Completed Game #7 | Kandagawa Jet Girls (PS4)
With Sony being more restrictive on fanservice, Senran Kagura creator Kenichiro Takaki eventually decided to leave Marvelous for Cygames but before he left, he worked on one more project with Honey Parade Games called Kandagawa Jet Girls, which is also a multimedia project because there was an anime adaptation also (coming to the UK soon by MVM).
With Senran Kagura focused on being an action/musou type brawler, Kandagawa Jet Girls is a racing/shooter done in teams of two people. One person controls the Jet vehicle while the other shoots at other opponents or obstacles on the path. The idea of this game is actually pretty well executed as the concept works fairly well on the controls and gameplay, it's simple and adds a bit of uniqueness to the mix. I guess in a sense you could argue this is basically an anime version of Mario Kart: Double Dash.
The gameplay does have some flaws however. The level design is not varied enough and while they do offer tons of alternate paths and angles, it's pretty much the same locations and I feel they missed the opportunity to be a lot more wild on the settings. In addition, the difficulty is very easy for the most part against the AI. The controls work for the most part but drifting and turning feels imperfect and doesn't always work at its best. I feel that if the game did manage to get a sequel they should try and make the gameplay more fast-paced and improve its drifting mechanic like Ridge Racer and F-Zero to add extra fun and replayability to the mix.
That being said, the mini-games are super fun and I love them a lot. Fanservice games generally have what I like to call the 'punishment' mechanic which is pretty much why Sony is asking Japan to tone it down a lot - Kandagawa Jet Girls does not have this type and instead goes for different variety like cleaning a vehicle, mopping up puddles on a path, exercising on a machine and doing drift stunt work. There's no prodding anime girls like Senran Kagura had, though the girls' chests do jiggle which is perfectly fine by me. What I'm basically trying to say is that this game is a good example of how other fanservice games should have tackled their mechanics than being super ecchi and risk getting into infamous media mess. Slightly off-topic I know but as someone who loves fanservice I do want a good balance that doesn't make me feel too awkward when playing certain games these days (like Gal*Gun's main gameplay is great but the mini-games does make me question the decision making at times).
Anyway, back on the topic of things, Kandagawa Jet Girls has a nice variety of characters. You have the regular main girl who is cheerful, the rich drillhaired ohoho girl (my favourite), idol girls, foreign girls, shrine girls, gyaru girls and also a chubby girl which is not something you see every day in anime land. Voice-acting for each of the girls is also good and their banter during the race is nice. The story is mostly non-existent but it's short and doesn't overstay its welcome.
You can customise your character in terms of hairstyle, accessories, clothes and also their vehicles in terms of improving their speed and handling. The jet customisation is important if you want to complete the mini-missions in the story campaign. Each race has 3 stars, one for 1st place and the other two can be anything from not hitting a wall, not using the special weapon (Square), shooting a specific amount of balloons, a specific speed and various others. It's mostly doable without customisation and only 60% of the stars are needed for the trophies.
Overall, Kandagawa Jet Girls is not that bad of a game and for the price I paid which was £32 but came with first print items like the OST and artbook it's definitely been worthwhile. The game is short, about 15 hours overall or maybe less, but it's an easy Platinum trophy if you like trophy hunting.
Kandagawa Jet Girls is available to own physically (JP/US) and digitally on PlayStation 4 and also digitally on PC.
