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TAIL CONCERTO
SLPS 01299
Copyright © 1998 Bandai
Sony Playstation, 1 Player
3D Action Adventure
Available in Japan
¥ 5,800
Dual Shock-compatible
—by Geir Friestad
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No sane game publisher envies Bandai their game
developer and publishing house reputation. The
majority of their catalog of games consists of little
more than poor, license-based titles and few gamers
expected or even cared much when Bandai announced
TAIL CONCERTO —a supposedly
anthropomorphic, MARIO 64-like
game for the PlayStation. But by the time
the Tokyo Game Show rolled around, Bandai was the one
wearing the big, fat grin; the Bandai Curse has been
broken, and it took a bunch of cute, anthropomorphic
animals to do it.
TAIL CONCERTO takes
places in the mythical world of Preria; a steampunk
and retrotech-style kingdom spread out over a number
of airborne islands, inhabited by the supreme canines
and the not-quite-so-supreme felines. The game puts
you in the role of Waffle—an energetic, young
constable in the Preria peace keeping police force,
whose main occupation throughout the game is to deal
with the militant liberation army Kuroneko ("Black
Cat"). Unlike the dogs, the cats have no government
representation, and they feel oppressed. Led by an
evil cat called Fool, Alicia (Waffle's childhood
friend) forms the Kuroneko group along with her
sisters, Stea and Frea, and recruits a group of rowdy
kittens in an attempt to break away from Preria and
form their own nation. To reach their goal, they
search for the five legendary crystals which they
believe will aid them in their cause, not knowing that
Fool has other plans for the crystals...
The gameplay is marginally similar to that
of MARIO 64, but
TAIL CONCERTO is much more
story-driven, and concentrates less on outlandish (and
annoying) puzzles. Throughout the game you control
Waffle in his customized robot pants (which looks like
a cross between something out of
LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY and
THE WRONG TROUSERS), capturing
the kittens by shooting bubbles at them and grabbing
them with the long robot-arm of the law, and generally
foiling Kuroneko's plans.
While a good idea for a game, it could
easily have been messed up by less than perfect
gameplay and, to a lesser degree, pitiful graphics or
sound. Fortunately, it seems that the boys at Bandai
have finally learned their lesson, because
TAIL CONCERTO is a solid piece of
game software.
It's obvious right from the start that
Bandai spent quite some time on perfecting and
fine-tuning the controls in TAIL
CONCERTO, because they're damn near
perfect—especially if you're using Sony's new
Dual Shock analog pad. The analog controls feel right
and responsive right away, while the digital controls
take a little longer to get used to.
The graphics, while occasionally a bit
rough-looking, are well-designed and manage to conjure
up a believable, cartoon-like world, which will prompt
comparisons to such anime classics as
LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY and
THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER.
Throughout the game, TAIL CONCERTO also treats us to
OVA quality anime cut-scenes that drive the story
forward, and the character designs are by none other
than Yuuki Nobuteru—
character designer for such popular titles as
RECORD OF LODOSS WARS,
GUNNM,
THE WEATHERING CONTINENT, and
many more.
The audio, on the other hand, is a little
bit more restrained, with fairly subtle background
music and an admittedly very nice opening
song. However, TAIL CONCERTO is
also filled with a rather astonishing
amount of well-acted dialog—all of it courtesy of
voice actors such as
Miyamura
Yuko and Sakamoto Ma-aya.
TAIL CONCERTO isn't
perfect, though. The camera panning is mildly
annoying, as the camera comes equipped with a lag and
you sometimes have to stop and wait for the camera to
catch up with you. The game is also a bit on the short
side and it's not particularly hard; somewhere between
five and six hours seems to be the average finishing
time. However, in the end
TAIL CONCERTO provides such a
pleasant gaming experience that it's near impossible
to not recommend it. 
Rating: ***1/2 out of 4 |
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