Tail Concerto

"It's cute and a bit short, but fun"

Tail Concerto is not going to knock anybodys socks off when it's released here in the states later this year. It's been out in Japan for over a year now, it's very short (average finish time - 5 hours) and it'll drive gamers who suffer from cutephobia to run away screaming.

That said, Tail Concerto is a fun, unique game that deserves at least a look by most gamers. You play as a police dog named Waffle, who is equipped with a police-robo, a mechanized suit which lets him throw capture bubbles and hover for short periods of time. The object of the game is to drive the Black Cat Gang out of the villages of Preria, a collection of floating islands which comprise the game world. The gang consists of, you got it, cats. Waffle runs around in his robo-suit firing capture bubbles at the mischevious kittens and teleporting them straight to jail. In this sense the game is a lot like Sony's recent Ape Escape... or maybe I should say that Ape Escape is a lot like this game.

There are some very basic RPG elements in that Waffle must talk to townspeople and report to HQ in order to advance the game in many situations. After each area is cleared, a boss must be defeated. These fights almost universally consist of Waffle picking up bombs, rocks or missiles that the enemy shoots at him and throwing them back at the boss. As far as difficulty goes, anyone who beat Bowser's first incarnation in Super Mario 64 has little to worry about here.

Graphically, Tail Concerto bears a strong resemblance to Mega Man Legend's 3D "cartoon" look. It also has several top-notch anime cut scenes. The sounds are okay but the music is a bit too upbeat and light fo rmy tastes. Still, I liked the game - it definitely has charm, and that makes it worth a look.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99