Popeye no Eigo Asobi

Last updated
Popeye no Eigo Asobi
Popeye no Eigo Assobi Cover.PNG
Japanese Famicom box art.
Developer(s) Nintendo
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Producer(s) Shigeru Miyamoto
Platform(s) Family Computer
Release
  • JP: November 22, 1983
Genre(s) Educational, platform
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Popeye no Eigo Asobi [lower-alpha 1] (English: Popeye's English Fun) is a 1983 edutainment platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer. [1] The game was based on the comic strip of same name created by E. C. Segar and licensed from King Features Entertainment. It is a spin-off of the Popeye arcade game made by Nintendo. It was released exclusively in Japan. It was followed by the similar Donkey Kong Jr. Math , which was released about one month later. This game was never released in North America because of the majority of English speakers in the United States and Canada and a corresponding version that would teach players Japanese was not created due to the technical limitations of the Nintendo Entertainment System along with the lack of popularity in the West to learn Japanese aside from cultural or business purposes in the 1980s.

Contents

Gameplay

In the game, Popeye teaches players how to spell English words. [2] The layout is similar to the Popeye arcade game, except that players cannot "die", they can only get incorrect answers. The game includes three modes: Word Puzzle A, Word Puzzle B, and Word Catcher. [3] In Word Puzzle A (based on the first level of the original game), the player is given the Japanese term for a word in one of six categories: Animal, Country, Food, Sports, Science, and Others (due to technical limitations, these terms are displayed entirely as katakana, regardless of their origin). [3] Blank squares for the English word are given, and the player must maneuver Popeye around to point to letters of the alphabet in order to fill in the blanks. Each wrong letter entry prompts Brutus/Bluto to punch a basket carrying Swee'Pea; the player must solve the puzzle before Swee'Pea's basket is knocked off the platform it is attached to.

The player may also forfeit the puzzle by punching the "?" icon. If the puzzle is lost or forfeited, the correct English word will be displayed. Word Puzzle B is identical to the "A" mode; however, the player is not given the Japanese term beforehand. In the two-player Word Catcher mode (based on the third level of the original game), the first player controls Popeye and the second controls Bluto. Three Japanese words are displayed on the screen's left side, and both players compete to collect letters thrown by Olive Oyl to spell out their English equivalents. A player wins when he or she has correctly spelled five words. [3]

See also

Notes

  1. Japanese: ポパイの英語遊び, Hepburn: Popai no Eigo Asobi, lit.Popeye's English Fun

Related Research Articles

<i>Yoshis Cookie</i> 1992 video game

Yoshi's Cookie is a 1992 tile-matching puzzle video game developed by Tose and published by Nintendo for the NES and Game Boy platforms in 1992. A Super NES version was released the following year, developed and published by Bullet-Proof Software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluto</span> Fictional character from Popeye franchise

Bluto, at times known as Brutus, is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time character, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip. Bluto made his first appearance on September 12 of that year. Fleischer Studios adapted him the next year (1933) to be the main antagonist of their theatrical Popeye animated cartoon series.

<i>Wrecking Crew</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Wrecking Crew is an action game developed and published by Nintendo. Designed by Yoshio Sakamoto, it was first released as an arcade video game for the Nintendo VS. System in 1984, titled Vs. Wrecking Crew with a simultaneous two-player mode. It was released as a single-player game for the Family Computer (Famicom) console in 1985, and as a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) later that year. A sequel, Wrecking Crew '98, was released in Japan in 1998 for the Super Famicom.

<i>Popeye</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Popeye is a 1982 platform game developed and released by Nintendo as an arcade video game. It is based on the comic strip of the same name created by E. C. Segar and licensed from King Features Syndicate. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki did programming work on the game. As Popeye, the player must collect hearts thrown by Olive Oyl from the top of the screen while being chased by Brutus. Popeye can punch bottles thrown at him, but can only hurt Brutus after eating the one can of spinach present in each level. Unlike Nintendo's earlier Donkey Kong games, there is no jump button. There are three screens.

<i>Punch-Out!!</i> (NES) 1987 video game

Punch-Out!!, originally titled Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, is a 1987 boxing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Part of the Punch-Out!! series, it is an adaptation of the arcade video games Punch-Out!! (1984) and Super Punch-Out!! (1984). Differences from the arcades include the addition of undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson as the final boss. It received critical acclaim, and is retrospectively considered one of the greatest video games of all time.

<i>Punch-Out!!</i> (arcade game) 1984 video game

Punch-Out!! is an 1984 arcade boxing video game by Nintendo. It was the first in a series of Punch-Out!! games.

