behind small items known as "Fuku" when defeated. Collecting ten Fuku will cause Bravoman's robotic friend Lottery Man to appear, who will give him a random powerup item. These include rice balls and noodles that will refill a portion of his health, a star that gives him the ability to fire atomic blasts from his fists, a drink that grants temporarily invincibility, and a bullet train that will warp him to the end of the level. The game features 33 stages. Some of these levels take place underwater and transition the gameplay into a horizontal-scrolling shooter, transforming Bravoman into a submarine that can fire missiles at enemies. Most stages feature a boss at the end that must be defeated in order to progress. The most common boss the player fights is Black Bravo, an evil clone of Bravoman that mimics his attacks. Other bosses include the cyborg ninja Waya-Hime; a mechanical version of the king of Atlantis; and Pistol Daimyo, a shogun with a cannon attached to his head. The first level acts as a tutorial, with a robot alien named Alpha Man teaching the player how to play the game. In the last level, the player must fight Dr. Bomb himself. Some levels act as bonus levels, featuring many power-ups and little to no enemies. Plot The storyline in Bravoman is told through the game's attract mode sequence, alongside various pieces of promotional material. When Japanese car insurance salaryman Hitoshi Nakamura is walking home one day, he encounters a strange, humanoid-like alien named Alpha Man, who claims to be from the planet Alpha. He informs Nakamura of a mad scientist named Dr. Bomb, who plans to destroy Earth and enslave the human race through his army of robots and a deadly superweapon. Alpha hands Nakamura three items; a metal rod, a tuning fork, and a ¥100 coin, which transforms him into Bravoman, a bionic tokusatsu superhero who possesses telescopic limbs. Bravoman and Alpha Man set out to stop Dr. Bomb and prevent him from taking over the world. Development and release Bravoman was the creation of Namco composer Norio Nakagata, who joined the company in the mid-1980s. He had previously directed the arcade game Genpei Tōma Den (1986), a hack and slash platform title that is claimed to be an early precursor to Bravoman. His goal for the project was to create an arcade game based on things he