This is another game I heard about so long ago I don't even remember how I heard about it, but I remembered it being recommended from whomever it was X3. Among weird Japan-exclusive Konami games, I'd reckon this is one of the better known of ones outside of Japan, at least in retro gaming circles. It didn't come as cheap as I'd hoped I could find it, but I was honestly just happy to find it for the normal Famicom (as I'd somehow thought this was a disc system game XP). I finished the game in about 40 minutes on the original hardware.

This game has a plot that is simultaneously very strange and also really vile (I've described it to my friends as "fat shaming: the game"). The main character Penta loves to eat, but he's getting dumped by his girlfriend Penko because he's gotten too fat, and she's started dating a big, buff jerk penguin named Ginji. Penta is determined to lose weight to win her back, but Ginji sends his goons after Penta to literally hurl food down his throat to keep him fat. It has probably one of the most awful morals I can think of among games of the era, but the silver lining is that it does make for some quite interesting game design.

This game is an action side scroller, but you don't really die unless you fall down a pit. You don't even actually have a life bar. Your goal here is to get fit, and accordingly you have a "fitness meter" at the bottom of the screen with a marker of how fit you need to be by the end of the level. You achieve this by collecting weight loss shakes scattered through the levels and being carried by Ginji's goons, and your method of attack actually changes as you get larger or thinner (from an awkward belly slam at your largest, to a projectile firing scream attack at your thinnest/smallest). But you can't grind out shakes forever, as you also have a (quite generous) time limit to finish each stage within. While this does lead to some odd ludonarrative dissonance in the case of things like the final stage, where you're saving Penko FROM GINJI who has kidnapped her yet you still need to avoid getting too fat so she'll love you again, it makes for a very interesting (albeit a bit short) action platforming experience.

The presentation is what you'd expect from a late-life Konami-made Famicom game: sprites are colorful and highly detailed, characters are cute and very charmingly designed, and the music is also quite good. The goons and bosses Ginji sends at you in particular are very oddly and charmingly designed, and the whole thing has a very Parodius-y feel to it.


Verdict: Recommended. If you can get past just how awful the premise is, this is a pretty darn fun and not too tough Famicom game to kill an afternoon with. It's not the cheapest game or the easiest thing to find, but it's well worth trying out if you're in the mood for an action platformer that's a bit weirder than your usual fare.

Penta is shallow and this game is amazingly cute and fun. You can't really take damage, instead enemies fire food at you, attempting to make you gain weight to make you move slower and to "make the girl of your dreams refuse you". It's a hurtful message cushioned in incredibly interesting gameplay.

Weight is barely a setback in the actual mechanics, with the heavier frame being able to body slam enemies, the mid frame being able to kick, and the light frame gaining a projectile. If it wasn't so fatphobic it would genuinely be an amazing use of the theme. Combine it with shoot-em-up gameplay and charming boss fights and Yume Penguin Monogatari is a REALLY good Famicom title that, if rebooted with modern body image ethics, would go SO hard.