Daikon Set

Genre: Compilation / Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Daikon Set is a free-to-play Compilation of Arcade-style games released on Nintendo Switch in 2017.

Here is what I thought of each game in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Chroma Star	Arcade	1	C-
tl;dr Similar to the classic game Ram-It, this game is nominally a very simple Shmup that has players shooting incoming ships not to destroy them, but push them back using color-coded bullets. It has potential, but is so exceedingly simple and monotonous that you’ll grow tired of it quickly.
Pink Mite	Arcade	1	C-
tl;dr Tap A to bounce upwards, collect bubbles while avoiding obstacles. Extremely simple and repetitive.
The Queen	Arcade	1	C-
tl;dr Players move around a blocky character, avoiding balls bouncing around the screen, with limited use of a shield if they can’t dodge a ball in time. Extremely simple and repetitive.

So… yeah, all three games are, as noted, extremely simple and repetitive. There’s just not much meat to any of the games here, and while all three are functional, they’re so shallow that it’s hard to consider them fun.

In terms of presentation, the visuals here are extremely blocky low-detail pixel art reminiscent of the early Atari era of games. Ugly, simple, and extremely unimpressive. Surprisingly, these terrible retro-style visuals are accompanied by… a really fantastic soundtrack. The Queen is backed by a good rendition of the classical piano theme Largo in E Flat Major, by Chopin, Chroma Star has the catchy Okinawa Weekend Fly, but the star here has to be Pink Mite’s songs by artist Purient, particularly the haunting Are You Still There?, and I’ll Wait 4 U is pretty good too.

Also, I have to make note of a minor point of frustration – this game cannot be played with anything other than the Wii U gamepad, despite that this game doesn’t make any use of the Wii U gamepad’s unique features. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s irritating nonetheless.

If you have a Wii U, you might as well go ahead and download Daikon Set, as it’s completely free and has no ads or microtransactions, and when the Wii U eShop closes it won’t be available anywhere. However, it’s such a slight, shallow experience that I highly doubt you’ll spend much time playing it. While it’s not outright bad, there’s just not much here to hold your interest, save for the game’s truly excellent soundtrack.

tl;dr – Daikon Set is a Compilation of three extremely simple Arcade-style games with an retro Atari-style pixel art aesthetic. The games are functional but shallow and not especially compelling. However, the soundtrack is surprisingly good for what is otherwise a largely disposable game whose free price tag and unavailability outside of the Wii U eShop are the biggest things making this still worth getting.

Grade: C-

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