Tag Archives: Tamsoft

Cover Games, Senran Kagura

Senran Kagura Peach Ball: Bump ‘n’ Bounce

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There’s a convincing argument to be made that a long-running video game franchise has only seen true success when it’s had a video pinball spinoff on a Nintendo platform.

I jest, obviously, but there are a number of fun examples from over the years — primarily direct from Nintendo, it has to be said, what withΒ Metroid, Kirby, PokΓ©monΒ andΒ Super MarioΒ all getting the bouncing balls treatment.

Senran KaguraΒ is a series about ninja girls, though, so how on Earth could that possibly… oh, you know they’ll find a way. Let’s take a closer look.

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Cover Games, Senran Kagura

Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash: No Shirt, No Shoes, All Shinobi Shooting

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It’s understandable that some people approached Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash with a certain amount of trepidation prior to its initial release.

After all, here was a series that was supposedly about ninja girls fighting an unseen battle against the otherworldlyΒ youmaΒ forces, and yet their next game seemed to have them all clad in bikinis having water pistol fights with one another. Sure, the fanservice angle had always been part of the series… but surely,Β surelyΒ we were going a bit off-piste now, right?

Two things. Firstly:Β Bon AppΓ©titΒ would like a word about going “off-piste”. And secondly:Β Peach Beach SplashΒ is absolutely a worthy sequel toΒ Estival Versus that sets the series up for what will hopefully be an apocalyptic, climactic finale. In the meantime, though, yes, water guns.

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Essentials, PS2

PS2 Essentials: Fitness Fun

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Ah, what could possibly be better than the charming jank of the Simple 2000 series on PlayStation 2? Why, the Simple 2000 Ultimate series, of course!

Yes, indeed, not content with 123 volumes of low-budget, experimental and weird titles, D3 Publisher decided to put outΒ anotherΒ range of 34 games under the “Ultimate” branding. Exactly what makes these particular 34 games “Ultimate” isn’t terribly clear, although they are prime examples of what the Simple Series has always been about.

And, just like the main Simple 2000 series, we got a random selection of Simple 2000 Ultimate games in Europe, once again mostly published by 505 GameStreet. Here’s a particularly fine specimen:Β Fitness Fun,Β also known asΒ Loveβ˜…Aerobi orΒ Loveβ˜…Aerobics in Japan.

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Features, Sega Ages

Sega Ages: Monaco GP

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In Japan, the PlayStation 2 era was a fantastic time for budget-priced, arcade-style releases.

D3 Publisher is the indisputed master of janky but charming budget fare in this period of gaming history thanks to its expansiveΒ Simple Series,Β but they didn’t keep this knowledge and experience to themselves. They actually collaborated with Sega on a project dubbed “3D Ages” (“Sega D3” backwards) which ultimately resulted in theΒ Sega Ages 2500Β collection — a range of games that retailed for 2500 yen each (about Β£17.50 in today’s money) and encompassed a variety of remakes of Sega’s classic arcade and console titles.

We didn’t see a lot of these games in the West, but we were fortunate enough to get a cool compilation of them bundled together on a single PS2 disc in the form of theΒ Sega Classics Collection. So let’s take a look at exactly what’s on offer, beginning withΒ Monaco GP.

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Cover Games, Cyberdimension Neptunia

Cyberdimension Neptunia: Action Neptunia’s Latest Evolution

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While the Neptunia series is primarily known for being RPGs, developer Compile Heart’s frequent collaborator Tamsoft has had a number of shots at bringing the franchise into the real-time action realm.

Over time, the scale and ambition of these “actionΒ Neptunia” games has expanded considerably, withΒ Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses OnlineΒ marking the most convincing realisation of the formula to date at the time of writing, blending elements of the mainlineΒ NeptuniaΒ games with an appealing and enjoyable real-time combat system.

Let’s look at how “actionΒ Neptunia” has evolved over time, and howΒ Cyberdimension NeptuniaΒ refines the formula.

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Cover Games, Cyberdimension Neptunia

Cyberdimension Neptunia: Introduction and History

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The Neptunia series is not only one of the most remarkable success stories in Japanese gaming, it’s also one of the most interesting, diverse franchises out there.

From its humble beginnings as a low-budget RPG with an atrocious critical reception to its current, widely recognised status inextricably associated with Sony platforms, even the most hardened cynic has to admit by now that there’s probablyΒ somethingΒ to this series.

