Finger★Flashing
As with Lup★Salad, Finger★Flashing initially seems easier than it is. While there is very little in terms of gameplay, you take control of Poi who is about to take her final witchcraft exam when she is attacked by monsters. How does she defend herself and defeat these monsters…? Through a system very similar to that of Paper, Scissors, Rock which sees Poi summon the opposing enemy in order to defeat them. As with Paper, Scissors, Rock the game comes with three different types of enemy, each of which are based on one of the three buttons you can use magic with. To defeat them, you need to summon the enemy who is strong against the other – otherwise the monster you summon will go against you.
The game takes place over five stages and starts you off fairly easy with maybe one or two monsters every couple of seconds. As you progress waves of more enemies will appear quicker as the camera moves closer in to give you less of a view of the route ahead. With six lanes in total to cast your spells towards (and be attacked from), it does require quite a bit of practice to master the later stages but otherwise proves itself to be a fun and intense experience. This is especially considering the game isn’t kind enough to allow you to skip any enemy, and it is game over if you let one pass by.
The only potential qualm I could have with this game is that due to the game not having an English localized instruction manual, you have to aquatint yourself with who beats what through trial and error, leaving some requirement for practice. On the other hand, navigating the menu’s are easy as they seem to have been originally translated into English. Otherwise, along with the stock standard ‘Story’ Mode you are provided with Time Trial and Score Attack modes for single-player and a Battle Mode for multiplayer.
While there isn’t too much to say about the visuals or music quality in this release, the game looked nice on my television screen and while the character designs are average at best the environments each have their own gameplay twists which ensures you aren’t just traversing down the same corridor each time. The designs range from normal bridge to a cave.
Overall, there is quite a lot to do in this game despite it essentially being an intense and prolonged bout of Paper, Scissors, Rock. It didn’t stand as highly for me as Lup Salad did and it took me a while to warm up to it… but otherwise I think it is a solid title to purchase.
Overall Score: B-
For the original post this came from, view “GungHo Online Entertainment America – Japanese PS1 Classics Review Part 1“
