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First off: You’re looking at Rotom, right there. Well, the inspiration for Rotom at
least. Yes, the 4th generation’s first and only Ghost/Electric Pokemon is a callback
to this very game. Those spark ball items littering the ground? The spiritual predecessors
to the Light Ball, the held item that doubles a Pikachu’s attack stats. Pikachu’s Volt
Tackle attack for that matter? Another callback to the Volteccer, Pulseman’s calling card.
There’s Pokemon all over this game... when in fact, it’s the other way around. But
wait, show the very first thing you see when you start this thing up... what the...
Behold, the wayward child of Game Freak’s stable. Well, one of the wayward children.
But we won’t get into Click Medic or Magical Taruruto-kun at this time. Before they became
another cash cow in Nintendo’s pastures, Game Freak produced the occasional title for
the PC-Engine or Mega Drive, alongside games like Yoshi, Mendel Palace, and Smart Ball
(which, ironically enough, was published by Sony Imagesoft for the Super NES.) Pulseman
is unmistakably a Genesis game, heck, it even did a cup of coffee on these shores as part
of the ill-fated Sega Channel. But that was long before this whole “Pokemon” thing
got off the ground. Nowadays it’s impossible to think of Game Freak doing anything but
churning out various Pocket Monsters, despite their attempts to break this typecasting,
such as 2005’s Drill Dozer for the GBA.
Around the world, chaos is breaking out in both physical and electronic space. But since
Mega Man Network Transmission is still a decade off, it’s up to Pulseman to get in there
and regulate, with the power of... electricity! He can punch and kick from a standing position
or crouch, he can perform a jumping overhead kick a la Guile, and if he charges up enough
electricity by running or dashing, he can fire projectiles and/or bounce around in volteccer-form.
Now, while this is technically an import game, and there’s plenty of Kanji to be had in
the level descriptions, the experience itself scraps all of that in favor of the international
language: Hardcore 16-bit platforming. But while the graphics are on the higher end of
what the Genesis could handle, and the sound (and vocal samples) are indicative of a higher-tier
game... unfortunately, the actual controls are a bit less than responsive. And that’s
unfortunate, because you’ve only got five continues to get through the game’s seven
levels.
No game exists in a vacuum; the threads of history and innovation wind through the whole
of the industry. So here, years before Nintendo and Sega got all buddy-buddy with Sonic Mega
Collection, is an earlier, more esoteric intersection. As platformers go, it’s more shiny than
solid, but as history lessons go, it’s a perfect example of how to honor your past
while cultivating your current paradigm-shifting megahit. Game Freak kept Nintendo buoyed throughout
their trying years in the mid-90’s, just a couple years removed from the release of
Pulseman. Today, you can pick up this little piece of history on the Wii Virtual Console’s
import section for nine bucks, just a tenth of what a used physical copy would run you
these days. And you don’t even have to go through the rather arduous process of import-modding
your Genesis.