Senran Kagura Bon Appetit Review – Bouncing Boob Simulator

Marvelous Games and developer Meteorise released their titillating rhythm music game based on their popular Senran Kagura franchise bringing it to the PS Vita. Well now PC gamers can get a slice of the action with a “full course” version which includes the core game and extra downloadable content. The question one has to ask outside of some obvious pure fan service is this game worth your time and money? Take a look at our Senran Kagura Bon Appetit review for the full picture.

Today we’re taking a very close look at Marvelous Games’ latest title to make the transition to PC having enjoyed the action packed Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus earlier this year. Cue spin off game Senran Kagura Bon Appetit Full Course which has you create sumptuous dishes for the legendary sushi chef Hanzo. But rather than simply whip up a meal for said male character (no sexism here), there’s battling to be done which is what is expected of the franchise. In a nutshell, you take 22 buxom anime ladies and have them duke it out with each other, ditching the weapons in favour of culinary delights. The idea of the game is to score well by matching the symbols represented as buttons on the controller in time with the music. Hit them at just the right point and you’ll get a perfect, slight off a great and further from the beat lesser score with a miss if you’re too far out. Each fight consists of rounds and during each round the winner removes part of the opponents clothing. Dominate the rounds and you’ll completely strip the opponent of their clothing leaving a rather embarrassed individual doing her breast…erm best to cover up. Never fear the game does censor out the more intimate areas of the female anatomy but offers enough flesh to convey nudity pretty well – obviously for culinary bragging rights.

There are several modes of play to sink your teeth into with a story mode full of wacky ideas and scenes between rounds for each character to play through. An arcade mode which has 6 rounds to beat featuring random opposition and the chance to post your score on the global leaderboards. There’s also a free mode where you can choose your favourite girls and have them fight it out with no set agenda other than to win. The core essence of the three modes play out the same where the idea is to match the icons to the beat and simply undress your opponent whilst impressing Hanzo with your expert cooking skills. It’s an easy game to pick up and play especially when playing on the Easy setting, however ramp it up and some tracks become pretty challenging making for some close bouts.

As with most Senran Kagura games there’s a dressing room which allows you to customize the looks of the characters including those who you go up against. So, if you’ve any preferences in how you want the ladies to look such as racing chick, french maid or sexy nun then you can set the outfits here complete with hairstyles and accessories.

Visually the game sports some bright and colourful looks which are designed to be distracting during bouts. You’ll see things like furious chopping animations, bouncing breasts during said animations, butt close up shots and more all the while trying to focus on not missing a beat or icon. It’s a simple looking game which doesn’t push the hardware with things like dynamic lighting and other fancy effects. That said it gets the job done.

Audio is perhaps where the game shines with plenty of Japanese voice overs (subtitles are available for those who aren’t fluent in Japanese) and a nice selection of tunes during battles. In the story mode you’ll have much more personality with the characters as they are fleshed out but the reality is some knowledge is required to get the most out of the who’s who and what relationships they have with each other – they are rival ninja schools in case you missed it.

There’s a fair amount of content on offer here what with all the customization, and the story mode which to get the most out of needs to replayed 22 times. You’ll unlock extra clothing options and images as you progress. There’s also a naughty ultimate humiliation scene for each ninja which can be viewed when gaining a perfect victory or better yet a full view version when beating the story mode. To see them all you’ll have to beat it 22 times but then you’re at leisure to view chocolate sauce and creme covered naked ninjas with full control of the camera…ahem.

Senran Kagura Bon Appetit is pure fan service, there’s no getting away from that but if you suck at rhythm games then you’re out of luck although you can still have some fun playing on the easy mode. The only real criticisms levelled at this game is a lack of recognizable tunes (if you’re not Japanese) and the fact the art design could have used a few more effects to give the characters more colour depth. Other than that the game does what it says on the tin.

Senran Kagura Bon Appetit seems like it’s designed purely to view the ladies in a variety of cooking scenarios which make their well endowed chests heave and wobble as much as possible. It’s almost as if it’s an anime fetish game especially with the sauce covered ladies in their special scenes as rewards. Still, if you’re a fan of ogling anime characters then this one is highly suggestive even if it’s tame compared to more racy adult content available. If you’re into the franchise then this is very much a fun distraction and if you’re not and want to sample some Japanese cultural differences then you can get that here in spades. Anyone else, especially those of a sensitive nature need to look away…forever lest they taint their vision with over-sexualized young ladies in provocative scenes designed purely to titillate in a fun kind of way.

Score 8/10

Written by: Rob Cram

Rob Cram has hundreds of video game reviews, thousands of articles under his belt with years of experience in gaming and tech. He aims to remain fair and free from publisher/developer influence. With his extensive knowledge, feels his gaming opinions are valid and worth sharing. Agreement with his views are entirely optional. He might have a bias towards cyberpunk.