Sony Japan's Seigi no Mikata will allow you to save Japan, and become
the highest rated TV show in Japan's history, complete with a rocking theme
song.
Remember all those great Saturday morning cartoons that you'd jump out of bed
early in the morning to go and watch? Sure, if you went back and watched them
all now, they'd suck, but you were young and ignorant back then. Well, it's time
to visit those olden days of crazy early morning programming. (Not the young and
ignorant part.)
Sony Japan's PS2 title, Seigi no Mikata puts you in the role of Koichi, a
young man who looks kinda like the lead singer of the Japanese boy band Arashi.
Your adventure starts every morning at 7am, and initially you're pulling in a
meager 5% of the audience. The story starts with a giant purse and his(?)
sidekicks throwing grenades at the police. The police, conveniently gathered in
a crowd all run for their lives, and the grenade throwing continues until a
local man stops the madness only to be surrounded by henchmen. But suddenly! Out
of nowhere comes our hero with a swift kick to one of the henchmen's head.
Unfortunately, you are no real match for them, and an armored superheroine comes
in to save your pathetic behind. The local man thanks you, and tells you to
swing by the coffee shop sometime. This will be the inauspicious beginning of a
long super hero career.
Behold, evildoers! Fear Dinosaur Ambassador Wang! This game wouldn't
be nearly as fun if you had to run around in a Purple Power Ranger get-up the
whole time. It's time to customize! Seigi no Mikata (I'm not going to abbreviate
it as SNM. That would just be wrong.) will let you make global changes to
your hero, of all you to fine tune their costume so they look pretty much like
you'd want your hero to look like.
Alternately, you can try and make the worst looking superhero ever, since
your female partner is going to be wearing matching colors. After you have your
hero colored they way you want him to be, the next choice is what you want him
to be named. Seeing as how the choices are all in Japanese, I can't really tell
you all the adjectives you can use to describe your character, but I'm Electric
Boy, and my friend decided on Dinosaur Ambassador. Then, in addition, you slap
on a name.
"So Where Can A Superhero Like Me Find Some Action Around Here?" Most
of the game is going to revolve around you running from place to place, and
interacting with people. A timer in the upper left corner of the screen tracks
the time, your rating percentage, (red=you'll get canceled, yellow=you're barely
getting your ratings quota, white=you're winning your time slot and kids are
eating your breakfast cereal.) and has what looks like TV frames. When the
yellow frames get closer, it's time for an event, and talking to people is how
you know where that event is going to be. Occasionally when you switch areas
(which takes no "show" time, btw.) you'll run into someone who's desperately in
need of a superhero. Whether they just need you to run down to the video game
store, pop some red balloons, or chase down some some neighborhood hoodlums,
your character is there to save the day. Do the task, get your ratings up a
notch. Fail, and viewers will turn you off faster than a rerun of The
Sentinel or Nightman.
Why Don't Superheroes Just Use Their Super
Move All the Time? It's all about the ratings. If Voltron just "formed
Blazing Sword" all the time, the what would be able to stand against him?
Nothing. And they wouldn't have even needed to make that stupid car-based
Voltron, either. So, in Seigi no Mikata that's reflected in the ratings you get
during combat. Combat is basically like a console version of Battlemail Kung-Fu.
You attack with a sequence of 10 pre-inputted punches, kicks, or throws. If the
computer hits the same button, your move is blocked. (By the way, if you're
wondering where Optimus Prime's trailer goes when he transforms...it goes to a
different dimension, and then it comes back.) It's the same for you when you're
on the defense. You and the computer will generally start with 10 HP, and
whoever runs down to 0 first is toast. If the computer gets you down to 3HP, you
can hit the O button as a cancel, which will start up your super move. If you
get lucky the computer won't block your move and you will instantly kill the
main boss for the episode, and ratings will soar! But, beware. The boss enemies
have their own super moves, and if you get touched by one, you're dead too.
The
gameplay itself is kind of repetitive, but this is actually a game that can get
away with that. I wouldn't so much call this a game really, as opposed to it
being a highly enjoyable interactive entertainment experience. The story is
crazy and due its being episodic in nature, you don't really tire of it,
although there is a considerable amount of dead time waiting for events to
happen. There are a ton of little gimmicks and add-ons that will just make you
bust out laughing, and they're fun to watch the second time around with your pal
who's never seen the game before.
My Final Conclusions This game rocks!
Literally! Super Trapp's song, "Small Town Superstar" is one of the most catchy
tunes I've ever heard used in a video game, or even anime, for that matter.
(Although, Do As Infinity's new track "Under the sun/Under the moon"
which is used for the game Murakumo is also pretty damn catchy.) Head off
to the official BBS, and that's what nearly all of the posts are about. I'd
recommend this as a rental, except that, it's so unlikely that you'd actually
find a place here in the U.S. that rents Japanese games, that I wouldn't even
bother looking.
You might as well pick up a copy, or hope that some superhero
somewhere will rescue a Sony employee and make him bring it over here. So, pick
this one up, and make sure to show all your friends. If you're a fan of anime,
or just nostalgic, this'll be one game you can't really pass up. Not much to
offer in the way of replay value, but it's intensely entertaining one time
through. Kudos to Sony for being crazy enough to go ahead and make this one!
8.8
