Neon Genesis Evangelion Battle Orchestra

I thought I'd make a few posts about games I've played recently.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Battle Orchestra is a multiplayer 2D fighter (with 3D models), like Smash Bros but Evangelion branded. It's for the Playstation 2 and has been released in Japan. It's by BROCCOLI, so you can hear Gendo say "Broccoli" every time it starts. :D The cast from the original TV series seems to be intact, though Ogata Megumi's performance as Shinji... sounds more like when she played Kyuu from Tantei Gakuen Q. -_-;

The graphics are redrawn and I don't really like the new designs - Shinji and his father have huge foreheads like they were the main guy in FLCL, they could fit a mecha in there. Rei is fluffy and moé and cute. Asuka is a werewolf. Only the yellow version of Eva Unit 00 is available. The music has been replaced, the only recognisable piece in the game is a new recording of "Tamashii no Rufuran" used as the opening theme. The moves seem limited. The Angels look and act so funny, it's great. They look even more like sock puppets and inflatable toys than they did in the series, and the black-and-white stripey floating ball Angel goes around punching everyone. Everything can be defeated with the tactic of "kick and punch and shoot it", none of your messy impenetrable shield / AT-Field business. More than ever it feels as though Eva was a tokusatsu show, man-in-a-cheesy-hero-costume fighting man-in-a-cheesy-monster-costume, as giants battling in the city, in 2, 3 or 4 player battles.

I like Eva games for that reason. They're light-hearted fun. ^_^

I played through Shinji's story mode that ends with him fighting Kaworu in an Eva (!) and Asuka's story mode which ends after she beats 9 mass-produced angels.

Oh and Gainax are sooooo interested in reinforcing the idea that Eva fans must spend more and more money to get new Eva stuff... you don't directly unlock new things to play with when you (for example) complate story mode. No, there's an in-game shop, and when you play, you win some money to spend in that shop, and when you complete something you may unlock new items in the shop. (e.g. characters to use in VS mode or BGM or whatever) -_-;

We saw Kensuke piloting an Eva in the demos but haven't unlocked him yet. The Gunbuster is also in there (another reason to want this game!), but we haven't unlocked that either. :(

Happy Shinji-day!

It's Ikari Shinji's birthday. You know, the main character in Evangelion...

Yes it's disturbing to think that people can celebrate the birth of fictional characters, I only remember this one because the Eva pilots share their birthdays with the seiyuu who performed them in the anime, and Ogata Megumi was my favourite for a long while.

Today we celebrate the birth of Shinjis all over the world, celebrating the fact that in order to be true human beings, we retain the right to scream a lot, run away a lot, avoid contact with people for fear of hurting them, and reject instrumentality. And we do this by standing round in circles, clapping, and saying "omedetou". ^_^;;

I'd tell you about the Ltd Ed version of the detective story (!) game Meitantei Evangelion for PS2 being at a silly price on Play Asia - not sure if it's the same as the premium box which retailed for stupidly large amounts of money but came with a pretty nice NERV logo watch... ... BUT! It seems to have sold out in the last hour or so.

So have a look at these silly Eva Angel hats instead. I don't know who in the world could ever wear these outdoors.

Ah, the greatest quantity of inappropriate merchandising for any anime ever, that series. And yes, that includes all of the Hello Kitty franchise!