Welcome to our review of the weirdest spin-off games to ever feature Prinnies, these are the Prinny games!
PRINNY™ 1: CAN I REALLY BE THE HERO?
Master Etna demands the ultimate dessert, and it is up to a legion of lowly Prinnies to make it! Jump, slash, and combo your way through different stages of the Netherworld, devastate enemies and bosses with special attacks, and encounter both new and familiar faces in this explosive action-adventure from the twisted minds behind the DISGAEA series!
PRINNY™ 2: DAWN OF OPERATION PANTIES, DOOD!
When the mysterious Phantom Thief steals Master Etna’s panties, the Prinny horde must rise up once again to retrieve them…or suffer the consequences! Slash and Hip Pound your way through chaotic stages full of devilish foes, and build up the Combo Gauge to unleash powerful moves like Prinny Cyclone and Prinnykaze. Also, dive into the bonus story of the OTHER protagonist(?) of the DISGAEA games and claim your glory with Asagi Wars: Vengeance of Asagi!
Two in One…and More!: Two action-packed chapters of Prinny’s rise to becoming a hero, plus an expansive post-game chapter featuring…Asagi!? …Who was that again? The Netherworld, Only Better: All the dark comedy and explosive action you love from the DISGAEA series, now with newly remastered graphics. Prinny Power: Jump, slash, explode, and Hip Pound your way through chaotic and vivid levels, and unleash powerful special moves to devastate your enemies!
For those familiar with the DISGAEA series, you should know who the Prinny are. Those weird Penguins that keep shouting Dood and mess up everything possible in the game. I must admit I find them very funny and they make for a good change in humor in the classical NIS games.
In this game, correction, in these two games, you are controlling a Prinny and you are tasked by your Masters to perform impossible tasks. Right after the tutorial, you start this platforming action game, hoping to stay alive, because it is slightly difficult. Even the baby function, yeah they call it that, it’s harder than it sounds. Not impossible at all but when you hear baby, you kind of expect a really easy time.
Visually, I did not really see any difference between the 1st and the 2nd installment, they are classic left to right platformers with the necessary action of defeating enemies. Mechanically, however, there were some design choices made that I found to be unusual. The main one being unable to move left or right when you jumped straight up. Sure you can jump towards the left side or the right side, but not once you decide to go straight up. Weird right, Dood!
These Prinny games still are a lot of fun though once you look past the weird mechanics of the jumping mechanism. Especially the first boss , prove to be more of a challenge because I want to force my way through him, but clearly kept losing the battle. So I resorted to my good old methods of jumping in, hitting the guy, jumping out. Proving to be much more efficient, allowing me to move on to the next stage.
What I really enjoyed in this game, is that regardless of what difficulty level you decide to pick, it is always the same story and ending. Not every game implies this system and I am glad that NIS always delivers in this aspect. Despite being a DISGAEA spin-off, this is not your everyday RPG but a more than decent side-scrolling action game.
While most fans of the DISGAEA series will buy this game, I do think that the game deserves a fair shot at joining everybody’s library of games. It is not the greatest of sidescrolling games but Dood, if you like the strange and wacky approach to a genre, this is the one for you!
In conclusion, both these Prinny games are great spin-offs of the DISGAEA series, proving that spin-offs can be successful. Even when they star weird Penguins that keep shouting Dood all the time. I know I had fun playing this game and I expect you to have fun as well should you decide to give it a try.
