GamingCX: GameCenter CX - Episode 136 - Gradius

(A word of cautious - gamingcx.com is one of the last remaining fan websites, where you can actually watch gamecentercx episodes in their entirety - Most of the content found within these episodes, such as the arcade trips and developer interviews, will never make it to the official dvd release in the west, either due to copyright or licensing issues.  So I very graciously ask you to try to not spread these links around too much, as certain segments of the show - while invaluable - are becoming more and more difficult to find.)

An episode of GameCenter CX has recently been translated into english and uploaded onto Gamingcx.com!

(picture taken from http://gamecentercx.tumblr.com/)

GamingCX: GameCenter CX - Episode 136 - Gradius: In this episode, Arino closes off Season 15, with the strict but very talented Assistant Director Takahashi by attempting to beat the rather difficult Konami Shoot-em-up, Gradius.

If you've never watched GameCenter CX before: GameCenter CX, is a Japanese TV show, that stars Japanese comedian, Shinya Arino, where he attempts to play through and see the ending to some of Japan’s most popular video games, usually under a 24 hour time limit...Often with a little help from GameCenter CX's own staff. 

Each episode, (arguably the more interesting part of the episodes) is interspersed with various segments, such as viewer suggested arcade trips, developer interviews and show announcements - One of the more interesting episodes being Part 2, of the Super Mario Bros Lost Levels, episode:

In that episode, (which I’ll try to eventually upload here, privately) Arino sits down and interviews Satoshi Tajiri; the creator of Pokemon. It’s here where we learn of Satoshi’s incredible passion and fascination to track down various arcade games seen throughout Japan, that eventually lead to the creation of his self-published fanzine GameFreak... that eventually lead to a position within the game industry....That eventually lead to the creation of Pokemon itself. (really interesting stuff! You guys have to check this episode out!)

But yeah, 

I don't normally watch lets play, but I do like GameCenter CX. 

The difference here being that:

Not only is, Arino a very charming, very funny comedian (The staff members who help put the show together, are also incredibly charming and very interesting) but the show itself, is so well edited, that it’s almost hard to believe, watching someone else play through video games, would make for such a compelling piece of entertainment.

Not only that, but the show has some very interesting promotional events, that gives us a brief glimpse of what's currently happening overseas with certain renowned Japanese game developers - Like for instance: watching Shigeto Miyamoto lose in a Super Mario Level that Arino made with Super Mario Maker, to help promote the recent release of Super Mario Maker for the Wii U.

...So yeah, you should definitely be following Game Center CX!