Variable Geo is a Japanese 2D fighting game / eroge developed and published by TGL under their Giga brand. The game focuses on an all-female martial arts competition where participants are required to promote various family restaurants by acting as waitresses when not fighting. Takahiro Kimura was responsible for designing the characters
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Interesting mix of genres that don't go together often, with some nice art and animations. Also, quite a pain to play on a keyboard.
When you associate eroge and gameplay, you usually think about RPGs and strategy games with companies like Alice Soft and Eushully. Giga though is known for their action games, a bold choice back in the mid 90s when your platform of choice is the PC-98 of all things.
Released in 1993, Variable Geo is a precursor of the all-girls fighting game subgenre (with the infamous Strip Fighter II).
Story is even more nonsensical than your usual fighting game: it's the typical martial arts tournament except the contestants are also waitresses representing their restaurant. I always thought VG was inspired by Pia Carrot, but it was created way earlier so it probably means some dude at Giga had a huge family restaurant uniform fetish and that dumb setting was born.
It plays with Street Fighter-styled moves and two buttons (punch & kick). One weird thing about the move list is that every character has a projectile (even the grappler!). There is only 6 different characters, including the playable bosses:
- Yuka is the main heroine and practice karate, so of course she's the game's obligatory shoto. She's got the hadouken, the shoryuken and the tatsu... Oh wait she doesn't have a tatsu, it's a weird dash kick instead. Novelty.
- Jun is the wrestler. I was never able to input her command throw, but her regular throws are strong enough. Like in most old fighting games, throws are broken.
- Manami is the moe/pink hair character. She's got cat gloves and uses Blanka rolls.
- Chiho is a ninja, and she's got some of the best moves in the game: a wall jump, a slide, and a powerful aerial throw. But she does less damage.
- Kaori is the first boss. She uses taekwondo, and she has a very abusable Dhalsim-like dive kick. For some reason (bad programming?), the CPU is absolutely terrible at using her.
- Reimi is the final boss. She's got Guile's flash kick, a very strong charge move. And drill hair.
In-game graphics are pretty rough. Most of the attention seems to have been ported on the lewds CGs (two for each girl) and ending illustrations. It's 90s anime and PC-98, so of course it looks great. The character designer was Takahiro Kimura, better known for his works on shows like GaoGaiGar and Geass. Music goes from decent to absolute dreadful (Manami's theme).
Now, the most important, how does it play? Well, it's simply terrible. Controls are sluggish and unresponsive, and the whole thing is jank city. VG was designed and programed by a single man, Nishi Yoshitaka, and it shows. Game programming was probably not his thing since he left Giga after a few more games and became... An hentai artist. You could call this a side-step more than a full career change.
Variable Geo is an amusing curiosity, but if you're looking for a good game you'd better try one of its superior sequels.
Released in 1993, Variable Geo is a precursor of the all-girls fighting game subgenre (with the infamous Strip Fighter II).
Story is even more nonsensical than your usual fighting game: it's the typical martial arts tournament except the contestants are also waitresses representing their restaurant. I always thought VG was inspired by Pia Carrot, but it was created way earlier so it probably means some dude at Giga had a huge family restaurant uniform fetish and that dumb setting was born.
It plays with Street Fighter-styled moves and two buttons (punch & kick). One weird thing about the move list is that every character has a projectile (even the grappler!). There is only 6 different characters, including the playable bosses:
- Yuka is the main heroine and practice karate, so of course she's the game's obligatory shoto. She's got the hadouken, the shoryuken and the tatsu... Oh wait she doesn't have a tatsu, it's a weird dash kick instead. Novelty.
- Jun is the wrestler. I was never able to input her command throw, but her regular throws are strong enough. Like in most old fighting games, throws are broken.
- Manami is the moe/pink hair character. She's got cat gloves and uses Blanka rolls.
- Chiho is a ninja, and she's got some of the best moves in the game: a wall jump, a slide, and a powerful aerial throw. But she does less damage.
- Kaori is the first boss. She uses taekwondo, and she has a very abusable Dhalsim-like dive kick. For some reason (bad programming?), the CPU is absolutely terrible at using her.
- Reimi is the final boss. She's got Guile's flash kick, a very strong charge move. And drill hair.
In-game graphics are pretty rough. Most of the attention seems to have been ported on the lewds CGs (two for each girl) and ending illustrations. It's 90s anime and PC-98, so of course it looks great. The character designer was Takahiro Kimura, better known for his works on shows like GaoGaiGar and Geass. Music goes from decent to absolute dreadful (Manami's theme).
Now, the most important, how does it play? Well, it's simply terrible. Controls are sluggish and unresponsive, and the whole thing is jank city. VG was designed and programed by a single man, Nishi Yoshitaka, and it shows. Game programming was probably not his thing since he left Giga after a few more games and became... An hentai artist. You could call this a side-step more than a full career change.
Variable Geo is an amusing curiosity, but if you're looking for a good game you'd better try one of its superior sequels.