Bravoman

Bravoman appeared in 1988 for the PC Engine, developed by Now Production under the Namco name. It is a platformer built around one idea: the hero stretches his limbs, so he strikes and reaches considerably further than his sprite would suggest.

That detail changes the pace. Instead of closing the distance to an enemy you judge range and time the extension, which makes movement slower and more deliberate than in a typical action platformer of the period. The art leans openly comedic, which fits a hero whose arms telescope across the screen.

In 1988 the PC Engine was a new console whose hardware kept up with sixteen-bit machines despite an eight-bit processor at its core. It handled large colourful sprites and clean scrolling, which Japanese studios put to use mainly in arcade conversions and in games with a strong drawn style.

The record files this as a side-view platformer, the mainstream choice for 1988 - the genre was the most crowded one on consoles, and what separated releases was exactly the kind of single control idea this one is built on.

Namco was at that point one of the busiest arcade producers in Japan, and its home conversions followed a familiar pattern: the concept and the characters carried over, while some of the scale did not. A console version had to work for a player with unlimited attempts at home rather than for one feeding coins into a machine, which usually meant reworking pacing and difficulty.

OldGame.cz runs Bravoman directly in the browser, so the stretching attacks are a click away rather than a download.