The Senran Kagura franchise has quickly become a very popular series video games with otakus. Yes the series is famous for the tons of fan service that each entry to the series has, but fans have also come to love the over all story in the mainline games and the girls themselves. So far they’s fought each other to the death, had a water gun shoot out, tried to become master chefs and even learning about love. Now it seems that they have found themselves being transformed into sexy animals and the only way to turn them back to normal is through the power of pinball. This is Senran Kagura Peach Ball for the Nintendo Switch.
Jackpot
Pinball fan service- Like every game (both mainline and spin-off) Senran Kagura Peach Ball has plenty of fan service to go around. This time the fan service comes in the form of the girls dressed up as different animals. As you go through the game, you will earn money to which you can buy different outfits for the girls to wear on the pinball board. These outfits range from their school uniforms, bikinis, their animal forms and much more.
Decent pinball game- Other than Zen Pinball and Pinball FX there aren’t many good pinball games out there. While Peach Ball is far from great, it is a decent pinball game. For only having tow boards there is a lot of action going on in the boards. In addition to the standard bumpers and ramps that most pinball boards have, Peach Ball also has its own gimmicks that incorporates the fan service that Senran Kangura is known for. One gimmick is having one of the girls sitting on the board where the objective is to hit her with the Peach Ball till she get knocked down. When this happens enough times, the second gimmick, Sexy Challenge, will activate. This is when one of the girls gets sucked into a tent for a Sexy Challenge. Peach Ball doesn’t have a multi-ball aspect to it like most pinball games, so the Sexy Challenges makes up for it. In these Sexy Challenges players have to hit various different bumpers each time to rack up as many points as they can. Complete three Sexy Challenges and players will be able to transform the girls back to normal.
Fun story- Like most of the spin-off games, Peach Ball has a pretty fun, slice of life style of story that doesn’t involve the schools the girls go to or their work as ninjas. Haruka of Homura’s Crimson Squad is working part time at a local arcade as an attendant. She enjoys working there and when she’s not on the clock, spends her time experimenting with various potions, One day during a fighting game tournament at her arcade, Ryona of Hebijo Academy heads off for a bathroom break. When she gets back, she tells Haruka that the dispenser had ran out of soap but found some green soap tucked away on a shelf. Haruka cautiously asks if she used any of it and gleefully she said yes. At that point Ryona starts to bark like a dog and proceeds to lick fellow classmate Murasaki, Yomi also from the Crimson Squad, Yumi from the Genssen Academy and Asuka from the Hanzo Academy. As she is licking everyone, they all noticed that she’s transformed partially into a dog and runs out of the arcade. Then Murasaki, Yomi, Yumi and Asuka all transform in to animals: a bear, a raccoon, a cat and a bunny respectively and run out as well. The player, who just happens to be at the arcade for the tournament is pulled aside by Haruka and explains that Ryona had came into contact with her experiment that turns people to animals. The only way to turn the girls back to normal to to use the antidote call Peach Ball and a pinball machine. She asks for the players help and the two rush off to save the girls. Like I said, the spin off games are a bit more lighthearted and slice of lifey instead of the battling to the death stories of the mainline games and Peach Ball is probably the most lighthearted of all the spin offs.
Tilt
Only two boards- The reason games like Zen Pinball and Pinball FX are so popular is because they have a variety of boards that are unique and different from each other. Peach Ball however only have two pinball boards: Peach Land and Spooky Shinobi Park. While both boards try to make themselves look different by adding different times of day for Peach Land and different seasons for Spooky Shinobi Park, it doesn’t take away from the fact that they are still the same two boards.
Too simple- What makes pinball games, both physical and digital, great and super fun is how detail and complex they are. There is always something going on while the pinball is traveling through the board. It’s always hitting or activating something. No two boards are alike. In Peach Ball not only are the boards are overly simple, they are the same two boards with just different skins.
Weak DLC offerings- Now when I saw that Peach Ball had DLC, I thought that the game might receive more boards or maybe add in more girls later on. However as of right now the DLC offerings for the game are pretty weak. The DLC that is out right now includes new outfits for the current cast of girls and background music from previous Senran Kagura games. With only two boards, I was expecting that XSEED and Marvlous might add in more boards when I saw DLC in the main menu. Who knows, maybe later down the line they will add more boards. But for now the DLC offering is pretty weak.
Senran Kagura Peach Ball delivers on what the trailers have promised: sexy pinball with some of the Senran Kagura girls. The story is lighthearted and fun, just like most of the franchise’s spin-offs and is over a pretty decent, if simple, pinball game. What brings it down however is that it has only two boards, has super simple layouts, and weak DLC offerings. Let’s be honest there are better choices for pinball games on the Switch and there are many people out there that will be turned off by a sexy pinball game with sexy anime girls. But if your a fan of the Senran Kagura franchise or just love cute and sexy anime waifus and don’t mind getting “looks” from people, then Senran Kagura Peach Ball might be the game for you.
