 It's not strong. If you crossed Legend of the Mystical Ninja with Smash TV and a dash of Perodius, you'd get the two Paki and Rocky games developed by Natsume, and if that sounds like a bizarre combination, that's because it is. The Japanese title of this game is probably more telling since it translates to Mysterious Ghost World, The Riddle of the Black Mantle. Nowadays, that sounds like a title of an indie game somebody slapped together in six weeks, but back then, I mean, nothing had a title like that. This series started as a Japanese arcade game back in the late 80s, eventually getting ports on several home computer systems and the PC engine. There is a standalone Famicom game as well, the title of which translates to The Story of the Angry Waves. I don't know about you, but I love these titles. And on from there, into the Super Nintendo titles, and later a Game Boy Advance release, as well as games much later on the Wii and PS2. Anyway, one day a young shrine maiden named Paki is just hanging out when a raccoon, or a tanuki really, named Rocky, shows up to tell her that his tribe of people, the nopino goblins, have all gone out of their minds or are under a spell or something. Point is, everything is all batshit crazy and it's up to Paki or Rocky to fix it. So yeah, you can play as either character or as both with the second player. Take one glance at Paki and Rocky and you get to just do the gameplay right away. It's a classic top-down run-and-gun game where you shoot in eight directions, slide to avoid enemy fire, collect power-ups and clear all bombs, get rid of all sorts of bizarre-looking enemies like jack-o'-lanterns, zombies, flying, things, all sorts of stuff from Japanese mythology, and you make your way across the level until you meet a boss. Whether that be a genie, a knight, a pirate, a cyclops, or a bamboo shoot. Pretty simple, right? Yeah, also pretty dang weird. With the power-up system, you can either choose to upgrade to a stronger fireball or spread out your attack with the weaker cards that you throw. Look, there's a lot of Japanese mythological stuff that's going way over my head with this game and the North American port did us no favors. The quote-unquote cards are actually Ofuda or Talisman. Rocky is actually a Tanuki instead of a Raccoon. The Ahem Magic Stick is actually a Harai, which is used in a purification ceremony. Yeah, there's tons of stuff they just flat-out ignored and didn't bother to explain, so whatever. Back to the gameplay, this game is hard, as you might expect. Most games of this nature are, but there's unlimited continues here, so no excuses. There's six levels total, with a cutscene at the end of each defeated boss. Although I've learned that these were cut out of the PAL region cartridges, sorry guys. The level design is as you'd expect, it's pretty plain, and you get less and less space to work with as the game goes on, restricting your range of motion and making the game much tougher. What curbs the difficulty and makes this game even more fun is, as you might expect, a second player. Paki and Rocky, and its sequel for that matter, are two of the best multiplayer games you can find on the Super Nintendo. What I love especially is that you can slide into your partner and make them bounce around, destroying everything in sight. Yeah, they take damage, but whatever, that's their problem. Now, what's unexpected and kind of interesting are the minor differences between Paki and Rocky. For instance, Paki's slide attack is quicker, while Rocky's travels farther. Rocky's clear-all bomb is a bit more powerful. Rocky can use his tail, and I could be wrong, but it sure seems like Paki is just faster in general than Rocky. Another nice feature is that if one player dies, you can borrow lives from the other to join in again. So yeah, Paki and Rocky is a good time. And if you're bummed out that there's only six levels, there's a sequel, Paki and Rocky II. The Japanese title is simply the rescue here. Aw, man. So earlier, I compared Paki and Rocky to a combination of the Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Smash TV, and Perodius. The sequel sees the balance sway much more toward a game like Legend of the Mystical Ninja, because here there's kind of an open-world RPG-ish feel to things. As you can talk to people in the middle of stages to find out where to go, and stop in stores to buy items to help you out along the way. Paki and Rocky II has nine levels this time around, and while the game mostly looks and sounds the same, there's a lot more elements to the gameplay, like how you have a partner even in single-player mode. You can pick up icons to switch from one to the other if you'd like. There's Rocky, Bomber Bob, and Little Ninja, or at least those are their English names, and there's at least three or four more helpers you'll run into as you progress. The clear all bombs and slides from the first game are gone. The emphasis is mostly on what you can do with your partner, like Bomber Bob can clear pathways, Rocky can search for hidden treasure, and so on. You can only do these things when you quote-unquote combine with your partner, and you have a limited amount of time to do it because you only have so much magic to use. If you go over your magic limit, you take damage, and when all else fails, just throw your partner at things. That's always fun. So yeah, don't be fooled, Paki and Rocky 2 looks like more of the same, but the gameplay is actually quite a bit different, and there's a lot more replay value here too, because of the helper dudes that you work with. In principle, I don't like when people try and fix something that's not broken, and the first Paki and Rocky game is not broken at all, but they still took the risk of removing key features and adding new dynamics to the sequel, and everything clicks just as well, so Natsume should be commended for that. Anyway, yeah, both Paki and Rocky and Paki and Rocky 2 are worth playing today, and oddly enough for different reasons. The first game is more of a straight-head run-and-gun game like Smash TV, while the second stresses teamwork, even if you're playing by yourself. Whatever sounds more appealing of the two is for you to decide.