Mushiking: King of The Beetles - Gameplay

Gameplay

Developed in 1998, Mushiking's gameplay is simple yet very challenging (especially against a human opponent). It uses the concept of rock-paper-scissors by pressing a button corresponding to the type of skill. Rock represents "Hitting", scissors represents "Pinching" and paper represents "Throwing". Players scan their cards with the card scanner in the middle of the machine.

Every time a player inserts their credits in the machine, the machine will dispense a random card of either a skill or beetle card. Rare cards also get dispensed in the machines as well. When the card is retrieved, the player has to decide to play a one-player game or a two-player game. One-player games will pit the player against four computer-controlled beetles in either Easy or Hard Mode. Two-player Mode is divided into Tournament (the original two-out-of-three match) and the Tag Battle introduced in Version 6.

It is important that the player must take the card out as soon as it comes out. If it is not taken out from the machine for a very long time, the machine would register the situation as a "stuck-up card" and halt the game for an attendant to check the machine. Also, the game will not run if there are no cards left inside the machine.

The player scans a beetle card first, then the player scans one skill card to each of the three skill type; totalling of four cards to scan. The player may wish not to scan cards when he/she lacks particular cards. When a match begins, a countdown timer will begin counting down to zero while the player decides his/her move. An enlarged skill icon in the screen indicates the beetle's finishing attack. This can cause major damage when the player wins with such move.

The following things can happen during a battle:

• If a player has a move that beats his/her opponent's move (i.e. Rock beats Scissors), the winning player's beetle shall execute the skill learned for that type of move.
• If both players pick the same move, a tie will result and both players' beetles lose 10% of their total stamina.
• If either player has chosen his/her move and the other player has not selected a move within the time limit, the other player's move will be automatically selected to lose against the winning player's move.
• If a player loses to his/her opponent, the opponent gets to attack the player's beetle.

Whoever knocks out their opponent's beetle to 0 wins the battle.