Review: Short Piece:Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day

Ranko Tsukigime, the only child of the underground “Tsukigime Enterprise” is an average high school girl by day and a deadly assassin by night. While taking on a new mission, an enemy organization threatens the lives of Ranko and her friends.

Pros:

• Lush anime influenced art style that blends perfectly into the high quality animecut scenes. If a game could ever look like a fully interactive anime, Its this one.
• Simple gameplay mechanic, 2D fast running side scroller where you kill enemies on the way to rack up score multipliers and add ammo to your gun to shoot off the ever chasing bad guys.
• Controls match the game style in terms of being simple with only a few buttons actually being used.
• Zany level design, You will be running through offices, train stations and even up Mount Fuji! every level has multiple routes and hidey holes to discover.
• Find present boxes scattered all over the levels which contain unlocks like bonus soundtracks and concept art.
• Japanese voice over work is authentic and very enjoyable to hear.
• Music is top drawer and is whacky as it is catchy and ear poundingly good. The sound effects in game match this quality and will at times have you laughing at how crazy it all sounds/looks.
• To further emphasis how good the graphics are, The levels are represented in a 3D way while pick ups, enemy deaths, pop ups or explosions all look bat shit mental throwing bright colours and crazy words all over the screen.
• Full stats screen showing you your best runs,times playing each level, kills/deaths and just about anything else you could think of.
• Bonus costumes can be earned and worn on any of the levels. A new character is also unlock-able. The costumes dont serve any real purpose like new abilities or anything but are a nice addition at any rate.
• End of game boss is something else and just sums up all the crazy in big pad smashing,swear word creating clusterbang of zany ott fun. No spoilers but its just mental.
• So much replay ability for every level as you seek out new routes, go for the unlocks or just try and beat your own scores.
• Huge epic boss battles before the big main last one.
• Every level just gets crazier and crazier.
• Comes with FOUR movies on the disc, Accessible through the video tab on your XMB, You can watch works from the dream team of anime like Katsuhiro Otomo, Shuhei Morita as just a few of the names in this project.

Cons:

• Loading times from the extras menu back to the main screen is unusually long.
• Slight slowdown and juddering as the screen fills with enemies.
• No Platinum trophy.
• No checkpoints.
• The game is painfully short, Taking out the cut scene times, You can easily finish the game in under a hour.

In Summary, Fans of the anime or any of the god fathers of anime working on the game, or even Mr Suda51 himself will love the game. Yes its short and can be done in under an hour. But what an hour that will be! The cut scenes are all done by different directors all with a different theme, the graphics look sublime and the crazy,zany levels will make you smile with joy as you run and slash enemies! The influence and work from the studio that brought you Tokyo Jungle is evident and fits in well. I dont want to give it all away but the Pomeranian dog from Tokyo Jungle fame makes a return to PS3 and this time hes talking…like a human! The charm in the game play and complex yet simple level design will keep you coming back for more and more. Yes its short but its worth it just to sample this brilliant piece of interactive art! Oh and who doesnt love 4 movies chucked in to boot! Grab it and fall in love with the Japanese culture of gaming all over again.