- John Bush
Game Review #517: Kawaii Deathu Desu (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewer: Mat Benson
Developer: Pippin Games
Publisher: Top Hat Studios
Category: Beat’em up, Arcade, Rhythm
Release Date: 4.16.2020
Price: $4.99
Watch the Trailer
Buy Kawaii Deathu Desu from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
Soul Stealing Anime Girls
Alright, it is time to talk about a game that has no right to be as good as it is. Kawaii Deathu Desu is an arcade style beat’em up game where you play as a kawaii (cute) anime girl, but not just any anime girl. You are a supernatural pop sensation from the depths of the underworld that has come up to the surface in order to reap the souls of your most zealous fandom. I know this sounds absurd, and you may ask yourself, “How can this game be as good as you claim?” The answer is simply because it’s both addicting and crazy soothing and simple to play.
Kawaii Deathu Desu has a lot going for it. The art style is simple but well crafted pixel art, with the background loading screens showing the designs of your chosen anime girl. You see, this game has a lot of stuff to unlock, and the only way to unlock it is through playing the game A LOT, and reaping as many souls as you can in each level. You use these souls to obtain many things including: upgrading your character, unlocking new girls to take the stage, as well as new outfits for each girl. Your world tour takes you to places like Japan, China, the USA, and Brazil, with each stage having different music, and more intense fans who rush the stage to give you their love. Unfortunately their love seems to be the thing that destroys you and takes away your health, kind of like a sloppy kiss from an over-affectionate grandma.
True Addictive Game Play
This game is pretty repetitive, but it keeps you coming back to try and beat your high score, as well as to unlock all the characters, outfits and levels in the game. The only buttons you use are the right and left bumpers to attack the fans on your left, or your right. It seems easy, but with fans flying on stage at Mach 10 speed, you almost run the risk of breaking those bumpers! Then, each girl has her own special, which you can use after your soul meter fills up during the show. The unique specials each match their respective girl’s personality and design. For example, the zombie girl’s special is a bunch of gravestones, where undead hands rise up and grab the fans to both slow them down and take their souls.
A couple things I truly appreciate in this game are the little details. After you unlock a character and pick them, the loading screens rotate and show you what the girls will look like in the outfits you hope to unlock. This is an easy detail to miss, but when you’re spending all your hard earned souls, you should get a preview of your outfit, am I right? Some of the cons of this game would have to be the strange button layout when navigating the menus. It’s actually so strange that it took me some time to get used to. Instead of using the A button to select things, you use B; and to back out of menus it is the opposite. The only other minor complaint is the amount of souls you need to unlock things. There are a lot of pop sensations, all of which can be upgraded, and a bunch of outfits per girl, and except for the first two levels for the girls, everything costs thousands of souls. This is especially hard in the beginning levels, where you only earn a small amount of souls with each play through, even if you beat the level with full health.
Kawaii Deathu Desu also has multiplayer which is a classic versus mode where two people can play split screen to determine who is the best at destroying their own fans. I liked how in the multiplayer, the girl you and your opponent choose are in their highest skill set, that way there is no real disadvantage if let’s say you haven’t upgraded all of the unlocked characters. The only issue with the multiplayer is setting it up. I am not sure if it is a bug, or glitch, but as soon as you hit multiplayer mode, the switch tells you to remove you joy cons so that each person has 1; however, after I would do this, it would get stuck on this screen. The way I got around it is by setting it up in handheld mode, and then putting it on the dock. Hopefully this gets fixed in the future.
Wrap Up Time
Kawaii Deathu Desu is in my opinion a diamond in the rough. Especially for its price at only 5 dollars (USD) you will get a game that will give you hours of simple euphoric enjoyment. Something about focusing on the fans and picking which direction to hit the bumpers is just plain relaxing. I was surprised that after a long day at work, I could come home, play this game and just be completely focused and relaxed. Besides the minor complaints making the game a bit tougher, or grindier than it should, be, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at a game that gave me way more enjoyment than I initially imagined it could.
Score: 8.5/10
Buy Kawaii Deathu Desu from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
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*A game code was provided for review purposes.