AH HARIMA-NADA

「ああ播磨灘」 9/13 /1993 / SEGA
16Mbit Cartridge /Action/ 1-2 Players

Ah Great Introduction

Ah Harima-Nada is a sumo wrestling game based on the manga & anime series of the same name by manga artist Kei Sadayasu. Neither the manga nor the Mega Drive video game are really well known outside of Japan (and from what I can gather the MD game is rather obscure even in Japan), so this is a good chance to introduce at least this quality sumo wrestling game from SEGA.

The first noteworthy feature about Ah-Harima-Nada is certainly the attractive game packaging. In the front cover we can see the main character Harima-Nada menacingly pointing with his finger at any potential buyers that dare looking his way... If looked from a distance (like from the store shelves for example) the cover really gives the sensation that is telling you「Hey! You Over There!! Buy this game! or else..!!」I don't know if this was done on purpose, but it really feels like some kind of hypnotic marketing stunt... (^^;;

Hey! You Over There!! Buy This!!

Speaking of game covers... It's very likely that at some point many of us have complained about the terrible game box covers that we got here in the West in comparison with Japan during the 8-bit and 16-bit generations. But believe it or not, many of them were really a blessing in disguise! In Japan almost every single game that came out had these cool anime covers (yes, even the really awful ones). So just imagine that if when you were a kid the first thing to see when entering any game store was a wall full of catchy game covers resembling cool anime videos. Chances are now you would be reminiscing about how many times you walked away with an awful game that had a really fancy box cover... (T∀T)

Fortunately this was not the case with Ah Harima-Nada, since its actually decent quality game. But the thought of too many great covers at once is a really disturbing one indeed... ( ￣っ￣ )

Ah Great Story

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Tradition and status dictate the world of professional sumo wrestling. Wearing the mysterious-looking mask, the new Yokozuna appears before his public, as for his name... Harima-Nada!

Boastful and overconfident, the young Yokozuna has only one goal in his mind: To beat the seemingly unbeatable winning record of 69 consecutive wins set by the legendary 35th Yokozuna: Futabayama Sadaiji「双葉山 定次」.

But can the rebellious Harima-Nada really achieve this feat? His unruly and carefree behavior is often seen as unfit for the harsh life of the professional sumo wrestler. Can a man like this really become the first one in history to achieve the 70 consecutive winning mark?

The road to victory will not be easy...

Ah Great Gameplay

Just because this is a sumo wrestling game that features characters with a huge oversized body mass, don't be thinking for a second that the action will be slow-paced. Quite the contrary, the game will demand some fast reflexes from the player (as well as a heavy dose of button mashing!), to avoid getting pounded into oblivion or being thrown of the ring at the first chance the CPU gets!

Real life sumo matches are known to last only a few seconds in most cases, and the minimum lapse of concentration from the wrestlers can make them lose the bout before they realise what just happened. This fact about sumo wrestling is something that was translated remarkably well into the game, as it doesn't matter if you have a full life bar and are just one hit away from knocking down your opponent, if you let your guard down just for a moment, you can end up being tossed out of the ring before you know it.

Of course this is something that works both ways (more for the player than for the CPU really). So you can get beaten down to a pulp but with just a single well-timed throw or reversal, you can be the one coming on top. And this gameplay trait is what ultimately makes the game so much fun to play, because you know that regardless of how well you're doing during a fight, you can never relax, while in the other hand even if you're losing badly, you know you still have a chance of winning.

Ah Harima's Great Move List

Basic Commands

※When Harima-Nada is facing right. If Harima-Nada is facing left, reverse the left/right controls.

Control Pad... Advance, Retreat, Defense, Jump

Start Button... Pauses Game

A Button... Weak Attack

B Button... Strong Attack

C Button... Grapple

Run... F, F

Advanced Commands

Low Kick... D + A or B

Hawk Attack... (while in the air) B

Aerial Throw... (while in the air) F + B

Hell Tightening... (while standing next to the opponent) D, DR, R + B

Head Butt... (while running) B

Flying Head Butt... F, D, DF + B

Counter... (when receiving a rushing attack from the opponent) DB + A+B

Grapple Commands

Push Forward... D, DF, F + A or B

Side Throw... D, DB, B + B

Side Suplex... F, UF, U, UB, B + B

Special Commands

Back Breaker... (while grappling the opponent) U, D, U + BB

Telekinetic Wave... Rotate control pad 360 degrees + B This is an unblockable move that will stun your opponent for a couple of seconds regardless of his position on screen. This move is more useful for the CPU than for the player though...

Fire Hand Palm... B (hold), F + B

Out of all the moves available to Harima-Nada, the grappling ones are overall the most useful, first because they can end up in a ring out, and second because by remaining grappled to your opponent you can stop him from performing any special attacks. If you attempt to throw your opponent near one the ring corners you will engage in a「power struggle」that will decide who actually gets thrown out of the ring. During this time you must push the A + B buttons and move the controller pad as fast as you can to avoid being the one who biting the dust.

Ah Great Story Mode

In the 1 Player mode your goal will be to win 70 sumo matches and beat the record of the legendary Yokozuma Futabayama Sadaiji. There are 3 difficulty settings to choose from: Komusubi「小結」(Easy / ends midway, can't see the ending), Ozeki「大関」(Normal) and Yokozuna「横綱」(Hard). In both Normal and Hard modes the CPU will start relatively weak and easy to beat but it will get dramatically more difficult along the way. Since there aren't 70 sumo wrestlers in the game, this means you will have to fight the same characters at least three times, and as expected, they will be more difficult and violent the next time you face them.

