Product Info

Platform

Switch, PlayStation 4

Publisher

NIS America, Inc.

Developer

SNK Corporation

Genre

Arcade, Fighting

Players

1-4 (2-8 online)

File Size (Minimum)

15 GB

Release Date (NA)

Sep 7, 2018

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Target

GameStop

NIS America, Inc.

eShop

PSN Store

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a unique fighting game that’s entirely based on female fighters wearing bizarre outfits. Like the name says, its focus is on two-on-two battles starring some familiar faces from SNK’s franchises, but while the game does a couple neat things, it feels light overall.

What Story?

When it comes to fighting games, their stories are usually not fulfilling or memorable, and SNK Heroines is no different. Instead, in the place of a solid story is something quite bizarre and off-the-wall. Taking place a few days after the tournament in King of Fighters XIV, fourteen heroines (with additional characters to be released post-launch) are mysteriously transported to a luxurious mansion located in another dimension. After waking up, they find themselves in the most peculiar outfits, ranging from cow-print bikinis to Little Bo Peep inspired dresses.

In the meantime, a mysterious figure called Kukri is watching over the fighters. He sits back and mostly enjoys the show, but after each pair of combatants gets defeated, he takes their fear and despair. Then, he adds the losing heroines to a tornado-shaped sand sculpture in order to continue absorbing their negative emotions. To escape this dimension, you’ll fight through six battles before confronting Kukri. In short, it’s just an excuse to have pretty girls fight one another.

That Was Easy… Wait, Nevermind.

Players can pick any two of the 14 fighters, resulting in dozens of different combinations, but even then, the roster still feels a bit light. The game also only has a total of six stages, which is pretty scant by modern fighting game standards, and after playing for a while, you’ll either yearn for more or feel discouraged by the lack of content. More immediately, you’ll wish you didn’t have to wait the 20 to 40 seconds it takes for every battle to load.

Once you begin playing on normal difficulty (of five total difficulty levels), you can at least breeze through the six battles with relative ease. Even if you have little knowledge of fighting games, you can simply button-mash your way to victory. If you wish to learn the controls instead, the character’s moves and special attacks are simple enough to learn. However, the difficulty changes in the last battle against Kukri. Prepare to start polishing your combo moves and really learning the game’s mechanics because he can be a handful if you are not careful. The difficulty change is steep and incredibly jarring.

Of course, the ease of battle also depends on which characters you choose, and some fighters are easier to handle than others. Terry is quite fluid in fighting close battles, but you may find that Leona Heidern is very handy, too. Her quick attacks, combos, special moves, and swiftness make her a great starting character overall. In contrast, a character like Sylvie Paula Paula can feel stiffer and slower, but those who take the time to learn her style will be able to turn her into an unstoppable juggernaut.

When it comes to tag-team battles, each character would normally have their own health gauge. Not so in SNK Heroines. Your two characters share the same bar, making things a bit tougher, but the great part about having a partner-in-crime is having a little help. Your supporter can lend a hand when they’re not in direct combat, even if all they’re doing is throwing wash tubs at your opponent. Yellow lantern-like globes will appear during battle and grabbing one will give your supporter an item to throw to you in battle. Items are random when used and range from traps to healing and the aforementioned wash tubs.

No matter their position, every character has a special attack called a “Dream Finish,” and it is the key to your victory. While you can use these attacks early in battle, it’s best to save one up to finish your opponent off when their health is in danger — and more so when facing a skilled adversary. Plan accordingly. Activating the “Dream Finish” is from a simple press of a button for all characters. No need to learn any wild combo moves.

Customize Your Heroine

Outside of battling, you can purchase costumes and accessories for your favorite heroine. Each character has a set of three costumes — one already available at the beginning of the game — including the classic outfits the heroines wear in their respective franchises. You can also buy some artwork if you do not wish to complete the game with each fighter, but there are special illustrations that require you to finish the story with a specific pair of heroines to unlock them. (Money can’t buy everything, after all.) That said, there are only seven of these extra illustrations, and it is a bit disappointing that there aren’t any more.

At least earning money is easy. It simply requires you to battle, and it doesn’t matter what mode you are in. If you play through the story mode three times, you will have enough to buy a good number of the available costumes. However, purchasing these is not as satisfying as you would think for one crucial reason. Players can also take their heroines and pose them in various backgrounds and photo frames.

The 3D character models look a bit off, coming across as average at best. Each character has some hard shading, heavy eyeliner, and some shiny looking attire, which in and of itself isn’t bad because the Dragon Ball Xenoverse series uses a similar style in their models, but it simply doesn’t work here. Had the look of the gorgeous 2D character portraits seen on the character select and versus screens been translated better into the 3D models, it would have made the whole game considerably more appealing visually.

Hanging Up the Attire

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy delivers some unique battles with a cast of enjoyable characters. The game’s difficulty spike in the story mode and the lack of content are unfortunate, but it’s an otherwise good game for those who are getting their feet wet in the fighting genre.

A Nintendo Switch review code was provided by NIS America for this review.