It must be admitted that the game is quite unpopular and you probably haven't even heard of it until today. This can be easily judged by the lack of any information about it in the Russian-speaking segment of the American segment of the Internet. Moreover, Power Shovel has several names and a page in Wikipedia only in native Japanese! Has the game deservedly existed for almost twenty years in oblivion? Let's get to the bottom of it.
Power Shovel is a game about Japanese excavators. First, you are presented with it as a simulator: you are forced to park correctly, feel the size of your transport, fill the hole with sand for a while and everything like that. However, all these familiarizing parts are not superfluous - to management here really it is necessary to get used to it long and painfully. To give you at least somehow to imagine the breadth of the disaster, I will explain - one pair of buttons is responsible for turning the body of your transport, the arrows of the direction of movement (the game was sharpened under the control without sticks), and a number of buttons to control the bucket. To operate correctly and quickly, you need to learn the function of each button and have the agility to reap them at the same time. I'm sure that Power Shovel slot machines are playing hard, but the transfer of control to the joystick is made out of hand is bad and can easily spoil your mood.
Since the game is a thoughtless port from the slot machine, stop feeding any hope for an intelligible narrative. There is no hint of a story here and there is no close-up. But listen, do you need some kind of scenario in the game, where you need to dig the ground on the excavator?
As a matter of fact, the brainchild of Taito Corporation is a collection of witty minigames in different ways. They are divided into three types of games - the first helps you to master management skills; the second one tests you for professional suitability; and the third one already offers a set of minigames, for which you can get money. Virtual, of course. They are needed to buy collectible photos and new equipment in the store. In general, the motivation to win is there.
Everywhere you need to perform certain tasks in a strict time frame and at the end you are given an overall score depending on how accurately and quickly you followed the task. In addition to the expected digging of the trench and the leveling of the sand slide, you'll find crazy missions such as rescuing turtles from the pool, beating a limousine, destroying houses and wooden structures, building a dam from the impending volcanic lava, and much more. My favorite mini-game is where the excavator appears as a waiter and has to fill huge plates on the conveyor belt with different sauces. Or the moment when the excavator gets into the open space and has to fight off the creatures coming to it. Surprisingly, even though the situations we face in the game are absurd, it does not stop being a simulator. In any case, people who spent many years at work on the excavator say that the virtual transport is felt very subtly and echoes the real prototypes. Did you think it was easy to operate such a machine?
Power Shovel calls for excitement in every possible way. For the tests you have passed you are rated from "beginner" to "professional". The fact is that to achieve the highest award is unimaginably difficult, and you always want to improve your results. I bet if there was an Internet table of records in this game, it would be even more entertaining.
In addition to the inconvenient management and the scant amount of time to perform the task of complexity and add numerous fines in case you do something wrong. Sometimes it can make you angry and even make you throw away the joystick until the next time, but keep in mind that the simulator of the working excavator should not be easy if it tends to be realistic. Any delay or disobedience is severely punished. As in life.
Graphically, the game looks quite decent for its time. Extremely simple menu has not undergone any changes since the arcade version - it looks poor and dull. But the environment and transport are pleasing to the eye - the developers treated with all the love for Japanese technology, drawing as much detail as allowed the technical capabilities of the console. Unfortunately, sometimes we can find common bugs like sand, which can be seen through the bucket. However, this does not spoil the general impression.
There is no desire to be picky about the music. Cheerful music plays at all levels, contributing to a good working rhythm. It probably won't be in your player, because it quickly wears off your head, but during the game itself it listens quite harmoniously. But everything is a little worse with the sound. Japanese mentality does its job - in the course of the task your HR employer comments on your actions with loud shouts. At the same time, he replays so much that it is completely unclear whether he approves your actions or scolds. Sometimes it's hard to understand what to do in a particular minigame, and here the commentator just confuses you. On the other hand, listening to this impulsive speech is insanely fun. At first glance, the described game may seem boring, but as soon as you turn it on yourself and try to go through a few missions, you will feel a slight dope of crazy and incomprehensible fun. It's as if you've just smoked herbs.
At the end of the game we are allowed to have a beautiful plan with a truck driving leisurely through the night city (in the back of which is your excavator) against the background of Japanese multi-storey houses. Nothing out of the ordinary in this picture, however, it looks very peaceful. You feel like a tough Japanese laborer whose weekday is finally over, and he returns home to his family.
By the way, the level designer mode is a nice addition to the game. You will be presented several dozens of landscape elements and obstacles, which you can generously scatter over the level, and then make your friend ride on it, or drive himself. For those who like to play in the company there is a two-player mode, however, the game does not become much more fun from this.
Afterword
Power Shovel is an excavator driver's simulator for a drug-seeking driver. At the beginning of the day, you gently fill the trenches with sand and flatten the piles, and by the middle of the day you catch gold turtles from the pools and pour the soup on giant plates. The amazing combination of realistic and absurd gives birth to such a crazy image that you just can't afford to pass this game. Terribly complex management and endlessly screaming employer (who looks like some kind of pokémon in a yellow helmet with the logo of the publisher) and pop-up bugs can, of course, spoil the overall impression, but if you learn to close your eyes to these details, you will open a sea of exciting action. The authors' fantasy knows no boundaries - each new minigame is different from the previous one, and gives you a completely new game experience. The product is unlikely to find a large audience - after all, the genre of such simulators is of little interest to anyone, and the game has already spent its majority. And it's a little disappointing, because the game is complete, with a good balance between graphics, gameplay and music. It can be recommended first of all to those who like to let out their excitement and infinitely improve their skills. Well, and those who love excavators. And turtles. And the Japanese.