EnEn Angel (エンエンエンジェル)
Developer: Dcruise
Release Date: 2001
Platforms: PlayStation
EnEn Angel is an unusual release for multiple reasons. It was developed by Dcruise, a smaller developer mostly known for pachinko games and the occasional diversion like Sorcerer’s Maze /Prism Land Story on the PlayStation. However, they managed to enlist some significant talent for this game’s production. The character designs were done in part by Ryosuke Tei, the founder of the FuriFuri Company, which was a design company known for collaborating with companies like Sega, Bandai, and Sanrio. The music was composed by Susumu Yokota, a prolific electronic music composer with a long list of works and roles taken on over the years. Thanks to these two and their contributions, EnEn Angel’s most memorable elements tend to be audiovisual rather than anything mechanical.
EnEn Angel most closely resembles a maze game with a more aggressive twist. At the start of each level, your character begins walking along a circular arena with four layers that grow smaller as they approach the center. The goal is to either paint all of the tiles in the level by walking over them or eliminate all the enemies. In order to switch between discs, you need to walk on arrow tiles that’ll push you inward or outward. To aid in clearing stages, you can rotate the discs in either direction at will. Most enemies can be defeated by running into them or hitting them as you swap discs, but some require creative tricks like intentionally getting yourself launched or sucked up. Boss fights also occur at the end of each world and these typically require specific approaches while dodging attacks that can threaten entire discs.
EnEn Angel takes place across six worlds with 15 levels each. You don’t have to finish the game in one sitting, but since the goal remains consistent and enemy types get reused frequently, the game begins to get very repetitive. If you’re really hooked, you can go back to collect two toy cards in every single level, which are the primary interest of the rocket-piloting angels you play as. They only appear briefly, but nabbing them lets you combine them and create all sorts of wacky toys. There’s an entire menu dedicated to viewing your collection and you can watch short animations of the angel playing with them. While tacking on a significant amount of time to a game that’s already 90 levels long won’t be appealing to everyone, if you happen to click with EnEn Angel’s quirky gameplay mechanics, there’s an impressive amount of variety and PS1-era charm to latch onto.
