Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R

"The Bandai Book on Sequels: Reuse everything from the first game, throw in a new mode or two, market it as a new game"

The original Sailor Moon video game for the Super Famicom was a painfully average Final Fight rip-off based on the smash hit anime TV series. Even though the game had very little to no originality, it still sold well, based on the strength of the license and the characters. So, it's no surprise that when the second season of the cartoon began, Bandai was quick to once again jump on the Sailor Moon money train. Although Sailor Moon R features a new plot and a few new features, this game feels even more generic and mediocre than the first. This is mainly because Bandai basically has given us the exact same game twice.

The game takes place a short time after the Sailor Soldiers were successful in defeating Queen Beryl and her Dark Kingdom. However, they soon find out that they don't have much time to rest. A small child named Chibiusa appears when she literally falls out of the sky. It turns out that she is from the future, and has traveled back in time to seek out the help of the Sailor Soldiers.

It seems that in the future, Sailor Moon and the others create a new kingdom home inspired by the long-forgotten Moon Kingdom. Now, that kingdom is being attacked by the Dark Moon Family, led by Prince Diamond. What's worse, the future Sailor Moon (the queen of this future society, and the eventual mother of this time-traveling child, Chibiusa.) is in danger. It is up to Sailor Moon and the others to save earth's future, and prevent the evil forces from altering the past.

After you (or you and a friend in 2 player mode) choose one of the five Sailors, you're taken into the game itself. Almost instantly, anyone who's played the first game will feel an overwhelming sense of deja vu. You make your way across four side-scrolling levels, battling Diamond's forces. All of the different moves the Sailors could pull off in the original game return. However, Bandai has included their new special elemental powers that were introduced in the second season of the cartoon. Basically, Bandai used the exact same gameplay engine as before, only adding a few new features.

One of the new features that tries to hide Bandai's overall laziness is a few new attack moves have been added to the Sailors' arsenal. They can now do an ''aerial smash'' move where they grab an enemy, jump in the air, then throw the enemy down to the ground while they're in mid-air. There's also a Super Attack that you can only do in 1 player mode, for some reason. However, in 2 player mode, this attack is replaced with a move where you can pick up your partner, and throw her at an enemy. Your fellow Sailor that you threw will fly into the enemy with a powerful kick or elbow smash.

The first of the two big additions to the gameplay is the option to play as Chibiusa, Sailor Moon's future daughter. Obviously, since she's only a child, she's much weaker than the other girls. (She can't throw enemies.) Chibiusa attacks with her umbrella and Luna-P, a robotic cat head that resembles Sailor Moon's talking cat mentor, Luna. She's kind of fun to play as once or twice, but since she's so weak, you'll find yourself going back to playing as the Sailors in no time.

The other big addition is a fighting game mode. This is a mode for two players where the Sailors can go at each other. This can be fun with a friend, but anyone expecting a serious fighter will be disappointed. You're limited to the moves you can use in the main game. And since you can only choose among the Sailors, the roster is pretty small. (Why couldn't you have been able to play as the regular game bosses, too?) It's a good idea, but it doesn't work out as well as it should. This is mainly for fans of the show who want to prove which Sailor would win in a fight.

In order to add a bit of re-playability, Bandai has added multiple endings to the regular game. However, these don't amount to much. The ending is basically the same, save for a few minor changes. I think your ending might be determined by your grade evaluation (Like the first game, you are given a letter grade of ''A'' to ''E'' at the end of each level, based on your overall performance.), but I can't say for certain.

So, in the overall gameplay department, Bandai literally kept everything exactly the same, except for a few additions that don't amount to much. If that's not lazy enough, Bandai used the exact same graphic engine as the last game. The character sprites that return from the original show no improvement or advancement, save for the new attack animations. Even some of the backgrounds look the same. If you were to put the two games side by side, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart, aside from the new enemy sprites. It's painfully obvious that Bandai wanted this game out as soon as humanly possible, so they used the exact same programming code in order to cut development time. Even the music continues the energetic, yet ultimately forgettable, tradition of the first.

Aside from this game being an almost total rehash of the original, the main problems that plagued the earlier game return. Once again, the hit direction seems off, making it appear as though monsters are walking through your punches and kicks unharmed. It can sometimes take a while to line your character up, so that her attacks begin to register on the monster you're fighting.

However, the most glaring piece of evidence that this game is a rush job is that many of the major characters who played important roles in the season this game's story is based on do not appear in the game itself. What happened to The Wiseman, the true villain of the Sailor Moon R series? He should have been the final boss, not Prince Diamond. Not including the show's true villain as the final boss is just plain pathetic. That's like if Konami had done a Ninja Turtle game, and forgot to put in The Shredder.

This game is just sad. It was released less than a year after the first game, and it really shows. Bandai should have really just put the time and effort to do a true sequel, but maybe that's expecting too much. It almost seems wrong that they marketed this as a full-priced new game, since it feels more like an add on. I'm sorry, some new character sprites, and a half-ass fighting mode just isn't enough. But, in the end, I guess nothing's too low in the quest for the all mighty dollar (or in Bandai's case, yen).

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/02, Updated 06/09/03