Anime Girls: Sun of a Beach

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

Anime Girls: Sun of a Beach is a Third-Person Shooter released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch in 2024. A follow-up to the previous year’s Anime Girls: Highschool of Dead, this game keeps the theme of attractive young women with guns, but swaps out the high school for a small grouping of islands on a beach locale, and swaps out the zombies for various (mostly crab-like) sea monsters.

Despite how easy it would be to assume that this is a lazy theme swap to resell the same game with different maps and skins, Sun of a Beach actually addresses some of my issues with the prior game. Enemies don’t get stuck on scenery nearly as often, the gunplay feels a little tighter, and this game adds purchasable upgrades between levels that provides a bit more structure to the game. Having said that, while some things have changed, other things haven’t and as a result, some of the issues with the prior game remain in place here.

With a title that begins with “Anime Girls”, you might suspect that this is an “ecchi game”, and in this you would be right… sort of. Despite the title, the girls in this game aren’t really anime-styled, and there’s no nudity to be found here either. Having said that, all of this game’s girls are wearing swimsuits and bikinis, often revealing a good amount of cleavage, and this game does make use of “jiggle physics”, though you’re more likely to notice that in the menus than during gameplay. It seems a given that the game was designed with the idea that a bit of eye candy will make things even more enticing while you’re monster slaying. I’m not going to defend this, but I’m also not here to judge it – what I care about is whether the game itself is good.

The presentation here is mostly decent, with both the girls you play as and the monsters you fight having some nice 3D models with good detail and decent animation, and I suppose the somewhat generic-sounding rock music that plays fits the game’s intense action. And unlike the prior game, this time around the island you’ll be running and shooting on looks pretty decent. Nothing here is pushing any boundaries, but I can’t say I have any major complaints with the presentation either.

The gameplay has players fighting off waves of monsters that appear out of the water, using only the loadout you went into the level with. You start the game off with a simple handgun, but will gradually earn in-game money to unlock more powerful guns as you progress, spending that money between levels. Players can only carry one handgun with unlimited ammo and one stronger weapon, and as they run through each level they can try to find time to stop off at treasure chests containing ammo refills and health pickups.

Unfortunately, the sea monsters you fight lack any real variety – some are faster, some are stronger and can tank more hits, but all seem to just head straight for you without any change in abilities or movement. And yes, once again these enemies are bullet sponges.

What this means for the gameplay is that you’ll often find yourself in a pattern of shooting at enemies until they start to get close, then running away while you reload, then turning and shooting again, all while you travel a loop around the island chain to better ensure you don’t get flanked by a monster while fighting the others. Players have limited stamina to run in this game, but oddly swimming doesn’t use up stamina and actually recharges it, so swimming from island to island can make for a successful pattern of run-fight-run-fight. Successful, and also really boring and tedious.

I don’t begrudge anyone for wanting to look at an attractive woman while enjoying their action in a videogame, but Anime Girls: Sun of a Beach delivers some pretty mediocre action, with simple-minded bullet sponge enemies that make for really repetitive gameplay, which just doesn’t make for a very enjoyable Third-Person Shooter. And if your main interest is looking at a beautiful girl’s chest jiggle… well, it’s not that hard to find such a thing for free on the internet, so maybe do that instead.

tl;dr – Anime Girls: Sun of a Beach is a Third-Person Shooter where players control a beautiful girl fighting off hordes of sea monsters on a beach. The gameplay here works but it’s simple, tedious, and repetitive. And if your main interest is the hot girls, you’re sure to find something more satisfying to look at with a quick internet search. I suggest you do that instead.

Grade: C

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