Baraduke and Beyond

Table of contents:
Background / Why? - Characters - Games - Other Content - Links

Background / Why?

I made this shrine late 2022 (when I first started this website) as a very high-effort shitpost that I don't think anyone else besides me found funny. I regret letting it sit unfinished (and unfunny) for over a year. I always had a passive interest in Namco since childhood; My favorite Christmas special was from the Pac-man cartoon (despite not seeing the rest of it), and as a teenager I liked Klonoa and Mr. Driller a lot. I would play Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits so much I would see the blocks when I closed my eyes... Completing this isn't a high priority for me, but I did want to dust it off and make it look more presentable in 2024, because that would be the decade anniversary of when I discovered this game.

In 2014, I dealt with a really stressful and catty parasocial (towards me) "friendship" that made more paranoid about interacting with people. I started self-isolating more than I already did then. Seeing Pac-man announced for Super Smash Bros. 4 was one of the brighter moments that summer, even my family noticed that I was ecstatic over how cute and charming his trailer was. In hindsight, I'm over Smash and don't find it fun anymore. The fanbase is obnoxious, I don't like how DLC-ridden SSB4 and Ultimate are (especially since the eShop won't be around forever), and the amount of Pokemon and Marth clones polluting the roster annoys me. I'm thankful that Pac-man's inclusion pushed me to get back into Namco, at least.

Then I remembered that 6 months earlier, a Namco-themed dating sim was proposed. I was initially interested because Lolo from Klonoa was one of the free routes, but I lost interest because most content I found on Tumblr was about the Homestuck routes. But I found out that Namco High had a month left to live! The option to purchase the DLC became unavailable late March, and Shiftylook was going down in the fall. I had to play this game and save the website's content before it became lost media.

(The good news is, it isn't lost media. Namco High is playable online with the DLC freely available, and Shiftylook's content is archived. The Bravoman animation is archived too, not sure about Mappy.)

I played Namco High for Lolo, but the rest of Shiftylook opened my eyes to some forgotten IPs I knew nothing about earlier. In fact, I found out Mr. Driller and Dig Dug by extension had some slightly "deeper" trivia I had no idea about. This is now uncommon knowledge (it's the trivia on Wikipedia), but I still want more people to know about it. Where's the Namco Cinematic Universe? Just kidding... I don't want Hollywood or Netflix or whoever else to go anywhere near this.

(Side note, but while the Wonder Momo OVA is complete garbage, the webcomic is criminally underrated. This isn't about that, though. Maybe give it a chance anyway, though.)

Characters

Baraduke

Toby Masuyo

Female
December 31st, 19??
First appearance: Baraduke (1985)

First and foremost, this page is about Baraduke and its star Toby! (Sometimes spelled Tobi. I just picked the y spelling and stuck with it.) You can skip here for about the game itself. Toby was in the UGSF and solved the Baraduke incident in 1985, but is assumed to have been out of commission after birthing her first two sons. (Ouch!) After divorcing Taizo before the events of Mr. Driller, she apparently works as a novelist and essayist while raising her youngest son.

Her name is a word play of the phrase "Tobi de arimasu yo!" which means "I can fly!" - Multiple sites claim that her nickname "Kissy" comes from being prone to kissing people when she's drunk (yikes!), but I can't find any canon citation to this. Mobygames and Arcade History on the other hand, claim it's after the game's programmer Yoshihiro Kishimoto, which is more plausible.

I've wondered what my deal was with Toby and why she became such a "character of interest" to me. Her existence felt like an Easter egg to me, even though she's been established since the mid-80s. I knew a lot about the forgotten IPs and characters in Nintendo via Smash, but Namco and other companies was a mystery... Everyone knows about Samus and Metroid being a game changer at the time (nobody wants to tell me about Other M for some reason), but I didn't know that Toby did it first! I was also one of those normies who didn't know Mr. Driller had more lore at all besides Taizo being Susumu's father... So much for being a fan. In my defense, I only played Drill Spirits and own W.

Takky

Female
???
First appearance: Baraduke (1985)

Funky looking chick. Is player 2 in Baraduke, but the protagonist with a separate design in the sequel.

Takky doesn't have a "real" full name, but I suspect it's derived from the name of the game's designer, Yukio Takahashi.

Paccet

First appearance: Baraduke (1985)

As the ~~annoying~~ soundbyte that plays in the game says: He's your friend! These little guys live on Planet Paccet and sent out an SOS message after being kidnapped by the evil Octy. And how could you say no to that friendly face? He'll circle around Kissy or Takky and give them shields!

Elder Paccet

First appearance: Baraduke 2 (1988)

No idea if this is an actual separate character, but he sure looks important enough to be. I may be compensating for how small this section is.