If you lose a match you will be able to continue up to three times before getting a game over. Although one would think that losing a single match would defeat the whole point of the campaign (which is to achieve 70 consecutive wins). In reality continuing the game has no real consequences and doesn't affect the ending or anything else. And is certainly amusing to see Harima being as threatening as ever even when losing, and saying something like「Bokke! It was only because the player is lacking skill that I was defeated!! Let's do this again, you and I!!」. (^^;;

70 matches can sound like a lot, but since they generally won't last long and are only a single round affair, the game in reality doesn't take much longer to complete than the average fighting game. Still, because the game can be hard to complete the first time with only 3 continues, of if you simply want to call it quits for the time being, the game features a password system for your convenience. After every 8 matches or so, the Chief Director will be showing up to give you the current password (which is all in Japanese hiragana characters). The passwords are actually simple catchy phrases that Japanese players will probably find very convenient and easy to remember. However for everyone else not used to deal with hiragana characters, the passwords can be a bit of a pain to write up.

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The storyline itself is very simple and self-explanatory, so players don't really need to know Japanese to understand it.「Kishin-Ryu」, who despite always training himself over the limit is nevertheless defeated by the lazy and over-boastful Harima-Nada. This obviously frustrates and infuriates Kishin-Ryu to no end as he just cannot understand how can an impertinent guy like Harima-Nada defeat him. The plot revolves mainly around the original game character and Harima's main rival

I must admit I'm very disappointed about the storyline cut-scenes in Ah Harima-Nada, specially coming after the fantastic 1992 Judo Simulation game「Shura no Mon」, which was another anime based game with a similar contact sport premise. But while Shura no Mon featured minutes long storyline cut-scenes, Ah Harima-Nada in turn features only a few short ones... big bummer... (T^T)

As expected the night of the 70 match will feature the epic battle between Harima-Nada and Kishin-Ryu who has just been promoted to Yokozuna rank. Kishin-Ryu has changed his name to「Kishin-Nada」and now wears a new menacing-looking kabuki make-up. Needless to say he will be by much the most difficult (and cheapest) opponent in the game.

Kishin-Nada has two special attacks unavailable to Harima-Nada: The Dragon Dance ( A+B / also used by other characters) and the incredibly cheap Hyper Head-Butt (D, DF, F + A+B), which is basically an upgraded version of Harima's Hell Tightening. The best tactic to use against Kishin-Nada is to grapple him as soon as you can in order to avoid his deadly Hyper Head Butt attacks, and then just aim for a lucky throw that will toss him out of the ring. Alternatively you can try to spam Kishin-Nada with quick successive simple head-butt attacks. This tactic will not always work but if you manage to chain 2 head butt attacks in a row without him blocking them, then it's very likely he will not be blocking them at all.

With Kishin-Nada defeated for good, Harima-Nada has just consagrated himself as the greatest Yokozuna to have ever existed! His record of 70 consecutive wins will become an inspiration for all the new sumo wrestlers for generations to come!!

Ah Great Conclusion

Unfortunately the game is not without it's flaws, and perhaps the more relevant one lies in the graphics department. While the actual game graphics are very decent, the problem is that there just not enough variety. All characters including Harima-Nada have only one winning pose which gets really tiresome after a while. Characters also share basically the same move list and some of them are only palette swaps of the same character model. But undoubtedly the biggest drawback is that there's only one arena in the whole game, and which is something that was acceptable for the low graphical standards of early 80's fighting/wrestling arcade games, but inexcusable for a 1993 game on a 16-bit console system. So when one takes into account that Ah Harima-Nada is a 16 megabit game, the lack of graphical variety certainly comes as a huge disappointment.

The sound effects also suffer from the same lack of variety than the graphics, so the few voice samples present in the game (including Harima's voice) are also shared by all characters. Fortunately the sound is saved by a truly awesome original soundtrack that mixes the cool sounds of the traditional Japanese taiko drums with more modern catchy upbeat tunes. So if you're a fan of traditional Japanese music, then you will certainly love the soundtrack of this game.

Ah Harima-Nada is certainly not a game that can be recommended to everybody, and I doubt there's that many people outside of Japan (if at all) that know or are fans of the source material. But the good news for those interested in the game is that nowadays the complete Mega Drive cartridge retails only for around the 2,000 Yen price range (around US$20 or €14), and it isn't particularly hard to find.

~ OMAKE ~

Clearing the game on the Hard difficulty setting will unlock a hilarious hidden animation showing Harima and two other sumo wrestlers dancing together to the sound of「Harima's First Excersices」.

The song Harima's First Exercises is also featured in the music CDs「SEGA-CON Vol.1」and「SEGAROCKS Live In Japan」.

Game Passwords

8 wins「うぬっ！にしきさとは、どこだ！」

15 wins「うぬっ！りゅううんは、どこだ！」

23 wins「うぬっ！すさのおを、よべ！」

30 wins「うぬっ！げんかいを、よべ！」

38 wins「うぬっ！りゅううんだ！」

45 wins「うぬっ！みのわうみだ！」

53 wins「うぬっ！ふがく、おまえだ！」

60 wins「うぬっ！はくほう、おまえだ！」

68 wins「うぬっ！たちかぜ！！」

Cut-Scene Selection「えがみたいよ」

Harima's First Excersices「たいそうしようよ」

Omake mini-games「かるたやりたい」

▲This password will let you play a bunch of quiz and card matching mini-games with the character portraits.

SEE YOU NEXT GAME!