Gekibo: Gekisha Boy is an eccentric and unique rail shooter photography platformer developed by Tomcat System and published by Irem for the PC-Engine in 1992. In the game, you play as a young man named David Goldman, a photography enthusiast who seeks to become the best in the world and enrolls at the Los Angeles Photography School. However, tragedy soon strikes when his parents die in a plane crash, sending David into a deep depression, causing his grades to fall and his dreams to crumble. The Dean, seeing David’s potential, steps in to make an offer to the distraught student; take eight special tests, and he’ll graduate.
The player takes control of David and he must take pictures of interesting sights to earn points, to complete a stage David must both have enough points to pass and have taken the assigned picture of the level. As he takes pictures, David must also avoid obstacles that will hurt him as well as stun him, which can result in missing a good picture. Taking pictures of certain sights can also grant David more film and upgrades like a bigger lens that will greaten the size of the reticle. The game is incredibly wacky and the various sights you can take pictures of include car crashes, cartoon slapstick, buildings suddenly taking off like rockets, alien abductions, people with especially weird looking faces, and numerous shout-outs to movies like a a giant gorilla climbing a building and a DeLorean flying off into the sky.
In 2002, the game would be ported to the PlayStation 1 as Volume 94 of the Simple 1500 series, under the name The Cameraman: Gekisha Boy Omakefu. This port adds an extra stage, as well as an unlockable cooperative mode where a second player can come in as the Gekisha Girl. A sequel would be produced in 2001 called Gekibo 2: Tokudane Taikoku Nippon; this game has David, now a photographer for the newspaper Planet Times, traveling to Japan to take photos of wacky happenings to send back to his boss. Gekibo 2 takes advantage of the new 3D environment, allowing players to zoom in to get shots of things farther in the background, as well as a limited number of flash bulbs to clear obstacles and reveal hidden secrets. The sequel was intended to be released as Polaroid Pete in other territories, but was canceled.
Gekisha Boy and its sequel contain the following tropes:
- Ascended Extra: The Gekisha Girl was just there to be controlled by player 2 in the PlayStation 1 port. In the sequel, she is revealed to be the Dean's daughter, and is also David's girlfriend, whom he intends to propose to. She will periodically show up in levels to provide David with power ups.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: All the levels other than final ones are this with David always walking forward.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Both games have a level taking place in a graveyard. In the first one, you'll be taking pictures of a lot of classic movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, while in the second, you'll be taking pictures of a ton of yokai.
- Camera Fiend: David, even outside of gameplay he almost always has his camera with him. Justified as he is trying to become a professional photographer.
- Downer Beginning: The first game begins on a surprisingly somber note with David's parents passing away and him being seriously affected. We even get to see their funeral with David tearfully crying over their coffins. It's a good thing the Dean came in to give him some much needed help.
- Gag Nose: David has quite the honker. In fact, it's so big that even his diving suit he wears in the first game can't even contain it, as it merely pokes out like normal in front of his helmet.
- Eagleland: The first game takes place in an exaggerated and cartoony version of the USA.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the second game David has recovered from his parents' death, graduated from photography school, become a world famous photographer, and is Happily Married.
- Final Boss: The Dean is this in both games, giving David one last test.
- For the first game it is the Dean giving David a final exam where he needs to take pictures of the Dean, which basically amounts to a whack-a-mole game.
- In the second game, the Dean is testing David to make sure he is worthy of marrying his daughter. Once again, you must take pictures of the Dean, but now he will take pictures of David too if you miss him. To win, David must have more pictures than the Dean.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Both games utilize these, though the second game in particular favors them. One of the most amusing is a large furry multilegged legged bus that looks like a... Dog.
- Metropolis Level: Several levels in both games take place in chaotic urban environments.
- Paper People: The second game goes with this kind of art style inside levels: David and everyone else are 2D sprites animated on a 3D plane. Even some buildings are 2D, making the whole world look like a pop-up book. This is averted with the in-between level cutscenes and ranking screen where David and the Dean are 3D models.
- Public Bathhouse Scene: A level in the second game takes place entirely in a bathhouse, specifically the male side. At one point though you can leap on some buckets to get a peak at the female side for some valuable pictures.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Dean of the Los Angeles Photography School. He is shown to a stern but kind old man who sees David's potential and wants to make sure he meets it. He will also assist David during levels in the second game, throwing power ups to him if photographed.
- Shout-Out: The first game has a ton of them. You will taking pictures of Michael Jackson, the Fix-Its from *batteries not included, Marilyn Monroe, and the T-800. The sequel lightens up on the shout-outs a bit, but there are still quite a few like seeing a regular guy enter a phone booth to change into Superman and seeing Godzilla stomp around.
- Under the Sea: The fourth level of the first game has David suddenly don a diving suit to take underwater pictures. Some of the sights include otherwise normal undersea life playing poker, mermaids, aquatic gods, and a familiar long-nosed puppet stuck inside a whale.
