Taylor Bauer
Taylor BauerWarning: The Subject Matter in this game is Explicit, Please use your best judgment when viewing this review.
Dress up games are a huge hit in Japan. Essentially, mini-games fill up the bulk of a video game, sometimes multiple mini-games. Others consist of a few more focused events. The goal of these games is not to play the game itself. Rather, you’re trying to collect as many outfits as you can. SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball follows this format, and accomplishes what it sets out to do in terms of collectible outfits, mini-games, and more.
SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball stars Haruka, a devious ninja girl who wants all of her fellow shinobi to be her play things. She turns them into animals, or more specifically kemonomimi, humans with animal traits like ears and tails. It’s a popular thing in Japan, and many Western fans enjoy it as well. After transforming her classmates, she places them into pinball machines as prisoners. It’s not violent or mean, more so a representation of the fun teasing associated with these sorts of games.
You take on these pinball machines in attempt to free the girls she has trapped. By using a mystical Peach Ball, you can ricochet the ball onto the trapped girls to free them. When you do, they’re more than thankful. Things stand in your way, however. Fairies pop up on the pinball machine and stand in your way, but hit them for points and you’ll get closer to releasing the girl. Mini-games exist on the machine as well, including secret rooms where you have mini pinball levels with a various task.
On the right side of the screen during pinball levels, you’ll see a number of tasks, such as hitting the bumpers or reaching a certain score. These are prerequisites for freeing the girl at hand. In Story Mode, the game features 5 different routes to explore, with one going to each main character. Each route consists of 5 games of pinball, adding up to 25 games to defeat the Story Mode.
At the completion of each pinball game, you earn money based on which tasks you completed and how well you did. The money goes towards outfits for your characters, including different tops, bottoms, and accessories. This is full of a lot of different options to give you a reason to return to Free Mode and complete more levels; in turn, making more money.
The music and visuals match the energy and spirit of the game. Bright melodies play on top of arcade like scenes where the focus is having as much fun as possible. Pixels do pop up randomly, showing poor graphical quality, which can be annoying and distracting. Likewise, the music sometimes lags, which I thought was a bit odd. If these games are something you enjoy, it’s likely you’ll have fun with this one.
A warning to those with younger players: while this was previously mentioned, these games are sexually explicit. The costumes reveal much of the girl’s bodies, and also puts them in sexually explicit poses in the dressing room. Additionally, their cleavage and barely covered butts are all over the game, which is the point for those who love this type of game.
These aren’t my type of games, but there seems to be a lot here for those who love costume-collecting and a bit of kink to their games. Despite a short story mode and some graphical and musical errors popping up, this game should be a hit for anyone who enjoys this genre.
A Nintendo Switch review copy of SENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball was provided by XSEED Games for this review.
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🔥1.1 KSENRAN KAGURA Peach Ball
$39.99 USD
Pros
- Lots of customizable costumes
- Fun, lighthearted gameplay
- Colors and graphics fit arcade theme
Cons
- Short story mode
- Pixelation in certain scenes
- Music cuts out from time to time
