Wii Mini Review – Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers
I recently reviewed the Xbox 360 Onechanbara game, Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. It was a fun little game, with simple but fun gameplay. I only rented the Wii version, but got enough gameplay from it to see that it’s a lot worse than the 360 version.
This will just be a short post. So read on!
Looks and sounds
The graphics are obviously a step down from the Xbox 360 version. But not THAT much of a step down, since the 360 version was mostly a very low grade 360 game graphic-wise. The textures are a lot worse, the models have a lower poly-count. Graphic glitches are a dime a dozen though. And there’s a bit lack of detail everywhere. But the graphics are still okay by wii standards. The sounds are pretty much the same, though some things sound a lot worse, like the chainsaws.
Story
Well… It’s a sequel to the Xbox 360 game. But it’s kinda hard to tell, since there’s barely any cutscenes or anything, other than a few when a character meets another character, and there’s barely any work done on those. The rest of the story is told through slowly scrolling blocks of text that aren’t really interesting to read. You can make the text scroll faster, but it’s never really intesresting and the story never really seems to be moving… Kinda lame on that side.
Gameplay
There’s one big problem with this game: Wii Controls. They’re badly done. Swinging the Wiimote slashes your sword (or fists if you’re using Saki’s Beat style), swinging the nunchuk kicks (or does Saki’s grabs in Beat style). That could’ve been fine… Almost. The Wiimote is incredibly unresponsive, and won’t do anything if you swing it horizontally, unless you start a weird horizontal combo that I never figured out how to do. Holding certain buttons on the Wiimote while swinging do extra things: holding 1 will let you do a special or an extasy attack by swinging the Wiimore or nunchuk (respectively), and holding B and swinging the Wiimote cleans your sword or fists from blood. There’s the most annoying part: doing different attacks. That just doesn’t really work. There’s thrust attack with Saki and Aya where you have to do a slight pause then thrust the Wiimote on the fourth attack, but it almost never works, and most of the time you’ll end up doing something else completely.
But you know what’s annoying? Despite the controls not working really well, the game is EASIER. There’s almost always fewer zombies on screen, and but random Wiimote wagglnig almost guarantees that most of your attacks will be Cool combination attacks. Those are done when you swing right when the first attack hits (just like in the 360 version), and it was hard but rewarding to do in the 360 version. In the Wii version, more than half your attacks will be Cool combination attacks, and that’s just with random Wiimote waggling. It sucks when games encourage random Wiimote waggling.
But there’s ONE think the Wii version does better: in-game tutorials! Yeah. From time to time the game stops and gives you a window explaining some of the gameplay mechanics. The 360 version didn’t do that, and consequently you had to figure all that by yourself. Well, the 360 version DID gives those tips, but only one at a time when you died (giving you a tip that has to do with how you died).
OH, also Saki has a style change this time, being able to fight with her fists. That’s cooler than the “no different fighting styles” from the 360 game.
Overall
It’s budget priced, and the price is lower than the Xbox 360 game. But it’s a lot less worth it than the Xbox 360 version. The tacked on Wii Controls are lame and unresponsive, and could’ve been handled a lot better. The graphics are worse but not too bad. The story is a lot harder to understand with the big lack of cutscenes and conversations (you CAN read the text that passes by on every chapter, but that’s a bit annoying). This game is big proof that Wii Controls can really suck if not done properly. If you want a similar game, check out Soul Calibur Legends, it at least controls are better.
Yeah, that’s it. Not very a very long review, but it doesn’t need to be longer.
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I read your review and I would say, that it matches my oppinion, if I had only played the game for one or two hours. In the begining I had the same problems with the controls, which you describe. However after playing the game for a longer time, I am now able to do the thrust attack. Also it is not true, that only waggling leads to cool combination attacks. Maybe you are extremely lucky, if your attacks are cool combination attacks with only waggling. But if I don’t use the correct rythm, than I am not able to do a cool combination attack. This is especially noticeable with one of the hidden characters.
Also I want to disagree, that the controls of Soul Calibur Legends are better. In fact those are much worse than the controls of Onechanbara. However, you will only notice the flaws in the controls of Soul Calibur Legends in the final fight against the last boss.
I can do the thrust attack, sure, but it takes a couple tries to get the right timing each time I need to do it, and it’s just annoying. Like trying to do it on the last enemy in the room before being able to advance, but getting stuck on that one enemy because the timing for the thrust is tough and the controls are unresponsive(most of the time it interpreted my thrust as a slash).
As for cool combination attacks, well I dunno, random stick waggling almost always led to that. If I actually TRY getting the timing for cool combination attacks it never worked, but just shaking the Wiimote randomly gives positive results 9 times out of 10.
BUT maybe I’m just whining because the controls on the Xbox 360 version were so much better…