Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Super S

"I conclude my trilogy of Sailor Moon reviews with this average PSX fighter"

Sailor Moon had a long history of video game incarnations during the five years it was on. Unfortunately, as evidenced by my previous two reviews, most of these games were uninspired rehashes of tried and true video game formulas. None of the games were able to capture the combination of comedy and drama featured in the original Japanese series. (Note: I am talking about the original series, not the edited to hell and back US hack dub that gained fame on Cartoon Network.)

This fighting game based on the show's fourth season was released for the Playstation in 1996, right around the time the show was winding down to its final 200th episode. It was also one of the last games based on the franchise. Unfortunately, although it is better than some of the earlier games, Sailor Moon Super S for the Playstation once again fails to capture the fun of the anime.

Although the game is named after the show's fourth season, the plot seems to be inspired by the last episode of the Sailor Moon R season (Season 2). It seems that the Sailor Soldiers have grown tired of Sailor Moon's overall clutziness and ditziness. They know she means well, and that her heart is usually in the right place, but they also think someone more capable should be leader. And so, the girls have a fighting competition to prove who should be the official leader of the time.

When you begin the game, you can choose from three game modes. The first choice is the 1 Player Story Mode. Here, you can choose among the six main Sailors - Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Sailor Chibimoon (Sailor Moon's daughter from the future who is a Sailor-in-training). You select your Sailor of choice, and then compete in one-on-one battles. Once you've defeated the five other opposing Sailors, you're not finished yet. You will then be challenged by the four newer Sailors who were introduced in Seasons 2 and 3 of the show. They include Sailor Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus (the final boss).

The other two gameplay modes are Vs. and Practice. In Vs. mode, you and a friend can choose from all 10 of the Sailors, and go at each other. In Practice, you go up against a ''dummy'' opponent who can't fight back, so you can practice performing the Sailors' individual attacks. A simple press of the Start button brings up a list of your characters moves and button combinations.

Once combat begins, and you've selected your character, you can choose from two different kinds of controller modes - Manual and Auto. With Manual, you must enter the semi-complex button and controller combinations to pull off the Sailors' signature attacks. In Auto mode, a simple two button combination is all it takes. Your characters have a limited number of special moves. The six main Sailors have three special attacks, based on their powers from the TV show, and one ''Max'' attack. The ''Max'' attack is a damaging super move that can only be used when you are low on health, or when there is not much time left in the current round. The four additional Sailors that are only selectable in Vs. mode have two special attacks, and one ''Max''.

One of the main innovations featured in the gameplay is the Ability Point System, which is featured only in the 1 Player Story Mode. Before each match, you are given a certain amount of Ability Points. The amount of points given to you is determined by the difficulty level you set at the game's option screen. You can then choose to divide these points up into eight separate areas to customize your fighter in different areas. These areas include Increased Strength with Punches, Increased Strength with Kicks, More Damage with Throws, Better Defense, Longer Life Meter, ''Cuteness'' (The most pointless option. Your character will randomly stop and pose, or taunt in the middle of the match.), Special Attacks, and ''Max'' attacks.

The game is overall your standard simplistic fighter. This sure as hell ain't Street Fighter, Tekken, or even Darkstalkers. You're limited to only four moves (maximum) with each character, and the moves are fairly easy to pull off. And since you're limited to only ten characters (and that's only in Vs. mode), the roster is fairly small. But, I guess the programmers were trying to appeal to the younger fans of the show, so that they could easily pick up the gameplay.

The graphics in the game start out very promising. It opens with a beautiful CGI intro. During the intro, you see the Sailors performing their signature special attacks. The CGI models are very fluid, and very faithful to the original 2D anime designs. There's also some cool lighting effects for some of the attacks during the intro. (Like Sailor Mars' fire-based moves.) The intro is even accompanied by the show's opening theme song, ''Moonlight Densetsu''. It may not be able to stand up to some of Square's cinemas, but at the time, this was probably the best use of CG I had seen on the Playstation.

Unfortunately, the game itself cannot live up to such a lavish opening. The actual in-game graphics are represented in a 2D computer-rendered style. Unfortunately, the models for the Sailors are not very good. Not only do they not have faces, their bodies seem to twist and bend like they are made out of rubber. Their legs are so long and stretchy, you'd think they were made out of spaghetti. Overall movement for the characters is slow and sluggish, as well. It's hard to get excited about a fight when the characters are moving so slowly.

The backgrounds hold up a bit better than the character models. They are fairly detailed, and feature many locations taken from the cartoon, like the future Crystal Tokyo. Still, some of the backgrounds can be kind of sparse and uninspiring. It seems like some had more attention paid to them than others.

The sound is definitely one of the highlights of the game. All of the music featured during the fights is digitized, and taken directly from the show's soundtrack. In fact, you can put this game CD in your stereo, and listen to all the tracks. The sound effects are good, too. The comments made by the Sailors during battle were performed by the Japanese voice actors from the show. Some of the secondary characters (like Tuxedo Kamen, Luna, and Artemis) can be heard in the game, as well. Overall, great use of sound. They help capture the feeling of the show.

Unfortunately, it takes more than a nice intro and good sound to make a game. Sailor Moon Super S falls apart in a few crucial areas. For one, this game's balance is seriously in need of fine-tuning. Most of the battles are pretty easy to get through, but there are some that will have you screaming in frustration - especially the final boss in the Story Mode, Sailor Uranus. She will almost always win, because she does not let up, and hardly gives you a chance to fight back. Even on the Easy difficulty setting, it's too easy for her to mop the floor with you.

My other main complaint is with the ''Max'' attack system. This can unfairly turn the advantage of the player who uses it. Why? As stated earlier, you can only use this attack when you are close to death, or when time is almost out. When you pull off this attack, it's almost all but guaranteed to do severely massive damage to your opponent, no matter how strong she is. If you can successfully pull off this attack, victory is all but assured. Therefore, you can easily win most battles by just letting your opponent wail on you until you're almost dead, and then unleash the ''Max'' attack to win the battle. This resorts to most victories being accomplished by luck, rather than skill.

Lastly, thanks to the fact that the characters move so slowly in this game, it's very easy to cancel and block attacks, since you can see them coming a mile away. (Except when the computer-controlled player cheats, and attacks with a full-out assault that hardly gives you time to react.) You can even block jump kick attacks every time, making the move all but useless.

This game can be fun, but in the end, it joins the pile of uninspired anime licensed games. It's too bad this was one of the last games based on the Sailor Moon franchise. The show never did get the game it truly deserved. Sailor Moon Super S is a simplistic, easily forgettable fighter that could have been so much more.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/02, Updated 06/09/03