A big part of what has keptΒ NeptuniaΒ fresh and interesting over the years is the fact that it’s not afraid to step outside of its traditional RPG comfort zone and experiment with gameplay styles. And, since we already explored the history of the mainline series when we dove deep intoΒ Megadimension Neptunia V-IIΒ back in 2016, it’s these spinoff games we’ll be looking in more detail today.

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Essentials, PS2

PS2 Essentials: Party Girls

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Party Girls is an interesting anomaly in D3 Publisher’s Simple Series in that its Japanese title is much more interesting than its somewhat generic sounding localisation, rather than the other way around.

Party Girls?Β Eh, pass, sounds like shovelware.Β Mogitate Mizugi!Β Onna Mamire no THE Suiei TaikaiΒ (Fresh-Picked Swimsuits! The Swim Meet Packed with Women*), on the other hand? Sign me right the hell up.

This situation wasn’t helped by Western publisher 505 GameStreet’s rather generic-looking cover art for the game, which looks like it was knocked up by an intern messing around with WordArt on their lunch break. And consequently, I’d be rather surprised if you ever playedΒ Party Girls.

And this is a shame. BecauseΒ Party GirlsΒ is fun.

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Essentials, PS2

PS2 Essentials: Bust-a-Bloc

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In many cases the games that are part of D3 Publisher’s sprawling budget-price Simple Series are enjoyably experimental, while in others they simply represent traditional gaming genres brought up to date with modern (for the time) visuals and sound.

Bust-a-Bloc, orΒ The Block Kuzushi HyperΒ as it was known in Japan, occupies a space somewhere between these two approaches: it’s an adaptation of one of the oldest types of game around, but it adds some interesting and experimental twists on the formula to make it surprisingly distinct from its peers in an incredibly crowded genre.

As you can probably determine from its title,Β Bust-a-BlocΒ is aΒ Breakout-type game in which you hit a ball with a paddle in order to destroy blocks — indeed, this genre of game is simply known asΒ “block kuzushi” (block destruction) in Japan, so the title is another example of the Simple Series’ charmingly literal title scheme — but it’s the game’s few additions to the formula that make it noteworthy, and well worth spending some time with.

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Essentials, PS2

PS2 Essentials: Demolition Girl/The Daibijin

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One of the most interesting phenomena of the early PlayStation eras was D3 Publisher’s “Simple Series”, a range of low-budget — and budget-priced — titles produced by a wide variety of external developers.

The series began on PS1 with some pretty straightforward interpretations of concepts such as mahjong, tennis or racing, but over time gradually expanded to take in role-playing games, dating sims and even enhanced ports of arcade games.

By the time the PlayStation 2 rolled around and the Simple 2000 subseries launched — so named because each game cost 2,000 yen (a little under Β£14 today) in its native Japan — the range had become a great place to find fascinating (but often flawed) games that, by virtue of their low budgets, could afford to be a bit experimental. Essentially, they fulfilled the function that the digital-only indie scene does today, only you had to buy them on disc because digital games weren’t yet a thing on consoles.

And so it was that we found ourselves face to face (or, well, face to ankle) with Tamsoft’s The Daibijin (The Gigantic Beauty), localised for Europe as Demolition Girl.

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Cover Games, Senran Kagura Estival Versus

Senran Kagura Estival Versus: Introduction

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Senran Kagura is one of the most consistently misunderstood series in the entire Japanese gaming canon.

At least part of this is due to the outspoken nature of series creator Kenichiro Takaki who, legend has it, only created the series in the first place because he wanted to see breasts popping out of the glasses-free stereoscopic 3D screen of the Nintendo 3DS, and who is credited with “Righteous Boobage” in every installment’s credit roll.

In a way, this is kind of unfortunate, since it causes a significant number of people β€” and press outlets β€” to write the series off as nothing more than cheap fanservice. In reality, however, although the game does include a significant amount of cheeky, overtly sexualised content, it’s a great deal more than titillation, featuring a strong ensemble cast, gameplay mechanics that have evolved, changed and improved between installments β€” and between different host platforms β€” and an intriguing unfolding story that draws together elements of Japanese mythology and a more creative, fantastic element of what life as a shinobi might be like in modern-day Japan.

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