Review for Senran Kagura: Peach Ball. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018
Senran Kagura is now a series of video games all too well known, and probably for the most wrong reasons. When you mention Senran Kagura, starting with other more technically impressive titles such as Estival Versus, Peach Beach Splash or Burst Re: Newal, you don't think about the gameplay of the various titles or the plot, but the first thing that comes to mind are many kunoichi (i.e. female ninja) in skimpy clothes or directly without clothes. It is clear that the target of this series is an audience of boys with a thousand hormones, however some titles in the series have been deserving as games in themselves rather than for their spirit that stimulates the hot spirits.
Particularly Senran Kagura: Peach Ball It is probably the best spin-off ever in the series, although this isn't exactly the happiest time for it. In fact, we are talking about Sony's new policy that forces in this type of games to insert a large amount of even rather invasive censorship. On the other hand, we have Nintendo, which despite its often innocent policies aimed at a very young target, has always been the first to support the Senran Kagura saga on all its consoles, especially portable ones.
Here then Senran Kagura: Peach Ball for Nintendo Switch, pinball game that though does not give up at all the fanservice that made the series so famous.
Bestial women
The plot of Senran Kagura's games, especially in regards to spin-offs, is often and willingly absurd and unconventional. Senran Kagura: Peach Ball is no exception in this one. Haruka from Hebijo Academy works part time in an arcade called Honey Arcade, unfortunately this arcade is not very busy, and in her spare time Haruka has used her insane knowledge of chemistry to invent the Beastall, a liquid that transforms all those who touch it into animals. During a video game tournament, Ryona mistakes the liquid for soap, and transforms into a half-dog girl, then going to lick the other girls who end up the same fate, all becoming different animals. In the arcade we are also present, in the form of a generic male character, and Haruka will ask us to help her get things back to normal.
The treatment method, however, is at least bizarre and bordering on absurd. First you have to talk to the transformed girls trying to bring back memories of their humanity, at which point you have to make them lie down on a pinball machine which is actually an invention of Haruka designed just as an antidote for this situation. As a pinball champion, our character will have to stimulate the most intimate parts of the girls using pinball balls which actually contain a strong antidote.
Believe us, it took us several minutes to try and explain all this in a way that doesn't sound ridiculous, but it's kind of complicated.
Multiball time
Avoiding other easily misinterpreted titles, let's move on to the more playful side of this game. Everyone knows how a pinball machine works, and Senran Kagura: Peach Ball takes the usual canons and gimmicks of titles in the genre and raises the bar by filling the boards to the brim with things to do and hit. There are a number of bonuses and activities to lose count, and this is certainly a positive side that however collides with strength with a very solid wall that ruins everything: the presence of only two boards.
The two boards are called Peach Land e Spooky Shinobi Park, and during the 5 hours that we will spend in the story mode we will do nothing but back and forth between these two boards, making it rather monotonous despite the amount of things to hit and activate. The creation of these game boards and the unlockable minigames in them are clearly full of love and inventiveness, but this is by no means sufficient to justify this shortage of internships.
In the center of each board there is always one of the five girls, and to get as many points as possible we must hit them in their erogenous zones. To do this, the game urges us to use the Joycons as much as possible to give the pinball machine a "jolt" and change the direction of the ball. As you play in each board, you will unlock different objectives and missions, such as scoring a certain number of points, sending the ball to a point on the board for a certain number of times, or more. Once we get enough points we will enter a mini game called Sexy Challenge, in which we will have to hit objects in a limited period of time as many times as possible that will end up the girls in rather compromising poses and situations.
Apart from the story mode, we have a free mode available that allows us to play as much as we want and get coins that will allow us to unlock a lot of content aesthetic for girls, starting from clothes up to music and artwork. As usual, there is no lack of diorama mode to take pictures, nor the mode in which we can simply “touch” the ninjas everywhere with our perverted hands.
The big mistake of Senran Kagura: Peach Ball that separates it from being an unmissable game for Switch, is to treat itself as if it were a minor title. The scoreboards and the game itself are damn fun and full of things to do, but Marvelous has decided not to give the title itself a big deal, relegating it to a little gem with just two scoreboards and five girls to hit. Really a shame, because the basic idea is the best of all the Senran Kagura games released so far, and the gameplay is practically perfect.
► Senran Kagura: Peach Ball is a Pinball type game developed and published by Marvelous for the Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 13/12/2018
