Water guns have always been fun childhood toys for us. Being able to soak others with water was truly amusing. Now, imagine that you get to soak beautiful girls wearing bikinis and, even better, shoot their wet swimsuits off their bodies! Yeap, that’s pretty much what you’re going to do when playing Senran Kagura’s latest release, Peach Beach Splash. Senran Kagura has already been a popular series and now Tamsoft has made it even more interesting. A fair warning to those who are sensitive to sexual content, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash exhibits lots and lots of bikinis and boobs. But other than that, this third person shooter actually a fun game to play for its gameplay mechanics and crunchy visuals, with little hiccups here and there, such as its weak story and even weaker AI companions.

If you’re looking for a great story, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash might disappoint you for not being too deep. Keeping similarity to the last game, this time also, the girls of shinobi schools were summoned to a mysterious tournament. This tournament is being held since ancient times to test the shinobi ninjas and to see them practice the water gun battles. The girls of the shinobi schools don’t really know the mystery behind this tournament but they’re ready to take on any challenge to see it through. And this requires them to wear threadbare bikinis. Now,who cares for the story, right! The winner of the tournament receives an ultimate prize: getting a wish granted. Beside the main story, there are sub stories for different characters which are mostly sorting their personal issues, and they too aren’t deep enough to impress or amuse.

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash may not have a kicking story, but its gameplay is pretty engaging. The fundamentals of the game are similar to past entries in the Senran Kagura series, except this time it’s a shooter rather than a hack ‘n’ slash. Players are competing in different arenas running and gunning for a varied range of objectives. Characters are equipped with waist adjustable jetpacks allowing them to glide around the arenas, also being capable of sliding, double jumps and shooting while using these power moves. Not to mention the shinobi girls are allowed to use their ninja training. Similar to the jetpack, weapons too are powered by water ammo and players can quickly reload, as the water drains away pretty fast while shooting. In the later stages, when things get busier, players must keep a watchful eye on the water meter when to refill if they want to avoid getting soaked. During every stage, players are tasked to drain enemies’ health with the help of a wide range of water weapons. Weapons vary from short range powerful guns to long range snipers and, the higher the damage, the longer it takes to reload the water tanks. Because a powerful weapon drains out more water per shot. Players earn cards throughout the game and level up using those, as do their weapons. Other than cards for leveling up, there is a huge selection of cards for temporarily boosting powers and buffing stats.

Collectable cards are a newly introduced feature in the Senran Kagura series, allowing players different types of moves during the matches. Every character carries a deck of the player’s choosing into the match, which defines the character’s abilities and moves, and number of pets that can be summoned to cause extra damage. Cards can be used for both defensive and offensive moves, and up to three pets can be summoned during the match. When cards are used, normal moves are replaced by the special moves for that particular match. Players gather these cards during the match and their inventory automatically sorts when duplicates are available. These duplicate cards can be used for upgrading other cards. The player’s ultimate goal is to upgrade their character using these cards as well as their weapons, transform the characters into an ultimate ninja warrior. Different modes reward different types of cards and Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash offers a variety of modes including around 40 story missions, V Road challenge, Capture the bra, Online versus, Paradise Episodes and Survival.

Kunekune Finish is one of the special moves that players will come across quite often. When an opponent is down, players can soak the downed opponent as much as possible, within a given time, to take their clothes off. No doubt this can be a bit uncomfortable if such moments aren’t your thing. But if you accept Peach Beach Splash for what it is, then it’s an absolute treat for the eyes. Another important element is the amount of damage player’s character can take. This depends on the outfit they wear. There is a store from where players can purchase new outfits and weapons. Obviously, due to the nature of the game, water soaked t-shirt, bra or panties are inevitable. One must not take too many hits and get too wet. Some characters wear outfits that can also be slashed off without the Kunekune Finish. All the characters can be dressed up with all sorts of accessories from the store, which also has a number of poses. There’s also a dressing room with tons of customizations and photo shoot mode.

Needless to say, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash is absolute eye candy. The developers have definitely mastered the anime arts in three dimension, and the physics of every character is living proof of that. During the cutscenes, even the smallest of movements will wiggle their breasts, and, sometimes, even their butts. Then, all the character models are different to one another and posed nicely with crisp animation. The maps have some solid texture work to them and are very colorful as well. There have been a few new character additions in this game. Their background story, however, isn’t vastly described. Sadly the weakest link of the Peach Beach Splash is its AI companions. During team battles your AI companions act as if they don’t know what they’re supposed to do. They get soaked up too often, as if they know you are there to revive them. Needless to say doesn’t happen when you’re playing with and against real players.

Peach Beach Splash comes with fast paced gameplay and is loaded with enough content to keep you busy for hours, both in story and multiplayer modes. Above all, the gameplay is very engaging compared to other titles of this series. No doubt that it’s a decent third person shooter from a gameplay perspective, even if the single player missions do get a bit repetitive at times. Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash may not be the perfect game for many, but its presentation and engaging gameplay has raised the bar for all the upcoming releases. If you want to avoid bloodshed and zombies for a while, simply go ahead and play Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
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