Simple 2000 Series vol. 113: The Tairyou Jigoku

What makes a Simple 2000 release worthwhile? Does the concept need to be original? Does the game have to be “good?” Or simply playable? There are roughly three grades of Simple 2000 games out there: those that are terrible and unplayable, those that are terrible and playable, and those that are not terrible. I had […]

Simple 2000 Series vol. 90: The Oneechanbara 2

My copy of Oneechanbara 2 arrived the day before yesterday. I’ve only played it briefly, but enough to give some impressions. Really, it’s the same thing as the first game, but better-executed. It looks and feels much, much better. Like Oneechanbara, most of the effort was clearly spent on making the characters appealing and fun […]

Simple 2000 Series Vol. 61: The Oneechanbara

D3 Publisher are honest about their design and business goals: they produce budget-priced software that takes a simple concept – often one already established by full-priced games – and build a game around it that conforms to their very limited production budgets and schedules. Other times their concepts are original and experimental (something the nature […]