Sailor Moon

The most popular anime series among Japanese girls is coming out as a side-scrolling action game with cute, fantasy touches. Unlike your typical fighting games, there are no male heroes. Instead, the world's fate hangs in the fists of five cute junior high girls.

The heroines transform into fighters dressed in somewhat revealing sailor outfits. (Their dress earns them their names of Sailor Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Sailor Mercury.) Not to be outdone by the girls, the enemies also tend to be attractive women and very handsome guys--not a drop of sweat to be seen or smelled here! This game should please many female gamers out there who are insulted by the misrepresentation of sexes in games. But hey, guys should check it out too! Sailor Moon is an interesting cart for the Mega Drive.

Sailor Moon is a normal everyday 14 year old Japanese school girl called Serena, who is given a mission by a talking cat called Luna to look for the lost Moon Princess and fight evil. Sailor Moon discovers other Sailor Scouts to aid her in her quest as well as another talking cat called Artemis. They are trying to find Princess Serenity who ruled the peaceful Moon Kingdom many thousands of years ago. Princess Serenity was lost when she sacrificed herself to fight of the evil forces of the Dark Kingdom. She sent all of her subjects forward in time to the present day. Unfortunately Dark Generals from the Negaverse have also gone to the present day and are stealing life energy from ordinary people and trying to find the Silver Crystal to go back and take over the Moon Kingdom. In charge of the DarK Forces is the evil Queen Beryl and it is she whom you must ultimately defeat.

Each character has special moves based on the planet powers, ie. Jupiter uses thunder type moves, Mars use Fire etc Although Sailor Moon is the real powerhouse of the bunch with her tiara chucking and whirlwind flinging. As you progress, Luna (or maybe Artemis) the cats appear in a little window and shout at you. But its all in Japanese so I have no idea what they are saying. I'm pretty sure they take on bosses from the game itself like Jadeite, Emerald and Queen Beyrl herself. But I kind of lost the plot after a while. I was just having a fine time beating up opponents in that hypnotic state side scrolling beat 'em ups tend to send you into.

The graphics and sound are great as well. The sprites are big and bold. They look like the Anime characters they are based on, with lots of expression and they move smoothly as well. The actual contact of the blows looks a bit wussy, still its fun seeing big tough Dark Generals looking like they are being kissed to death! The music is the usual Japanese, high-speed, mentalist lift music and is thus, perfect for the game.

Sailor Moon is an old-school pixel game based on a manga about a company of girls who have supernatural powers and protect our galaxy from evil forces.

Plot

This time it's the Dark Queen Beryl who wants to take over the universe. A team of wizards dressed in school uniforms has already flown out to help! There are five characters in total available in the game - Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus, each with unique abilities. But despite their magical skills, most of the time they fight hand-to-hand, according to all the canons of beat-them-up style.

Gameplay

The gist of the game is simple - move from the left edge of the screen to the right, killing all enemies along the way. You may have seen similar game mechanics in the Contra Force and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles games. Collect bonuses that will give you an advantage in the final battle with the bosses. For example, roses restore your health score, and making a rose will raise the scale to a maximum. Explore all locations one at a time, and clear them of enemies.

Pros:

• Cute characters
• Colorful anime-style graphics
• Dynamic gameplay
• Music with motifs from the animated series

Cons:

• Some may find this game a little too girly for their taste