Onechanbara is a game that was originally released in Japan in February of this year for the Wii. Bikini Zombie Slayers is part of a long line of Onechanbara games, which spans several different titles as well as a few different consoles, and even has a live action movie. The game plays very similar to the Devil May Cry series but has some very unique and distinguishing qualities.
One big difference between these games and games similar Devil May Cry is that as the player slashes throw hordes of zombies the character’s weapon becomes progressively weaker as it is covered in blood. This causes their attacks to be slower and to inflict less damage, and even sometimes gets stuck in enemies if the weapons “Blood Meter” gets closer to the top. The “Blood Meter” is near the health bar, and shows how “dirty” the weapon is becoming. To prevent this, players must actively clean off their sword to keep the blood meter from filling up.
The basic story of the game is that one afternoon two sisters are relaxing at home, that is until a sudden news broadcast comes on their TV. The news report shows that a zombie outbreak has just happened in their city and is warning people to stay inside. However, the sisters are impatient and don’t want to wait for “bad things” to happen and they decide to go out and do something about it. They arm themselves with some katanas and go to find out the reason to why the zombies are attacking their city. As they progress and talk to every person they meet and every enemy they defeat they get closer to understanding the mystery behind this zombie outbreak.
Aya is the main character of Onechanbara, she is the older sister of the two and is also a Japanese cowgirl. She sports a bikini and wears a scarf and wields two katanas. She is more adept at using the katana then her younger sister and has very unique and fast slashing techniques that can clear cut through an area full of zombies.
Saki is the younger sister to Aya, she is a young school girl who loves wrestling. She wields the a single katana but also has bladed fighting gloves. She isn’t afraid to get upclose and personal with the snarling zombies, and is rather adept at punching, and body slamming them. I would have to say that she was my personal favorite to play as in the demo I experienced.
(The “Blood Meter” is the one to the far left of the screen pointing up, as the red bar increases the weaker and slower your attacks become.)
Onechanbara will feature co-op play splitscreen game play as well as multiple game modes. Something else to note is Bikini Zombie Slayers will also retain it’s original Japanese dub and will be subtitled to retain that quirky Japanese humor. The game will be released sometime in early 2009 and will be released as a budget title. Which means it will be fun and cheap, but there is nothing wrong with that.
