Oneechanbara VorteX - Kiketsu o Tsugu Monotachi / Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad - Xbox 360 (2007)

American Cover

Japanese Cover

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

With the third Oneechanbara game for the Xbox 360, the series not only steps into HD, but also tries to leave the budget gaming ghetto in lieu of a full priced release...at least, in Japan. (It was released at retail for $40 when it came to the USA, cheaper than the usual $60, but still not exactly "budget" range.) This proves a little over ambitious, because while it definitely looks better than the PS2 games, it's still far from fancy. The high res, widescreen visuals are nice, but the levels are still boxy, and the textures are still bland. The only other discernable visual improvement are the extra blood effects, which now splatter directly on the screen and ooze off slowly. It's not without its technical issues either. It tries to run at 60 FPS like its predecessors, but that usually cuts in half when fighting more than a couple of enemies - which is most of the time - and there are various other instances of slowdown and screen tearing. The load times are pretty long too, but there's a fun little minigame where you guide a tiny, sprite of Aya chopping through hordes of zombies, which actually give a tiny bit of experience. There are now a few computer animated cutscenes which go way overboard on the fan service - the game begins with Aya showering, then running out naked to view a news report, all while parts of the scenery conveniently cover her naughtiest bits, Austin Powers-style. But even those are poorly implemented and suffer from screen tearing despite being full motion video! The other improvements are fairly minor. The map functionality has improved again, showing you locked and unlocked doors. Each character also has an alternate moveset - Aya can wield two swords at once, for example. There are a few poorly implemented motorcycle stages. The main quest is also slightly longer than normal, offering twenty stages instead of just six. Aya and Saki are still playable characters, with Annna (or Anna, take your pick) making her debut. She's a cop in a miniskirt who wields not one but three weapons - dual pistols, a submachine gun and a shotgun - which allows for a little more offensive variation. Instead of getting blood on her sword, each weapon has a limited clip which needs to be reloaded after being emptied. There are three additional playable characters - Reiko, Himiko, and Misery, one of the bosses. But in the grand scam of the HD generation, they're all paid downloadable content. The game offers you all playable characters, along with the bonus costumes for a "deal" of 1900 points - nearly $20! It's not THAT bad considering that the previous rereleased editions tried to sell you a barely upgraded version for approximately the same price, but it's still skeezy. Blame Namco's The Idolmaster for popularizing their excessively DLC for setting an unfortunate precedent in the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace. This version was published in early 2007 in Japan, but wasn't localized until late 2008, when it was renamed "Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad" and released alongside the Wii version. These are the only two thus far to be released in North America.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

Oneechanbara Revolution / Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers - Xbox 360 (2007)

American Cover

Japanese Cover

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

As one might expect, the big draw of the Wii version of Oneechanbara are the waggle controls. Each sword strike is executed with a Wiimote thrust or slash, which actually fits pretty well with the rather brainless action. Technically you're supposed to time each slash in order to deal more powerful blows, but you can shake it haphazardly and it usually works pretty well. The graphics are definitely better than the PS2 versions, and roughly equivalent to the Xbox 360 version running in standard definition, but without any of the technical issues. There aren't any full motion video clips, replaced with the scrolling text and narration from the earlier games. There are four characters total - Aya, Saki, Misery and Reiko, each with their own story mode with eight chapters each. In order to keep with the plot, there is no character switching in story mode, although you can enable it when you're replaying stages in Free Play, allowing you to pick whomever you choose. The dressup mode of the Xbox 360 version is also gone, but at least there isn't any cheap DLC copouts. The suspend save function is gone, replaced with shrines throughout each stage where you can save your game. Like the 360 version, the Wii version was released in Japan at full price, but included a soundtrack CD. In North America, it was released at a slightly cheaper $30 price tag, but without the CD.

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

The Oneechanbara was immortalized in film in two different movies. The first, released in 2007 and simply called The Oneechanbara, fleshes out what little backstory was in the games and tries to fill a whole ninety minute movie. It stars Eri Otoguro as Aya, Chise Nakamura as Saki, and Minami Hosokawa as Reiko. The world is taken over by zombies due to a virus unleashed by the D3 Corporation (the game's publisher in both Japan and North America.) Aya and her fat sidekick wander throughout Japan, looking for survivors and slaying zombies in the process. In particular, Aya is looking for her sister Saki, who killed their father and is presently being experimented on by an evil doctor. Aya bumps into Reiko at some point, the two join forces, and more chaos ensues until the climactic Aya vs. Saki showdown at the end. The fight scenes do a decent job of emulating the action of the game, filled with cheesy, low grade CG effects like sparks, sword slashes, and extreme amounts of blood. They're all pretty stupid, especially in the end when Aya starts glowing red and flying all over the place, but they're all in good fun. However, these encompass a fraction of the movie's length though, and the rest is almost astonishingly boring. It's dark, it's slow paced, and the few attempts at humor fall flat. It's strange that the moviemakers could take such a goofy concept and almost completely rob the fun out of it. This piece of trash was actually released in the theaters in Japan. It's known under different titles around the world, including Zombie Killer - Sharp as a Sword, Sexy as Hell in Germany, and Chanbara Beauty in the United Kingdom. In North America, it's tied in with the Xbox 360 game, entitled Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad. A second film, Oneechanbara VorteX, was released in 2009 as a straight to DVD flick, and is currently not available in any other language. It stars a completely new cast with a storyline apparently unconnected to the first movie, since Reiko is still alive, after being infected and dramatically killed by Aya in the previous movie. The special effects here are actually worse, but at least there's more action and less aimless wandering around. Since it's based off the Xbox 360, it adds Misery to the cast members.

Japanese Poster Japanese Poster

The Oneechanbara Mobile - Mobile Phones

This mobile version of the Oneechanbara appears to be a shooting gallery using anime-stylzed versions of the characters.

The Oneechanbara Mobile

The Oneechanbara

Oneechanbara VorteX

Despite the overly suggestive overtones (and a fair bit of fan service), there's no actual nudity in the Oneechanbara games. That is, until Playboy requested some pictures for their online reviews. D3 supplied them with a hastily drawn picture and a poorly done photoshop for their effort. Naturally, fans have picked up the slack in producing several comics and figurines. So far, the series has shown itself to be fairly exploitable, and it's not like TamSoft has anything better to do, so future installments are pretty likely. Links D3 Publisher The official Japanese site Oneechanbara Movie Official English site of the movie.

Aya Figure