Chew-Man-Fu

n/a

TurboGrafx-16 PC Engine
Chew-Man-Fu
System(s): PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U)
Publisher: Hudson Soft NEC Technologies Konami
Developer: Hudson Soft
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-03-30 ¥5,2005,200 HC90028 US 1990-07 TGX020035 JP ▼ 2007-02-13 600pts600 US ▼ 2007-02-26 600pts600 EU ▼ 2007-03-02 600pts600 AU ▼ 2007-07-13 600pts600 JP ▼ 2014-07-30 ¥581 (628)628i US ▼ 2017-09-21 $5.995.99 EU ▼ 2017-09-28 €5.995.99 DE ▼ 2017-09-28 €5.995.99 UK ▼ 2017-09-28 £5.395.39

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Chew-Man-Fu, known as Be Ball (ビーボール) in Japan, is an action puzzle game developed by Hudson Soft for the PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16. It was also released on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console, and included on the PC Engine mini.

Story

Set in ancient China, the sacred towers of the Egg Roll Dynasty have been taken over by the game's titular villain, Chew-Man-Fu, depriving everyone of their favourite foods. It is up to two female apprentice monks, LaLa and LingLing, to make their way through the sacred towers and break Chew's curse to bring peace and fried rice back to China.

Gameplay

Chew-Man-Fu tasks players with clearing each round by pushing, pulling or kicking coloured balls around a maze and placing them onto plates of the same colour within the time limit while avoiding enemies, either solo or co-operatively. Ⅱ must be held to push a ball around, using the D-Pad to move forward or backward while pushing, and kicking the ball is performed by pressing Ⅰ. When all of the balls have been placed on the correct panels, the round will be cleared and the player(s) will move on to the next. The balls also serve as LaLa and LingLing's sole form of attack against enemies and can be used to break down walls, creating pathways and finding hidden items. Enemies will respawn shortly after being defeated, and if time runs out, all enemies will transform into Fire Balls that can pass through walls.

Inbetween rounds, the Wizard will offer advice, and from time to time will also offer a bonus and/or deal to the player(s). For example, if a player has collected 30 Diamonds, they will be given the offer to play a bonus round in which the objective is to break down walls with a ball and find hidden 1 UPs. In a two-player game, the offer will be for either Player 1 or Player 2, and rarely will it be for both. The "yes or no" prompt will appear in the lower-left side of the screen if the offer is for Player 1, or in the lower-right side if it's for Player 2. If a player's score is over 100,000 points for the first time, the Wizard will reward them with five extra Diamonds.

The game has a total of five areas, each area spanning ten rounds, plus a final area consisting of five rounds, spanning a total of 55 rounds. After clearing all 55 rounds, the game will loop back to the beginning with a new set of rounds to complete. There are 10 loops to complete, leading to a total of 550 rounds to complete. After clearing a loop or when choosing not to continue after a Game Over, the player(s) can receive a password that will enable them to resume the game from where they left off, and can replay previously-cleared rounds using the D-Pad when the round number is displayed after entering the password and starting the game. If a storage peripheral or a CD-ROM² system is in use, the highest level reached will also be saved when the password is displayed on the screen. Passwords cannot save score or collected Diamonds.

Balls

	Green Ball
	The regular ball. All of its attributes are average in comparison to the other balls.
	Red Ball
	Has high attack power, allowing it to defeat any enemy in one hit.
	Blue Ball
	A lightweight ball that can be pushed around quickly and bounces wildly off of walls, but deals weak damage to enemies and walls.
	Black Ball
	The heaviest ball, which enables it to break down walls more easily than other colours, but is difficult to push around.

Items

	Fruit
	Comes in oranges, strawberries and melons. Awards bonus points when collected.
	Diamonds
	Collect 30 diamonds to play the bonus round.
	1 UP
	Awards an extra life.
	Fortune
	Allows a player to be hit by an enemy once without dying.
	Earthquake
	Sets off an earthquake that damages all walls, possibly destroying them if they have been damaged enough.
	Skull
	Repairs all cracked walls.
	Stop Watch
	Freezes all enemies for a few seconds.
	Vertical Beam Plate
	Kills all enemies in both vertical directions from the plate's location.
	Horizontal Beam Plate
	Kills all enemies in both horizontal directions from the plate's location.
	Four-way Beam Plate
	Kills all enemies in all four cardinal directions from the plate's location.
	Area Beam Plate
	Kills all enemies within a certain radius of the plate's location.
	Zapper
	Kills all enemies on the screen, no matter where they are.
	Color Change Plate
	Temporarily changes the colour of all balls in the round to the plate's colour.
	Bowl of Ramen
	Heats up when touched, attracting all enemies to its location with its aroma until it cools and disappears.
	Scroll
	In some rounds the plates may be hidden. Collecting this item will make all plates visible, allowing balls to be placed on them. Sometimes an enemy may be carrying this item.

