Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 38:22

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Dance Gameplay at 18:05 and 31:08. The rest is the opening and Adventure footage.

"Musou Kagaku Series Wandaba Style: Totsugeki! Mix -Ki- Juice" or "Wacky Science Fiction Series Wandaba Style: Charge! Mix Juice Live" is a prequel to the relatively obscure Anime/OVA/Drama series, Wandaba Style. Wandaba Style is about a group of aspiring female singers who lived very different lives until they came in contact with a sleazy talent agent and a genius teenage billionaire. Himawari Natsuwa is a modest beauty and talented Enka Balladeer. Fuyude Yuri is a busty rebellious J-Pop & Rock singer who constantly gets fired from her gigs due to her desire to defy and outshine those around her. Ayame Akimo is an eccentric modern folk singer. And Sakura Haruno is the shortest, eldest member of the quartet with a smart mouth and the only member with any prior success in the music industry (being a nursery singer, she is somewhat spoiled by her success as a result).

All down on their luck, they stumble across Michael Hanagata who agrees to sign them up under the band name of "Mix Juice" and take their lives to new heights due to the endorsement of Dr. Susumu Tsukumo, a thirteen year old billionaire who agrees to back them on the condition that they help get his ideas out to the mainstream public. His agenda? To be the first man to officially land on the moon in a rocket that doesn't use fossil fuels or pollute the Earth and to have the girls be the first to sing in outer space. If this doesn't put them on the map, then nothing will!

Published by D3Publisher and developed by HuneX in 2003, Wandaba Style was released as part of the "Simple Series Ultimate" line-up. The game was released for only 2,000 yen and its target demographic is teenagers and young children. Marketed as a "Dancing Adventure" title, the game includes many of the characters from the Anime/OVA, 15 original songs for the game, and various CGs and unlockables that are spread out between the game's two main modes: "The Adventure Mode" (reminiscent to your typical Japanese adventure title with loads of text and occasional decision-making) and "The Dance Mode" (similar to your typical Rhythm/Bemani game). In the game's prologue, the gals are arguing about who should be the first to debut (and unsuccessfully attempt to resolve the issue through a game of Jan-ken-pon) while Susumu and his android assistant (Kiku No.8 or "Kiku-chan") discuss plans with the manager (in this case, the player) on how they can take Mix Juice further. After a basic team gig, you choose which character's story you wish to follow, where you dive deeper into each character's life and earn CGs based on the answers to the character's responses.

Neither segment is particularly great. The adventure segments basically consist of five to fifteen minutes worth of typical dialogue on single screens with few cutscenes or changes in venue in-between and the game doesn't really introduce any original characters, though I like how the segments are introduced in episodic anime fashion. The graphics of the adventure scenes are decent, but not much else. The dancing segments are considerably worse however. While the songs are nice in and of themselves, they are at a considerably lower quality than the opening movie song (Love Communication) and the game mechanics are flawed. Unlike traditional games like Parappa, Gitaroo, Beatmania, Dance Dance, or others where timing is paramount and largely accurate, this game is different; the timing is not only off (meaning the exact timing to score perfects is not exactly known) but you are not penalized for hitting the button too soon or too late, meaning you can button mash and hit every key, removing virtually any aspect of rhythm associated with the game. The graphics in the dancing segments aren't great, but it's an interesting alternative to your typical 3D models or trippy backdrops with arrows speeding about. The characters have basic animations and dance moves, but appear quite pixilated when the camera zooms in and out.

Suffice to say, the game isn't perfect, but at 2,000 yen, the game is hard not to recommend. You can unlock fifteen nice songs, various in-game cutscenes, and also play the "Dance Mode" to play the songs you played in the story, and those things alone are worth the price (even though they would later make a music CD with tracks from this game). As a whole however, there are better Simple Series and/or budget titles. This video shows the first few dances. Enjoy.