I am a massive sucker for those colorful 1999/2000 Y2K aesthetics and by god does this game deliver that in spades. Stylistically this game is awesome, with some insanely cool cool character designs done by Ippei Gyoubu, an artist that does hella rad work. The visuals are that perfect level of dreamcast low-poly chonkiness mixed with an assortment of pop colors all over the place. Aesthetically and stylistically, this game owns.
While there is a plot involving two random kids getting yote into their TV into coolcooltoonland where everything must be settled by shmooving danceoffs, the plot really isn't the most coherent and seems like it serves as more a means to an end, that end being to show off the aforementioned rad ass character designs and world. Plot points and new characters get thrown around left and right, and the main point isn't to think about it and just enjoy the colorful craziness that each chapter offers.
That all being said the actual rhythm gameplay is pretty ho-hum. There's a big circle with various button inputs that you gotta move the cursor with the stick and press the button to make the input happen. My only gripes with it are really the fact that I can't do the edge-of-the-circle slide moves to save my life which ruins all my combos and sometimes when things get busy it's really hard to sight-read what the hell the game wants you to do even if the pattern and rhythm is quite simple. The game is hella forgiving though both with timing windows and how close your cursor actually needs to be to make a hit count so it's not all too bad. This game even supports the samba de amigo maracas officially! (though it's quite tiring to play that way and the game actually does have to handicap its own gameplay to make it work, but hey!) The setlist is also quite existent, nothing super offensive to listen to but also nothing that I would ever go looking up the OST for.
It's def style-over-substance at the end of the day but yanno that doesn't stop it from being cool cool. Honestly if the soundtrack was as cracked as the visual design this would have been an easy 4 for sure. It's crazy to me that this game was made by SNK of all people because this looks and plays so unlike ANYTHING else they have made before that it's shocking to see their logo on here. Considering this was made like the exact same year SNK imploded in on themselves I wonder if this was some effort to diversify their game lineup outside of the Neo Geo that was just done too late or something. There's surprisingly not a mobygames page for this that I can quickly scan the credits of, but I wonder if this was made by a veteran team or a team made out of new talent... Apparently there was going to be an english localization of this at its time, but the aforementioned SNK implosion kind of put a stop to that. There's a fan translation of decent quality out there by now, so if you have the means to play this, I would def suggest giving it a shot if not just to admire the visuals.
put a team of mfers from this game in the next KOF, cowards
While there is a plot involving two random kids getting yote into their TV into coolcooltoonland where everything must be settled by shmooving danceoffs, the plot really isn't the most coherent and seems like it serves as more a means to an end, that end being to show off the aforementioned rad ass character designs and world. Plot points and new characters get thrown around left and right, and the main point isn't to think about it and just enjoy the colorful craziness that each chapter offers.
That all being said the actual rhythm gameplay is pretty ho-hum. There's a big circle with various button inputs that you gotta move the cursor with the stick and press the button to make the input happen. My only gripes with it are really the fact that I can't do the edge-of-the-circle slide moves to save my life which ruins all my combos and sometimes when things get busy it's really hard to sight-read what the hell the game wants you to do even if the pattern and rhythm is quite simple. The game is hella forgiving though both with timing windows and how close your cursor actually needs to be to make a hit count so it's not all too bad. This game even supports the samba de amigo maracas officially! (though it's quite tiring to play that way and the game actually does have to handicap its own gameplay to make it work, but hey!) The setlist is also quite existent, nothing super offensive to listen to but also nothing that I would ever go looking up the OST for.
It's def style-over-substance at the end of the day but yanno that doesn't stop it from being cool cool. Honestly if the soundtrack was as cracked as the visual design this would have been an easy 4 for sure. It's crazy to me that this game was made by SNK of all people because this looks and plays so unlike ANYTHING else they have made before that it's shocking to see their logo on here. Considering this was made like the exact same year SNK imploded in on themselves I wonder if this was some effort to diversify their game lineup outside of the Neo Geo that was just done too late or something. There's surprisingly not a mobygames page for this that I can quickly scan the credits of, but I wonder if this was made by a veteran team or a team made out of new talent... Apparently there was going to be an english localization of this at its time, but the aforementioned SNK implosion kind of put a stop to that. There's a fan translation of decent quality out there by now, so if you have the means to play this, I would def suggest giving it a shot if not just to admire the visuals.
put a team of mfers from this game in the next KOF, cowards