GAME REVIEW | "TurretGirls" Brings an Insanely Sexy Firefight
Okay, Nanairo Enterprise, I have a bone to pick with you! When you name a game TurretGirls, I would expect there to be more than one girl to choose from. So when I saw there was only one character, the aptly named “Girl”, I felt a little bamboozled. Here I was thinking I would be able to create my own harem of army girls, only to feel like Ash Ketchum (Satoshi, for those in Japan) in the first episode of Pokémon and left with but a singular choice.
But like Ash Ketchum, I got lucky with that singular choice, because just as Pikachu showed us in Pokémon, Girl in TurretGirls is electrifying! As a member of Planetary Alien Neutralization & Tactical Strike Unit (or P.A.N.T.S.U. for short), Girl must defend Earth from all sorts of alien attacks. Some aliens arrive on foot, others in the air. And then in some cases, you’ve got the behemoths to deal with! You are given 30-90 seconds to defend your area, but with the amount of enemies you’ll be facing, those seconds will feel like an eternity!
The object of the game is to last as long as you can, with each day passing giving you the chance to charge up the Superweapon. You start off with two generators to defend, which the aliens will try to destroy. If they’re annihilated (or, in Senran Kagura fashion, your clothes are blown off), then the game is over, and you’ll start from the beginning. Reach the end of the time, and you’ll earn extra cash and the chance to upgrade.
Those upgrades will be the thing that saves Girl’s behind. From laser cannons and bazookas to health and generators, every new upgrade you get will make taking down the enemies slightly easier. Concerning the generators, with you being able to grab up to five, the battles on-screen will become a lot more intense. Missiles, machine guns, and other weapons will be used by them to aid in your battle to protect the world.
When you get those five generators in place, the scene you’ll see on your screen will showcase the finest violence you’ll ever see. Alien soldiers blast to bits, flying ones transforming into intestinal fireworks, and big bulbous creatures flattened out for the good of humanity. Where it gets hard is, at every five days, a behemoth will arrive, and killing it will take a lot of firepower. (It gets worse when those bosses start popping up randomly on the “normal” days.)
With it being a bullet hell, the action in TurretGirls is practically nonstop. Almost never do you lift your finger off the trigger. Only when a flying enemy gets a little too close to Girl would you use your melee attack, which turns any alien into an okonomiyaki. And keeping an eye on every part of the map (with three to choose from currently) is a lot easier said than done. Sometimes you’ll have to trust in the power of your generator, and if you’ve got a powerful one set up, then you might not have too much to worry about.
Very similar to Gal*Gun, the aiming system is akin to a rail shooter. Normally, this would be where I would use my mouse and keyboard to play. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the game plays on an Xbox controller. Not only is the aim good, but the layout for the controls makes killing aliens a whole lot easier.
Completing a stage and initiating the Superweapon will depend on two things: your skills and your choice of upgrades. Skills are something that you can get better at with practice, but upgrades are all about the luck of the draw. You’ll get to choose up to three at the end of the day, but it also depends on how much money you earned from killing aliens and surviving. You could pull for better picks for a tiny bit of cash, but that’s entirely up to you.
Whether or not you beat the stage, you’ll earn upgrades to your main weapons or attire. New bras and panties may look nice to the eye, but they have the abilities to up your defense and increase your ammo. The same goes for items like cat tails or toys, which also boost up your skills. And if you’ve cleared one of the stages, you’ll get to unlock an Endless Mode for that specific world. (See if you can reach 2000 days and get that super-hard achievement!)
My only real complaint with TurretGirls is its minor repetitiveness. Even though there’s a lot happening on your screen at once, simply going left and right on your turret can get a little dull. However, with the weaponry you’re able to equip being based on luck, it does make sure that it’ll be a while before you see any play-throughs and layouts that feel too similar.
PROS:
- Fast-paced gory action
- Great upgrades system
- A terrific selection of weapons, costumes
- Nice view
CONS:
- Only one TurretGirl
- Can get slightly repetitive
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Despite it having just one character to choose from, TurretGirls is surprisingly a lot of fun! The action onscreen never gets tiresome, and while the gameplay can get a tiny bit stiff, it will still find ways to keep you on your toes. So put on some Sabaton, grab your best army skirt, and dive into the quick-yet-fulfilling mayhem that TurretGirls has to offer!
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Justin Pfeiffer of DANGEN Entertainment. Reviewed on the PC via Steam.
