Shenmue

• Before you get a job you are given 500 Yen a day for spending money. This is seriously nothing and can be blown very easily as most everything cost 100 yen or more. Unless you are a serious collector most everything you buy is worthless, toys, cassette tapes, food, candy, soda, household supplies, etc. At one point it all had a purpose (for Shenmue 2, 3 and 4) but unless you're going to take the effort to play Shenmue 2 on your Dreamcast and convert your save file (I did) 99% of everything is worthless. Spend your money at the arcade instead except for...

• Buy new moves. There is a little dojo in Dobita that has a selection of moves that you cannot access anywhere else. In my experience most are worthless, focus only on the easier ones.

• You are not a martial arts master. Ryo may be but you are not and the DC controller is certainly not. You're best bet is to stick with quick punch combos and a healthy dose of dodging your enemies attacks. Counters/throws are great and can be set up well with dodging. Kicks are generally to slow or leave you too open and should be used sparingly. Those moves I mentioned before? Mostly they are very complicated and complexity does not gain you anything in combat. Sure it looks really cool when you can do it to Fuku-san in practice but in real combat trying to land that great throw (left,down,right,down,left,punch/kick,left,throw) just does not work. Just keep punching the bad guys in the face and they'll get the idea.

• Practice. You can practice in any empty area like playgrounds and parking lots. You will looks stupid for sure but you can learn the button combos while increasing the move's strength at the same time.

• The motorcycle part. Seriously, slower is faster. I don't know why this was included in the game as it just plain sucks. The controls are not built for it and you will throw the controller at least once. Take it easy around corners and don't forget the brake.