Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

Onechanabara’s production is perhaps where the most criticism can be levied against the game, though considering the price point of $30 and the arcade nature of its gameplay, you're still getting an impressive package. The graphics are strictly PS2-quality, and the characters, though they’re attractive and animate fluidly, don’t move with the same level of grace we’ve become accustomed to seeing in games for the other systems. If you can find a friend to co-op with, you wont find any other game’s on the Wii that’ll deliver on the same level of zanny antics found in Onechanbara.

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is the very definition of a guilty pleasure. By combining sexy women, hyper over-the-top violence, and gore, your relying on adolescent boys. Hey, I’m a huge fan of sexy women, gore, and violence, so what does this say about me? With that said, if you just go with the ridicules nature of the game, you’ll find a pretty good time. The game utterly fails at any explanation of plot, or reasons why you’re doing what your doing. Something about you being hot and killing hordes of random zombies. Some will argue that the game's crutch is the tastless nature, yeah, it totally is.

There are an amazing amount of options inthe game. The main mode is of course, the "Story Mode". At first you can only choose between the main characters Aya and Saki, but after you beat each character’s respective story, you will unlock another character, for a total of four playable ladies. Each one has their own unique story and boss fights, although the story consists mainly of a narrative before the start of each chapter. Still, four unique tales is great, especially for a budget game and each level is about 20 minutes.

Although we all tend to poo-poo the Wii’s power compared to the 360 or PS3, Onechanbara is actually very impressive looking. It’s really similar to the visuals of a late gen PS2 game, and there are a nice array of enemy zombies and some impressive gory visuals. You can slice every body part off from a zombie, although my personal favorite is slicing off the top torso and see a pair of legs just walking around.

It’s rare to get a well made third party game (at all, zing!)  that lives up to the potential of the Wii’s controls. When I first saw the control layout for the game I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a Gamecube or classic controller option. However, Onechanbara has the best third person controls I’ve played on the Wii. I should warn you though that all the slashing with the wiimote and numchuk can be a pretty tiring experience considering the length of the level and that this game is basically an old fashioned button masher. It’s just instead of mashing buttons, you are flailing pretty rhythmically with your arms. It’s a lot of fun, but if you’re not someone that regularly exercises, you’ll probably wear yourself out after a level or two.

There’s so much to love about this game. The fact that we finally have an Oneechanbara game in North American, the sheer insanity of title, the excellent transition over to the Wii with remarkably solid (and fun) controls, and the fact that the game offers you a ton of modes and unlockables for only thirty dollars. If you’re looking for a good hack n’ slash, M rated game, or just something totally wacky, then Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers is for you. After playing this and the 360 game back to back, its’ pretty interesting to see how easy it is to forgive a Wii game in term of production values. Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers offers smart controls, guilty pleasures, and loads of B-Movie style fun. Please note this game is rediculas, and pretty terrible on concept,but unlike it’s 360 sister, the Wii game has the “it’s so awful its fun” quality. Also, this one has co-op in every level, unlike the 360.