Prinny 1+2 is far from a bomb, dood
Taking Prinny for a spinny
Prin Prinnery Prin Prinnery Prin Prin Prinny, you're off on a quest to reclaim some panties. Yes! The extremely dubiously-titled Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! has been rescued from PSPurgatory to p-p-p-pick up a penguin package on Nintendo Switch; the Prinny 1+2: Exploded and Reloaded compilation, containing both 2008's Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? and its aforementioned 2010 sequel.
They're sold separately on Switch, but can be purchased as a double pack - and, if you're interested in the series, you might as well get 'em, because these are a couple of stonkers as far as I'm concerned (and they don't differ much at all). They're mostly known for their sheer difficulty, which isn't unfair - the Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts-esque double-jumping is extremely stiff by design, and some people will simply bounce off them, but I'm no master gamer and I made it through to the end of them both with a little perseverance. It's tough stuff, but there are plenty of checkpoints to take the edge off a little.
Both games feature many, many different routes through them, which affects the difficulty of each level, and the dialogue you'll see. It's all rather fun-filled and well-written, too, which adds a lot of fun to your journey through both games. It's a very mechanically simple experience, meaning it's easy to get the hang of but extremely difficult to master. The challenge is fed into the narrative, too, as your crew of 1000 Prinnies attempt to reclaim the Ultra Dessert or (deep, rattling sigh) recover Etna's pantsu.
Between stages you'll be able to mess around in the hub world, collecting extremely difficult-to-reach items, catching up on the lore or trading in your Lucky Dolls, critters found in triplicate on each stage that require the use of a butt-slam move to wake them up. This same move, when applied to an enemy's noggin, will keep you in the air and fill up a combo meter that will eventually grant you items and bonuses if you manage to keep the chain of death going. Wahey!
As for the Switch ports, they're... good. The visuals look the same, with the 2D sprites still sub-HD and blurry, but they work. I didn't expect the whole game would be redrawn anyway, but I thought there'd be some sort of new feature. Unless "is playable on a TV now" counts. All the DLC from the PSP originals is here too, which is nice - I personally never spent a lot of time playing the Asagi modes, as they seemed to be some sort of Nippon Ichi Software in-joke I didn't get. Then again I didn't get all that Disgaea business, either, but here I am enormously enjoying this Prinny collection. It's nice to see lesser-known titles like this get another go around the block, and the Switch is a perfectly perfect home for this rough little run through an oppressively world of double-jumps, butt-stomps, blade flurries and getting killed by the flying enemies all the time because THEY'RE VERY, VERY ANNOYING INDEED.
So, yes. Prinny. Very good. Shame about the undercrackers, mind.
A review copy of this game was provided by the publisher.
