"Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise" (Game Boy)

A game that sort of resembles "Mario Bros" for the NES. A relatively short and quick game to beat.

Here's a game you don't hear from retro video gamers often, but we're sure it will trigger the stereotyping critique we grow tired of hearing day by day: Mr. Chin's Gourmet Paradise! Yeah, a truly odd-ball title, one shouldn't be too fooled with the game's premise.

As Mr. Chin, you enjoy the taste and cuisine of every food that exists. However, the true and delicate treat reported by the press food scientists call peaches, just became the new food Mr. Chin decides to go after. Problem is that getting these peaches require a little work due to its mobile nature: They are plants called "Momos," which Mr. Chin is warned are dangerous and illegal. In order to sample this, Mr. Chin is introduced to a little machinery called a "DEMOE Beam"—a device, when deployed, zaps the Momos into edible peaches. What if Mr. Chin doesn't zap the Momos and tries to sample them as is? He gets poisoned. That ought to tell you the challenges of being a gourmet chef.

Kind of a fun, little story, isn't it? Given the food-laden theme, and in attempt to 'glamorize' peaches, this isn't a very difficult game. The A button gets Mr. Chin to jump and the B button deploys the DEMOE Beam. The music sounds like a melody that could get reused in a homebrew game project. As for the game, in order to zap the Momos into peaches, you must set the Beams at one end and deploy the other where the Momos roam back and forth. This may sound like a challenge, given the pace and behavior of certain Momos, but once you get the timing and pattern down, it's easy to eliminate them. There are also bonus stages where you get Mr. Chin to chug down as much peaches as he can in the allotted time. I find it hard not to laugh during this part.

After you completed the eighth stage, the last and final stage of the game, the game resets back to the first stage with increased difficulty. Think Super Mario Land going into the Underworld after defeating Tatanga.

This amusing but simple game is a humble treat, especially for the handheld video gaming fan. Let my video gameplay advertise:



Those peaches must have been worth all that trouble, eh, Mr. Chin?

Games like this are one of those you look and think, "man, what kind of game is that?" It may be another action-adventure, platforming game that looks like a re-hash of Mario Bros., but the story and the action brings another delight that you don't normally see in handheld games.

Lastly, after we've now reviewed this game, watch the stock shares for peaches go up. Head to your local grocery stores before they run out!

A simple, easy and funny game that slipped through the cracks, wanting to get its fifteen minutes of fame that it never got. Highly recommended!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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