

English episode guide at Crunk Games
2003 Japanese television series debuts Television shows about video games Fictional companies Discotek Media Fuji TV original programming