More ideas

Well, I was thinking about doing Gamecenter CX (also known as Retro Game Master in the USA), as the main premise of this show is to show old and popular games and to just have fun with video games.

Gamecenter CX began around late 2003, where the host Shinya Arino (part of the comedy duo Yoiko) is asked to "challenge" various games in order to see the ending, but he is often hampered by his novice video game skills, his forgetfulness, and his hubris, which more often than not leads to failure. However, those are the most endearing traits about him, as even with all of those obstacles, he continues pushing through adversity in order to reach the end. Since the show began, many of the things that are seen in later episodes (cooling pads, his catchphrase etc.) weren't yet established in the first few episodes. Even the title of Chief came later, as he started off as Senior Staff and had to work his way up the ranks.

Many of the episodes, along with challenging the given game of that episode, have a few other segments that are very fun to watch and experience. During the first few episodes, Arino had a segment where he would interview CEOs of various video game companies about either their video game history, how the company began, their company's popular series of games, and even how they get their inspiration. The interview segments were then finished, and were replaced by a few other segments, such as Game Collections, You Should Visit This Game Center Sometime, Ring-Ring Tactics!, The Aces of Hardware Won't Appear, and The Romance Never Ends. Along with these, there are also occasional special episodes where Arino and a few members of staff go to different areas of Japan or go to different countries. There is even a special episode where the Gamecenter CX staff and crew get Arino to challenge a game live on stage.

There is a lot more to Gamecenter CX than this, but this is a basic overview of the show, as there are also other parts like the Assistant Directors, or ADs, and the different games Arino plays. There is also the video game based on the show that is on the DS, which Arino helped create, which could be useful in the presentation.


Along with this, I could possibly add in comparisons with the west and the shows that they have on gaming and playing games. There are only a few examples of shows in the west that have video games as a central viewpoint (Ginx TV, the many G4TV series, GameTrailers TV etc.), and most of the shows usually get cancelled after a few episodes, either due to low viewer count or problems with funding.

Gaming in the west, unfortunately, still has some sort of social stigma attached to it, whereby the people that play video games are usually seen as either nerdy or lazy, or that they lack social skills in everyday life. This isn't really a surprise, as this has been the case since video games went commercial. In Japan though, video games are seen as being almost socially acceptable, and maybe even tolerated. Gamecenter CX is a show that anyone can enjoy, young and old, as it is both about playing old video games and reminiscing about the times one might have had during the years those games were released. This aspect is highlighted in the Game Collections segment, where games of a certain year (1986, 1987 etc.) are listed off in alphabetical order, with a brief synopsis and comment given to each game. There is also You Should Visit This Game Center Sometime, where Arino himself will go to a game center chosen for him by fans who send in postcards, and check out the selection of games they have on offer. Sometimes the sender of the postcard will tell him to check out a certain quirky part of the game center, which might be a rare game or the location of it or who owns it. Usually, these segments end up with Arino thoroughly enjoying himself and, again, reminiscing on his own childhood. In the west though, video game shows tend to only show the newest and most popular games on offer, rarely going into detail about the games that were, or the consoles from ages past. The only western example I can think of that comes even minutely close to Gamecenter CX is a series on youtube called Angry Video Game Nerd, or AVGN for short. AVGN basically shows the same things as Gamecenter CX (without the other segments of course), albeit with the typical western "nerd" stereotype portrayed by the presenter instead of the funny and charismatic character portrayed by Arino.