Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson is a 3D side scrolling fan service game, firmly aimed at teenage boys, for the 3DS. The plot involves a bunch of pneumatically endowed shinobi who are studying at Hanzo School. They hatch a plan to invade the Hebijo School, who have stolen a powerful magic scroll. On each side the girls fight and practice to become stronger, more efficient fighters.

Large parts of the game exist only for, if you excuse my language, titillation. Even when the characters are only talking their bewbs spend their time gyrating away like Kaa in Jungle Book. None of the characters spend much of their time fully clothed and damage taken via combat has the effect of shredding what little clothing is being worn, leaving combatants in their pants and bra. Gratuitous as this is, it is unlikely to ruin any young lads’ life.

Essentially, the game is a linear beat-em-up. Each level does have a few branches to explore for power ups, but much of your time is spent ploughing through minion to reach the boss battle at the end of the level.

From the central hub of the school you can choose to continue through the missions, which also contains enough stories to reveal hidden facts about each character. There are a number of mission modes, including Yoma’ Nest is a challenge mode for either single player or co-op, the Training Field gives you a chance to try out the full range of your special moves, whereas Special Mission come with restrictions on each fight. You can purchase more missions from the Mission Shop.

In the dressing room you can choose to alter the look of your character depending on what you have succeeded in unlocking. You can manage your saves in the records room and review various movies, pictures, stats and music in the records room. There are a number of sound and visual settings to play with and, lastly, the online feature lets you play either with someone in the same room or across the world.

This new version of the game has added some useful updates. The best of which is the ability to fight alongside an AI partner, useful in boss fights especially as you can swap between the characters, continually fighting and reviving which ever one falls beneath the sword.

Overall, the game looks good, even though a lot of the backgrounds get repeated. Character design and movement are good. Bewbs aside, the thing which lets the game down is the variable quality of the opponents. Minion seem to mostly stand around letting you swing your sword, shredding their clothes, whereas many of the boss fights are inversely difficult, making for an uneven playing experience. It’s not bad, but it could have been better.

7

Charles Packer