SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy

Genre: Fighting Game

Players: 1-4 Team Competitive (Local), 2-8 Team Competitive (Local Wireless, Online)

.

Review:

SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy is a Fighting Game released on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2018 and ported to PC in 2019. This game takes the female characters from SNK’s Fighting game franchises and puts the focus on them, with more simplified, flashier gameplay.

That word, “flashy” is both a good thing and a bad thing. The 3D characters and backgrounds here look nicely detailed and well-animated, make no mistake. But this game’s aesthetic is distractingly fetishy in a way that fails to be sexy in the way that games like the Dead or Alive series tend to be, and ultimately just feels creepy and weird. Some of the female characters here are dressed in odd outfits, such as Mai’s skimpy cow outfit (when her usual attire is already plenty fetishy), and all of the characters’ attacks are accentuated with bizarre flourishes like giant sparkles, candies, or pastries.

It’s clear the games’ creators wanted to do everything they could to make this game “girly” while still including plenty of fanservice for the guys, and the result is just this bizarre mix of overly-cutesy pandering and sleazy fanservice that doesn’t seem likely to appeal to girls or pervy guys. This is made more unsettling by a story where the antagonist spends each round between matches viewing the girls through what seems to be hidden cameras. Note that these girls aren’t doing anything especially sexy or pervy during these scenes, but the game seems to want to make you feel as uncomfortable as possible during this anyway.

I wish I could tell you about the game’s sound, but all I got was a loud mix of sound effects, Japanese voice over, and energetic music. I suppose it fits the game’s generally light and colorful tone, but it didn’t really do much for me.

As for the gameplay, SNK Heroines aims to be simple, which isn’t a bad thing, but it somehow manages to be too simple and too complicated at the same time. Players have a light attack, strong attack, special move button, throw button, block button, tag button, and finishing move button, along with using directional buttons to walk, jump, dash, and air-dash. Different moves are performed by using different combinations of a button and direction. Fairly simple, right?

Well, the game then proceeds to complicate things by making special moves only work after filling a meter. This same meter is also needed to perform a finishing move, which is essentially necessary to end the match. As such, players are actively discouraged from using special moves too much. However, the finishing move can only be used when the opponent is in a weakened state, which doesn’t last for too long. And it’s right about here that I find myself wondering how this is simpler than just beating on your opponent until their energy reduces to zero.

Despite all the odd stuff going on with the finishing moves here, the gameplay is pretty simple and not especially nuanced, compared to other Fighting games on the market. A seasoned Fighting Game player isn’t going to find much to sink their teeth into here, but newer players will likely be confused by this game’s eccentricities.

Before I finish, I should mention the game’s multiplayer. This game does support online multiplayer, but when I tested it, the online lobbies were deserted, so don’t expect to find anyone to play this game with unless you bring them with you to the party.

But really… I don’t know why you would do that. I just can’t imagine who this game is for, exactly. It’s not deep enough for expert players, it’s too complicated for newbies, it’s not sexy enough for pervs, and it’s too disgustingly pandering and creepy to be likely to appeal to female players. There are at least some unique and interesting ideas at play here, but they’re buried under a pile of bad ideas, weird skimpy outfits, glitter, and candy.

tl;dr – SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy is a Fighting Game that puts the focus on SNK’s female characters, with gameplay that is at least in theory more simple and accessible. However, in practice this gameplay is too complicated for newer players to enjoy and too shallow to please seasoned Fighting Game players. And the “girly” presentation is too weird and off-putting to be sexy, and too creepy and pandering to be very appealing to female players. I don’t know who this game is for, and there are plenty of better Fighting Games on Nintendo Switch for just about anyone who might otherwise be interested in this one. Play one of those instead.

Grade: C-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are u/punkgeek, Andy Miller, u/wonderponder, Johannes, Eli Goodman Ilya Zverev, and Stov. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}