Japanese exclusive Dreamcast game. I went through the effort of learning this game despite the lack of English translation. Interestingly there's 2 modes and its bonus side mode is where the actual meat is. The main mode takes you through 3 very short moments from the show, your goal being to get pictures from proper angles and occasionally one with the current monster of the week in it. Even with the somewhat trial and error nature of playing without translating the picture requests, you can beat this mode in like 6 minutes. Getting every single request on all 3 difficulties will unlock some character profiles, videos, and there's actually 6 VMU games that I'll maybe someday figure out how to actually play. There's a special 4th level but it's just a quick bonus thing nothing too wild. Fans of the show might get a kick out of some of this but gameplay-wise there's actually nothing stopping you from spamming A to take pictures, which is ultimately the optimal strategy to make sure you get every single opportunity possible.
The main mode I managed to drop like 8 hours on is a puzzle mode. It's actually a lot of fun once you learn how it works. There's a few mechanics that still feel almost like the rules are randomized every match. Sometimes I'll get a HUGE combo (Literally the size of your attack star seems uncapped it's very satisfying how big it can be). But it'll clink against their tiny star and do absolutely nothing. Other times it'll completely ignore their star and go through just fine. So that can be frustrating but otherwise once I realized the win condition was to make the longest chains and not just turn everything into cubes and nuke your screen, my completion time went from 78 minutes down to a little over 15. I then spent the whole night trying to get my time under 15 'cuz there's a bonus stage and unlockable character if you do so. Went to bed and got it on my second attempt the next morning.
I had fun figuring out how to play this game that has borderline NO info on it online. Apparently there's a collector's edition that comes with a collectible plate, fork, and spoon. So that's interesting.
The main mode I managed to drop like 8 hours on is a puzzle mode. It's actually a lot of fun once you learn how it works. There's a few mechanics that still feel almost like the rules are randomized every match. Sometimes I'll get a HUGE combo (Literally the size of your attack star seems uncapped it's very satisfying how big it can be). But it'll clink against their tiny star and do absolutely nothing. Other times it'll completely ignore their star and go through just fine. So that can be frustrating but otherwise once I realized the win condition was to make the longest chains and not just turn everything into cubes and nuke your screen, my completion time went from 78 minutes down to a little over 15. I then spent the whole night trying to get my time under 15 'cuz there's a bonus stage and unlockable character if you do so. Went to bed and got it on my second attempt the next morning.
I had fun figuring out how to play this game that has borderline NO info on it online. Apparently there's a collector's edition that comes with a collectible plate, fork, and spoon. So that's interesting.