In January twelve years ago Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice was released for PlayStation 3, the new chapter in the Nippon Ichi series that had conquered thousands of players on PS2. A series with growing popularity not only for its solid game formula that has made it one of the cornerstones of the tactical RPG genre, but also thanks to its crazy stories and its cast of hilarious characters; among these in particular the recurring Prinny have entered the hearts of fans for the many absurd and zany scenes in which they were protagonists, or rather: victims.
The iconic penguins of the Netherworld became so loved that Nippon Ichi decided to create a spin-off game of the series centered around them: Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? was released exclusively for PSP, followed a couple of years later by the sequel Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!
The titles, a hybrid between side-scrolling action and platform, stood out quite clearly for the old school dynamics and the high difficulty. It cannot be said for sure that they had their fill of sales, either because of the fact that Disgaea still remains a niche series, or because of the non-phenomenal PSP sales and also because the critics did not welcome them particularly well.
Here, then, is that Nippon Ichi Software tries again, years later, to re-propose its creatures with Prinny 1 • 2: Exploded and Reloaded, a compilation of the two aforementioned titles, with all their respective DLCs attached. A return that, we tell you immediately, would certainly have been more welcome if there had been a greater commitment behind it.
Already at the first impact Prinny 1 • 2: Exploded and Reloaded does not make a great impression: when the two games were released on PSP they could boast a pleasant visual sector that made good use of the capabilities of the small Sony laptop. The conversion for Nintendo Switch basically consists of a porting with upscaled graphics and some minor technical adjustments, including an adequate resolution for the textures of polygonal elements and a filter for two-dimensional sprites, which prevents the pixels of which they are composed from being too noticeable. Unfortunately, they are small tweaks that buffer the obvious technical difference between PSP and Switch, and this makes everything look decidedly blurry. The effect is already visible when playing in portable mode, but becomes much more noticeable in docked mode.
A complete remaster operation would have required at least the replacement of the sprites with others in HD, similar to those seen from Disgaea 4 onwards; but clearly this would have required more work. Mind you, the visual aspect of the game is still pleasant in its cartoonish and light-hearted style, but we certainly cannot speak of a great commitment on the part of the authors in this sense.
As per the tradition of the main series, the games contained in Exploded and Reloaded have the same level of comedy we have been used to in Disgaea. In both games you will have to deal with the crazy requests of the irascible and inclement mistress Etna. In Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? in fact you will have to find all the ingredients to prepare the legendary Ultra Dessert for her, while in Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! you will have to find a thief who dared to steal her panties.
The tyrannical demon entrusts her Prinny army with a special scarf that prevents them from exploding too easily, as unfortunately their nature does when beaten. We will therefore control the Prinny one at a time and when one is defeated he will pass the scarf to the next. We will then have 1000 "lives" available to complete each game, otherwise it will be Game Over.
The goals are clearly mere expedients to set out on an adventure through the Netherworld, but really their simple absurdity gives the games a particularly demented and hilarious vein that is breathed in every dialogue and that will make every Disgaea fan feel perfectly at home.
The game formula of the two titles is simple and, on paper, effective. As a Prinny we have to go through platform-style levels and defeat all enemies in our way. The Prinny's skills are few but effective: from the classic double jumps and "sedate" in the air to dodging, without forgetting the volleys of knives. THEessentiality of the mechanics is clear and the games push a lot on the level of challenge to which players are subjected in facing the dozens of opponents on the screen, learning their patterns and moving from one platform to another without coming to a bad end.
The problem is that such difficulty is largely spoiled by atrocious controls of the protagonist. The biggest problem are the jumps, the trajectory of which cannot be changed by adjusting it in flight, if not using the double jump which in any case will not allow us a great handling. The only way to manage this is to learn the trajectories of the jumps in a more than precise way, also because in their advanced phases the games will require absolute precision for certain jumps or to dodge enemies.
If for the graphics sector the changes made for Prinny 1 • 2: Exploded and Reloaded are few, on the gameplay side, none have been made at all. Usually this is considered the norm: remasters are in fact notoriously left faithful to the original. In this case, however, probably a tweak would have served, in this case the control system that makes the titles unnecessarily frustrating.
Prinny 1 • 2: Exploded and Reloaded includes two games with undeniable charisma, hilarious, fun, but not for everyone. Lovers of old-school sliding action and platforming games stimulated by challenges will find it interesting, and fans of Disgaea are sure to get a good laugh. If you don't recognize yourself among these descriptions, chances are you will find yourself more frustrated than amused. It's really a shame that Nippon Ichi didn't want to spend a little more to make these titles more accessible and in step with the times.
