Rakugaki Showtime (1999). Play online
Game Info
Not rated
- Platform
- PlayStation
- Multiplayer Options
- Split Screen
- Player Perspective
- Top-down
- Developer Companies
- Treasure
- Publishers
- Enix · Square Enix
- Release date
- 29 July 1999
- Languages
- 🇯🇵 Japanese
Summary
Rakugaki Showtime (sometimes just "Showtime") is a wildly eccentric 3D arena fighter that feels like a multiplayer dodgeball made of crayon sketches. Players grab whatever they can toss—books, fish, even household junk—to knock opponents out of the ring, and the chaos supports up to four people at once. The roster includes 17 quirky characters, among them Marina Liteyears from the obscure Mischief Makers, all rendered in wobbly hand‑drawn style. Treasure’s first original PlayStation venture, it features a soundtrack by Kenta Watanabe, whose retro‑rock past includes Panzer Bandit.
A bitter legal tug‑of‑war between Treasure and Enix forced the game into an ultra‑limited Japanese launch, turning it into a collector’s treasure that once sold for ¥15,000. It resurfaced on the PlayStation Network’s Game Archives in 2008 for a modest ¥600. Critics loved its frantic gameplay, awarding it solid scores like 7.4 from GameSpot and an 87 from GameFan.
Edited by Maya Carter