<i>Hogans Alley</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Hogan's Alley is a light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Family Computer in 1984 and then the arcade Nintendo VS. System and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It was one of the first hit video games to use a light gun as an input device, along with Nintendo's Duck Hunt (1984). The game presents players with "cardboard cut-outs" of gangsters and innocent civilians. The player must shoot the gangs and spare the innocent people. It was a major arcade hit in the United States and Europe.

<i>Popeye</i> (film) 1980 film by Robert Altman

Popeye is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. It is based on E. C. Segar's Popeye comics character. The script was written by Jules Feiffer, and stars Robin Williams as Popeye the Sailor Man and Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. Its story follows Popeye's adventures as he arrives in the town of Sweethaven.

<i>Pinball</i> (1984 video game) 1984 video game

Pinball is a pinball video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is based on a Game & Watch unit of the same name, and was first released for the Famicom in Japan in 1984. It was later released as an arcade game for the Nintendo VS. System in Japan and North America in 1984. In 1985, it was a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America.

<i>Super Punch-Out!!</i> (arcade game) 1984 video game

Super Punch-Out!! is a 1984 arcade boxing game by Nintendo. The sequel to Punch-Out!!, it follows the same format while adding several new features and characters. Along with punching, blocking and dodging, players also have the ability to duck. The game also saves and displays the three fastest knockout times, while the game's difficulty is increased.

<i>Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan</i> Video game series

Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan is a series of Japanese word puzzle video games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The series began in arcades with Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan in 2001, and has seen multiple sequels for several platforms, including the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS. Gameplay is similar to Scrabble — players are tasked with using Hiragana to form words on a board by placing down pieces marked with Hiragana characters.

Point Blank, known as Gun Bullet, or Gunvari in Japan, is a series of light gun shooter games developed by Namco for the arcade, PlayStation and Nintendo DS; the trilogy was first released in arcade in 1994 and was later ported onto the PlayStation. Point Blank DS was released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS featuring 40 challenges from the original series.

<i>Clubhouse Games</i> 2005 video game for Nintendo DS

Clubhouse Games, known in some European countries as 42 All-Time Classics and in Japanese as Dare demo Asobi Taizen, is a compilation video game developed by Agenda and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS, consisting of board, card, and tabletop games from around the world. It was released in Japan on November 3, 2005, in Europe on September 29, 2006, in North America on October 9, 2006, and in Australia on October 26, 2006.

<i>Space Firebird</i> 1980 video game

Space Firebird is a 1980 arcade video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released by Nintendo in Japan and Europe. In America, the game was distributed by Far East Video. Sega-Gremlin also released a version of the game in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea Hag</span> Fictional character in Popeye franchise

The Sea Hag is a fictional character owned by King Features Syndicate. She is a tall, masculine-looking witch featured in comics/cartoons as a nemesis to the character Popeye. The Sea Hag was created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1929 as part of the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popeye</span> Fictional character

Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the lead character, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. Following Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. It was formally renamed Popeye. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments on Sundays, written and drawn by R.K. Milholland. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.

<i>Popeye</i> (1990 video game) 1990 video game

Popeye is a Japan-exclusive Game Boy video game based on the comic strip of same name licensed from King Features Syndicate.

<i>SpellTower</i> 2011 puzzle video game

SpellTower is a 2011 puzzle video game by Zach Gage in which the player creates words from a jumble of letter tiles to clear the screen before it refills. The game has several game modes and a multiplayer battle mode. The impetus for the game—the concept of combining elements from Tetris and Boggle in what was a prototype of the puzzle video game Puzzlejuice—inspired Gage to create SpellTower. The game released for iOS in November 2011 to generally favorable reviews. Versions for OS X and Android followed over the next two years. In 2017 SpellTower Minutes was released. This browser-based Flash game created special "blitz" like modes not found in the mobile releases. A new iOS version released in 2017 swapped out the unnamed dictionary and began using Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. French and Dutch language specific versions were also released. A 2020 release, SpellTower+, added new game modes, cleaner visuals, and a jazz soundtrack.

<i>Touhou Spell Bubble</i> 2020 video game

Touhou Spell Bubble is a rhythm based competitive arcade puzzle game developed in 2020 by Taito as an officially licensed spin-off in the Touhou Project series. The gameplay is similar to that of the Puzzle Bobble series, which Taito also developed. The company has referred to the game as "Puzzle Bobble meets Touhou Project," implying that they consider it to also be a spinoff of both series.

References

  1. "Popeye no Eigo Asobi for NES (1983)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  2. "Amateur game review". Xaqar. 2006-02-07. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
  3. 1 2 3 "'Popeye's English Game'". NinDB. Archived from the original on 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2009-05-19.