Galaxy Angel. Pure, unadulterated hilarity. It's an absolute hit in Japan - four seasons strong and it doesn't look like they're going to stop. It's rapidly gaining popularity here in the states, being ported over in full force by Broccoli International and also backed up by the U.S. branch of a popular anime merchandise store in Japan called Anime Gamers.
In the midst of the multitudes of merchandise, DVDs, VHSs, and video games that came out in Japan for this series, came a GBA release that failed to make much of a lot of hooplah.
I saw this game pop up in a random search query over at GameFAQs, and my absolute curiousity (and my enthusiasm for this anime) made me search long and wide for it. Unfortunately, the best I could do was play it on my emulator, but it was good enough for me to make a full on review about it. I *will* find an actual cart of this game - I want to be able to play this game whenever I go out. Heck, I have a JP SE GBA SP matching Milfuelle's color.
This review will be strictly based on two factors: Gameplay and its worth to a Galaxy Angel fan.
Gameplay: Unlike many of the PC and PS2 GA games, which were semi-dating sims and action/strategy games, this game attempts to take on the "Mario Party" approach for the series. You start the game by choosing one of the five Angel-tai. Each Angel-tai is differentiated by certain stats: Strength, Constitution, Intellect, and Luck. These are not the in-game names for these stats, but they're the best description for them. How good they are at each stat is represented by an X, Triangle, or O, with X being the lowest level, and O being the "mastered" level.
Strength (indicated by a gun symbol) I have yet to really figure out - I THINK it might be how much Galas (Galaxy Credits, I guess?) your character takes after winning a "battle", but I'm not sure. Constitution (indicated by a running stick figure) determines the chance your character will move additional spaces after their initial move. Intellect (indicated by the little 3x3 board) is probably what determines your chances of getting your character's game when you are "challenged" by another Angel-tai. Finally, Luck determines how often you get high dice rolls. My favorite Angel-tai, Milfie, obviously starts off with an extremely high luck factor, much to the dismay of the other Angel-tai.
You move your Angel-tai around different boards that each have a different theme and/or mission. You play three different boards - the second one is a fixed board that fits your character's personality - i.e. as Mint Blamanche, you're running around in a chicken suit and making sure you don't get spotted by the other Angel-tai, all the while trying to take pictures of yourself in photo booths scattered around the level.
Movement is done through dice rolls. The board is broken up into individual squares. Your dice roll can be influenced by your character's Luck and/or events that happen within the board. As stated before, each board has a particular goal - usually it's collecting stuff and then heading towards the spot marked "GA" to end it. Some boards make you dependent on your CPU team members, as it's almost inhumanly possible to complete some boards by yourself.
If one of your fellow Angel-tai lands in the same spot as you while you have some stuff on you, you'll get into a "battle". This is where the "party" aspect of the game comes in. You get to pick what game you play - sort of - through a roulette select. After your mini-game is chosen, you'll enter your mini-game to take on that Angel-tai member. Some mini-games are self-challenges (Milfuelle's cooking minigame, Ranpha's Kung-fu game, etc.), while others involve competitions between both of the Angel-tai. Each character has mini-games that suit their character - Mint has a cosplay roulette wheel game, Forte has a shooting game, etc.
Some of them are kind of hard to do - Vanilla's card-matching game sucks for me, since my memory and attention span is as bad as Milfie's, while Milfie's trivia game is nigh-impossible to do if you can't read Kanji.
If your character wins the game and you were the one who originally had the stuff, you end up taking Galas from your opponent. If your character loses with the stuff on her, she ends up having to give the stuff to her opponent.
Galas can be used to level up your characters' stats (level up areas are circular floating things on the board) or to buy items to turn the competition in your favor (shops are indicated by a Yoroz symbol). You can also pick up random stuff along the way if you explore the entire board, including gallery pictures.
What do I think of the game board aspect? It's nice how Marvelous attempted to make it so that the mini-games were highly character-oriented, rather than being just random games that characters are thrown into that just make you scratch your head and go "huh"? However, because of the character-oriented aspect of each of the mini-games, you may end up playing the same ones over and over again, as your CPU Angel-tai are extremely vicious when it comes to trying to take your stuff.
In other words, it's good fun when played in moderation. If you try to pull all-nighters to unlock stuff in this game, you're gonna totally burn yourself out.
Oh yeah, and Marvelous and Bandai-Visual did an awesome job of porting over a lot of the stuff from the anime into this game. As a GA fan, I absolutely loved the little scenes they threw in from the show. They even got the original seiyuu to voice their respective Angel-tai to add a bit of flair and fun to the game. Not only that, but there are MANY unlockables in this game. Getting all the gallery anime screenshots (which obviously, aren't anything new, unfortunately) will take a lot of time, as they're generally stumbled upon by accident. Beating the game with each character also unlocks various "GA Michi Michi" menu extras, which are generally little skits to add to the overall GA universe. Again, you have to be able to read Japanese to know what's going on, but the very first one should crack you up if you've seen Season 2 (a.k.a Galaxy Angel Z).
Is it worth the buy? If you don't like Galaxy Angel - no. If you're a fan of it, try not to overpay for it too much. It's the only way you'll be able to have your fix of GA fun on the road, but if you're going to have to pay anywhere more than $40 for it, you may find yourself disappointed. If you break down the gameplay to its very basics, it's actually nothing really new, just some party games with the GA name thrown on it, but if you enjoy getting stuff with the GA name thrown on it, this might be for you.
Screenshots will be posted within the next week, if you're curious about how the game looks.
Overall: 7.8