Areas

	Area 1: Stone Room
	This tower features Porcupines that roll around, Green Turtles that hide in their shells when hit with a ball, and Apes that will chase after the player(s).
	Area 2: Ice Room
	This tower features Penguins that slide around on their bellies, Walruses that move around, and Ice Gorillas that will freeze balls solid. A frozen ball cannot be pushed around until it thaws after a few seconds.
	Area 3: Plant Room
	This tower features the Porcupines returning from the first area, Kiwis that can peck walls to break through them, and Gorillas that can pick up and carry balls. If a Gorilla is carrying a ball, it must be attacked with another ball to make them drop the ball.
	Area 4: Water Room
	This tower features Frogs that hop around and shoot fire from their mouths, Red Turtles that are stronger than the first area's Green Turtles, and Kappas that will dance around on any ball they find and cannot be hurt from the back due to their shells.
	Area 5: Fire Room
	This tower features Green Dragons that shoot fire from their tails, Red Dragons that shoot fire from their mouths, and Ogres that can catch any ball that gets kicked in front of them and so must be defeated by attacking them from behind or their sides.
	Final Rounds
	These five extra rounds are played after all five areas have been cleared, and the player(s) must defeat all enemies using a Golden Ball to advance. The enemies that appear here are the strongest enemies of each of the previous areas: Apes, Ice Gorillas, Gorillas, Kappas and Ogres.

Kick Ball

Kick Ball is an extra mini-game in which two players compete against each other in a game of kickball. To play this mode, players must kick the ball using Ⅰ and try to kick it into their opponent's goal to score points.

This mode is only for two players - it cannot be played in single player.

Edit Mode

An example of a level created in Edit Mode.

Edit Mode allows the user to create their own levels and play them. When selected from the title screen, the following menu options will appear:

• 1P/2P GAME START: Starts a game on the current level in either one-player or two-player mode respectively.
• EDIT: Displays the level editor.
• FILE CABINET: Allows the user to load, save and delete their levels in the backup RAM of a storage peripheral or CD-ROM² system. Up to 12 levels can be saved at a time.
• CLEAR: Completely erases the current level.
• END: Ends Edit mode and returns the user to the title screen.

After selecting "EDIT", the first screen displayed when editing levels is a grid of white squares where the user can edit the walls of their level by moving the cursor and pressing Ⅰ to create walls or Ⅱ to remove them, though they cannot place walls where "X" is displayed.

Pressing  SELECT  will toggle between editing the walls and the objects. On the object editor screen, moving the cursor to the bottom of the screen will display a window where the user can select an object to place in the level.  SELECT  and  RUN  will cycle through the object types, and Ⅰ will pick up that object to be placed in the level. An object that has already been placed can be picked up and moved elsewhere by pressing Ⅰ to pick it up, or deleted by pressing Ⅱ. The level's theme can also be changed to one of the five area themes from this window.

If an object cannot be placed in the selected tile, a buzzer will sound. Some objects are limited in how many of them can be placed in a level at a time - for example, only one type of player start location for each player and one type of enemy spawner can be placed at a time, and a level cannot have more than four balls and/or plates in it at a time. Pressing  RUN  at any time outside the object selection window will return to the Edit Mode menu.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Chew-Man-Fu	Chew-Man-Fu
Japanese	ビーボール	Be Ball

Production credits

• Design: Yumi, Binbo!, Simotuma
• Sound: N.Ide
• Program: Wakky
• Thanks: Mr.Ura

Hudson Soft

Thank You!

To Be Continue

Source:

In-game credits (JP)

Digital manuals

• 

  PC Engine mini US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Chew-Man-Fu/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

PC Engine version

PC Engine, JP
Cover
File:BeBall PCE HuCard JP Manual.pdf Manual

TurboGrafx-16 version

TurboGrafx-16, US
Cover
Card File:ChewManFu TG16 US Manual.pdf Manual Jewel Case

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 261f1013 MD5 5c6227a91d252a12bf2a0d3d5b5fe65d SHA-1 55d8815a4a432e587fc7483b63b73114fe40e710	256kB		Card (JP)
✔	CRC32 8cd13e9a MD5 ff32565f935af07372e1dfd0ac7fbe78 SHA-1 5c742fe5d5af5628ba0e598cb88abd892dc87682	256kB		Card (US)

External links

• Chew-Man-Fu on Nintendo eShop (Wii): UK
• Chew-Man-Fu on Nintendo eShop (Wii U): JP