Octy

First appearance: Baraduke (1985)

These mean motherfuckers invaded Planet Paccet! There's technically 11 different kinds of them, with Octy King as the final boss. But my personal favorite is the evil Pac-Man pictured here for giving me quite a jumpscare when I first saw it in the game.

Dig Dug + Mr. Driller

Taizo Hori

Male
January 1st, 1955
First appearance: Dig Dug (1982)

Virile retro gaming icon whose life passion is inflating and exploding cute creatures and dragons (freak alert). Also a not-so-great father and ex-husband, but as we know, you don't have to be a role model to be a cultural icon. Taizo was the chairman of the Drill Council and solved the Dig Dug incident in 1982. When he met, married, and later divorced Toby is unknown, same for the reasons for their divorce. But some debatably canon sources imply that he was too invested in his job to spend time with his wife and kids. In Mr. Driller, he's known for being a glutton and visits Egypt often to play with the camels. He's still in the UGSF and a founder of the Star Trigon Team. (But Toby retired? How unfair...)

His name is a play on the phrase "horitai zo" meaning "I want to dig".

I actually don't have any negative feelings about Taizo, but the Mr. Driller series is REALLY committed to the bit of making him look bad for some reason. He spends more time traveling than staying home with his teenage sons, and is jealous of Susumu's popularity. Taizo believes he's a better driller than Susumu, you can judge that for yourself if you unlock and choose to play as him. He's a character for advanced players; He drills blocks faster, but also consumes more air.

Ataru Hori

Male
July 7th, 1984
First appearance: Mr. Driller G (2001)

Taizo and Toby's oldest son, who ran away from home at a young age and is a rogue driller without a license. We got a badass over here! Ataru is the Shadow the Hedgehog of this series and a friendly rival to his younger brother Susumu. His whereabouts are unknown due to his grudge towards his father and is a lone wolf. Nothing personal, kid. Most importantly, he has a pet rabbit.

His name is most definately a pun on some Japanese phrase, but I'm still trying to find recorded info on what. Feel free to shoot an e-mail if you happen to know.

I don't have an opinion on Ataru, but I don't blame him for being like that. Gameplay-wise, Ataru is similar to his father (which I'm sure he's not happy about); Both drill faster, but consume more air.

Susumu Hori

Male
March 3rd, 1987
First appearance: Mr. Driller (1999)

Taizo and Toby's second son who who was pushed out too fast. (Why the fuck would you have another kid so shortly? No offense to any parents reading this...) More commonly recognized as the adorable protagonist of the Mr. Driller series! Unlike his runaway older brother, Susumu is a teenage (now pushing 40) savant who is the top driller in the world. What the fuck were you doing at 14? His favorite food is rice cakes stuffed with bean jam, and enjoys digging in ancient ruins and ice sculpting.

His name is a play on the phrase "hori susumu" meaning "to dig forward".

I've always liked Susumu! The cover art of Mr. Driller was what drawn me to the series. His pink helmet is so cute, he's one of Namco's mascots for a good reason. I prefer his rounder classic design in the very first game to the "evolved" art style down the line. In-game, he's a well-rounded character that any skill level can play as.

Taiyo Tobi

Male
May 5th, 1990
First appearance: Mr. Driller G (2001)

Taizo and Toby's youngest son. Taiyo isn't a driller like his brother because he suffers from claustrophobia, so he's following his mother's footsteps and wants to join the UGSF when he grows up. Like Susumu, he's also a savant-level prodigy who got his pilot license at 5 and is seen driving a helicopter at 11. Grade-A protagonist material, but his rail shooter game is unreleased. Isn't that a shame? I think so... Well, maybe that's why Toby took him and left the other brats with Taizo.

His name is a play on the Japanese phrase "tobitai yo" meaning "I want to fly".

Games

Pssst, everything after the first game is hidden under a details tab for length.

Baraduke

What's a nice space chick like you doing in a scary place like this?

Baraduke, also known as Alien Sector, is a run-and-gun shooter arcade game released in 1985.

This game caught my attention because it's basically the proto-Metroid. The twist that the cool 80's space dude you're playing as is actually a woman under the suit was actually done here a year before Metroid. Is this a coincidence, or what? Not sure, but both games are inspired pretty heavily by Alien and Metroid has more inspirations and key differences, so no need to accuse anything. (Paccet and Metroid circling around our heroine is a fun parallel, though.) There's also similarities between this and Capcom's Sector Z, but Baraduke was released a few months earlier and I haven't played Sector Z.

Baraduke was ported a few times on various platforms. The first was a decade later (1995) on the Sharp X68000, and again two years later on the Playstation 1 in Namco Museum Vol. 5. It's also compilated in the Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360, and on the Pac-Man's Pixel Bash cabinent. There was also a release on the Wii Virtual Console, but that was Japan-only. I actually really wanted to own some kind of copy of this, but I don't own half these consoles (and that cabinent is $3000 rounded up...). But lo and behold, it turns out Baraduke is on the Switch eshop! Fingers crossed that Hamster will port the sequel to Switch too.

