Happy Friday, everyone. I have been a fan of Sailor Moon for quite a while. It’s a classic anime series based on the manga by Naoko Takeuchi. It’s about a girl named Usagi Tsukino who discovers she is actually the reincarnation of an ancient goddess of love and justice. She then has to fight evil demons that still lurk about as the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Over time she meets more Sailor Soldiers, each named after the planets of the Solar System, and they all join forces to fight the evil queen of the demon world, as well as other monsters throughout the series. The anime has an entertaining story, tons of memorable characters, and a great score to go with it. What makes it the most entertaining for me is the interactions between all the characters, as the action sequences, while fun to watch, aren’t anything to write home about.
Sailor Moon has been adapted into many video games over the years, though sadly many of them never got released outside of Japan. We’ll be looking at one today: Sailor Moon S.
Developed by Arc System Works and published by Angel, Sailor Moon S was the first of two fighting games based on Sailor Moon S, the third season of the anime. I’m almost done with Sailor Moon R, the second season, so I unfortunately can’t compare this to the third season, although I’m sure I’ll be able to find similarities to the anime as a whole in here. So let’s get started.
First, the basics: the graphics are perfectly fine for the Super Famicom, and the Sailor Soldiers are easily identifiable. The music is really good. It has several tunes from the anime, including the opening theme, and they are very well-composed.
Onto the gameplay. The game is a one-on-one fighter, similar to games like Street Fighter II Turbo. You have several options, including a story mode and a tournament mode. In story mode, you play as Sailor Moon and fight each Sailor Soldier in a similar sequence to when Usagi met them in the anime (the only difference being Rei coming before Ami). In tournament mode, you can choose which Sailor Soldier to play as, as well as the Sailor Soldier you fight.
There are standard attacks, including punches, kicks, and jump attacks, but each Sailor Soldier also has their trademark attacks. Sailor Moon has her Moon Tiara Action, Sailor Mars has her Fire Soul, Sailor Mercury has her Bubble Spray, and so on. It’s a best-two-out-of-three match for each character. After each match is finished, you will progress to the next one.
In terms of being faithful to the anime, there is the opening theme at the title screen and each Sailor Soldier has their attacks from the series, but what else is there? Well, each arena is based on a location from the anime, including the Hino Shrine, the Juban District, and Crystal Tokyo. Each Sailor Soldier also has voice acting, sounding similar to their Japanese voices in the anime. So I would say this is a faithful adaptation.
That’s really all there is to say. Sailor Moon S doesn’t get many points for originality, being a little too similar to Street Fighter II Turbo, but it still manages to be a solid fighting game based on the anime. So really, my recommendation is this: if you like fighting games and Sailor Moon, buy it.
Rating: 9/10
Featured Image art by Kaio Scott