Twinkle Queen - Story Mode (Mifuyu + Ameri)
7Twinkle Queen is a 2D fighting game developed by MileStone (who are primarily known for shoot-em-ups on the Sega NAOMI/Dreamcast). Originally released on August 2010 in Japan for the Nintendo Wii, Twinkle Queen is a crossover fighting game, featuring characters from Shin Koihime Musou, The Devil on G-String, Shukufuku no Campanella, and Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity - all four of which being visual novels with eroge elements that were licensed from their original developers (respectively BaseSon, Akabeisoft2, Windmill Oasis, and Lump of Sugar).
Twinkle Queen is a simple 2v2 tag fighting game. Normal attacks come in three varying strengths (Light (Y), Medium (B), and Heavy (A)), and as in most fighting games, you could also use them for special moves. You also got Moment Protection (in neutral, X or 2X, AIR OK), which acts as a parry that neutralizes opponent attacks (barring throws). Throws are done by pressing Y and X at the same time (YX), and switching characters is done by pressing BA. The latter has a cooldown (you can only tag out if the "Change" icon in the lifebars is flashing), but said cooldown is relatively quick.
You are given three bars of meter when you start each match, which could be then used for super attacks (which uses one bar), the Step Cancel (66 during sucessful normal attacks, uses one bar) which is a move-cancelling technique that's useful for extending combos, and the Solidarity Defense (BA during hitstun/blockstun, uses two bars and you must be able to switch out), which allows you to switch out even during blockstun or hitstun. Other important mechanics include the Solidarity Blow (236BA), which has you switch out with your other character on hit.
0:00 Intro
The OP includes the song "TWINKLE HAPPINESS" by voice actress/singer Yui Sakakibara. Half of the OP introduces the playable cast, and the rest of the intro comprises of character renders bouncing around in the screen. MileStone didn't bother to share anything else interesting, and I found the Wii's health and safety precautions screen (which is in Japanese due to me running a Japanese BIOS) to be more noteworthy.
3:04 Story Mode
Twinkle Queen takes place in this cyberspace full of anime girls, noted to be an "electronic oasis that heals lonely men." One day, the "Fighting Beauty Generator" app Twinkle Queen appeared in this unnamed cyberspace, and that app randomly turns these women into fighting game-like characters. While this process was a nuisance for these girls, the top two characters who survive are granted the ability to make their dreams come true within the cyberspace. Therefore, all the girls in this cyberspace pair up, determined to make their dreams come true. In this video, we play as characters from Tayutama: Mifuyu Kisaragi, the honors student from Flawless, and Ameri Kawai, the easy-going student from Slightly, team up to get their wish granted, and their wish is just them switching roles and personalities (as depicted in the ending).
20:28 End screen
This game is pretty jank. The corners glitch out sometimes after tagging out, which worked out in my favor most of the time because I get to attack/pressure opponents easily. The tag system is also pretty weird - you could even tag out /when you're hit/, making me drop combos in previous runs. However, you are only briefly invincible upon tagging in, meaning that you could still hit your (tagged-in) opponent using long-lasting super attacks.
In theory, this means that you must either rely on short combos that launch the opponent with hard knockdowns to consistently deal damage. That being said, supers are the fastest way to rack up damage, and a good portion of them are long, multi-hit attacks. The most optimal strategy is to save these supers until there's one opponent left, but of course I just ended my combos with supers like half the time and prayed that the CPU doesn't tag out.
Overall, Twinkle Queen is an okay game, but the main issue is that half-circle motions are hard to do - doing Mifuyu combos is hard becuase her optimal meterless combo requires one. Is this game's input detector too strict, or is Dolphin wack in motion inputs? Either way, the fact that I had to make an offering to the kusoge gods to consistently do half-circle inputs in this game killed my enjoyment. A shame, because gameplay and movement overall feels functional IMO - that's not that hard to achieve.
I personally found the game's story more interesting anyways. A cyberspace full of anime girls that appeals to weebs like me? You only included characters from niche eroge visual novels, and none of the shit people ACTUALLY like! I have a full list of ladies that people actually give a fuck about. Here, uhh... checks notes Burnice White from Zenless Zone Zero, Hatsune Miku, uhh... Vegeta from Dragon Ball, Captain Emari from Concord (that one power armor chick everyone makes fun of when they diss modern western triple-A live service flicks), Leiur Darahim from Symphogear GX,