Honestly, this game is fucking hard. Harder than Metroid if you ask me. I knew I wouldn't even make it halfway, but when I first gave this a whack in 2014 I knew it would be more of a personal novelty than a Top 10 Favorite That I Just Love Playing. Nope. Sorry for being a fake geek. Or that's what I thought when I played it via MAME on a shitty laptop back then, but the Switch eshop port isn't nearly as much of a nightmare. I don't know if it was made easier (I haven't played the other modes), but it's a lot of fun! I doubt I'll get to the end and see the reveal but I like a game that's trial-and-error strategy. It also makes you paranoid playing, there are random parts where an Octy come out of the gates instead of Paccet.

The second video was a complete accident. Sorry Paccet!

Baraduke 2

COMING SOON

Dig Dug series

COMING SOON

(I've played this, but haven't in awhile. There's also a few more games for this.)

Mr. Driller series

COMING SOON

(I've also played this, but don't have the info on hand. I'm also debating on having Star Trigon as a separate section.)

Namco High

Typical yearbook photo.

Namco High was a browser-based dating sim released in 2013, published by Shiftylook and developed by What Pumpkin Studios (yes - and directed by Andrew Hussie) and Date Nighto LLC. It was shut down less than a year later but is archived online.

It's... more of a novelty than anything actually good, in my opinion. The protagonist is Cousin, the cousin (ya think?) of the Prince of Cosmos from Katamari Damacy. They just landed themselves in detention after rolling a Katamari around school grounds. Oops! Luckily they're far from the only student there, since plenty of Namco IP characters (and the weird transfer students from the cultural hit webcomic Homestuck). Everyone's detention sentence can be shortened significantly by joining or starting a club.

Taizo is the principle of Namco High, but he's just referred to as Principle Dig Dug. He doesn't get any cool art, just has a blown up version of his sprite from the original Dig Dug. For humor purposes, I guess. (Also that's King from Tekken, he takes care of the horrible and naughty students thrown in detention.)

As we know, the absolute sexiest student in the school is Galaga. Don't deny it...I'm sure if that stunning spaceship was your classmate, you'd be in line to ask it out too! But this isn't a page dedicated to the sheer sex appeal of Galaga, Susumu is one of the routes. Susumu is in detention for defacing a statue, and he has some hardcore baggage revolving around Principle Dad. Did we mention said statue was of Taizo? Uh oh. Cousin finds him cute enough to want to know more, though. (Not all the routes in Namco High are romantic, but this one is.)

Honestly, Susumu in this game is weird. The issue with Namco High is that half of the personalities in the game are out of character compared to their source material (Lolo from Klonoa and Aki from Wonder Momo sticking out the most to me). Susumu is pretty one-note and his personality mostly revolves around digging and his issues with Taizo, but keep in mind it is a freemium browser game. Not that deep.

Taizo's divorce is mentioned in Susumu's route, but Toby is just referred to as "mom".

Toby does appear in Hiromi's route, however.

Hiromi (from Burning Force - see the UGSF section) was sent to detention for street racing on her motorcycle and was held back a year because she wasn't applying herself. She has a "data collection partner" and wants to graduate Namco High ASAP to see the world with her. But her partner is hesitating and wants to plan ahead, and promised they can go on this trip if Hiromi wins this race and uses the prize money towards it.

Even with my slash goggles ripped off my face, I can see what's being implied here.

When I first played this way back in 2014, I really enjoyed this route for the subtext and it was my introduction to this lore rabbit hole. Now, it's super uncomfortable to see (who I know now is) a divorced middle-aged woman waiting for a teenager to graduate high school so they can run away together (I know Hiromi is 19, but come on). But I'm not going to point fingers and assume the worst over a fictional story. This is a reference to Namco X Capcom. Both are drawn by the same artist and look around the same age, if Hiromi (alongside Albatross, Richard Miller, Tomari, etc.) was aged-down for the sake of Namco High then Toby likely was too (she also appears as one of the students in Evil Namco High for some reason???). Not every project on Shiftylook is by the same writers, and as I mentioned before, a lot of routes are very out of character (Aki from Wonder Momo being the worst offender of this). I'm assuming whoever wrote this didn't put together that that Toby is Taizo's ex-wife (since she only appears in Mr. Driller in a cameo that can be missed), since the events of Baraduke are mentioned but the divorce isn't.

Still weird when we know that Hiromi's real true love is her motorcycle (and yes I do mean it like that) and she just needed another free spirit to encourage them to go out on the road together. Because street racing on school grounds and skipping classes is fine, but dropping out is a step too far.