Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon is a 2D Beat em Up in where we pick from one of the five show’s girls and take to the streets to solve the cities crime, one beating at a time. Or something along those lines. Truth be told, I know next to nothing about the anime Sailor Moon, so this game’s subject matter is lost on me. What I can talk to you about is its merits as a game and whether it is worth taking a look at for those of us outside of that fanbase. Our first order of duty is to pick a character of your choice, and they do in fact play differently. There is not enough difference to deter one from choosing their favorite girl, but there is a clear difference in range, speed, and types of attacks between all five of them. It is nice that they are not simply reskins and you can change your character once again if you use a credit to revive, allowing you to experiment with all of them and choose the one that suits you best.
We start off in a peaceful looking town and must punch the living daylights out of some demons lurking around the place. You’ll have a button to attack, one to jump and another to use your special magic attack if you have any crystals to cast them with. Simple stuff, though you can also dash, jump kick, grapple and other actions that will change what kind of attack you’ll unleash, giving you more variance than you may imagine with the buttons at your disposal. If you find yourself surrounded by enemies and getting pummeled you also have a powerful spinning attack performed by pressing both the jump & attack button simultaneously. As effective as it is, it’s best to only use it when in need since activating it will drain a portion of your health bar.
The first level is very short and you’ll reach the boss in no time. They are oddly enough quite difficult for an introductory boss even if they don’t take many hits to go down. If you still have any crystals, tough fights are the best place to use them assuming you survive long enough to reach them. These devastating screen clearing attacks get stronger the more crystals you have in your possession and will all disappear once used. Activating a spell will give you a pretty cool animated cutscene of whichever girl cast it and not only are they all unique between characters, but they also have different animated clips for every power level of that spell. It has a lot of small touches like that that make it enjoyable for even people who have no idea what is going on and it also helps alleviate any sense of repetition that is inherent with this genre.
There is rarely a moment when you are not drop kicking or landing some sick combos on your foes, which range from tennis racket holding demons to creepy mannequins shambling towards you. You will find quite the colorful cast of baddies here all who have their own ways of fighting and are not above bum rushing schoolgirls. One of the things you’ll soon find out is that this game can contain an impressive amount of sprites at any one time which in turn translates to you facing very large groups at times. Before you go popping off a magic spell to get rid of them as soon as they appear, know that you are more than capable of taking them all on, even without a second player to have your back. Enemies can damage each other so if you see someone lining up a shot you can use it to your advantage, a particular enemy type always carries a useful pickup, and simply learning the quirks of each of them will quickly allow you to change the flow of battle.
In total, there are eight stages to go through with each featuring their own unique boss fights at the end. Each of them have a significantly different background and even though you do find yourself seeing level 2’s backdrop again, it is in a far different situation that makes it feel completely fresh. The visuals have a ton of detail to them and still hold up today despite being a title from 1995. Unfortunately, the music does not share the same fate. Some tracks are so bad that I actually had to look up footage of other people playing the game to make sure it wasn’t my emulator acting up. The only good song to be found is the one in stage five while the rest range from “oh god, why?” to mediocre. It isn’t enough to ruin the forty or so minute romp throughout the world of Sailor Moon, but it is a shame that the sound department doesn’t hold up the excellent gameplay and visuals.
Food, necklaces and a few other objects will heal you though they are few and far between. You can take a decent beating before losing a life making it easier to cope with. A single character can easily mop the floor with a horde of grunt enemies but there is no escaping from a grapple without assistance, which is where another player will come in handy. Not to mention the boss fights, those villains will give you a run for your money and the mysterious rose flinging stranger only shows up on two fights to lend a hand. This is just a fun title all around and is precisely the reason I wanted to talk about it despite knowing nothing of the anime it is based on. If you are looking for a good beat em up or are simply a fan of all things Sailor Moon, ‘Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon’ is well worth playing.
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