Pretty Girls Speed | PS4 Review

If you follow EastAsiaSoft's monthly indie releases you'll have likely heard of a series known as "Pretty Girls". The 'Pretty Girls' series is a series featuring a host of pretty anime girls that act as opponents in various card and board games. There's a few different card spin-offs as well as a mahjong series. Pretty Girls Speed, the game that this review is about, lies with the former category. The card oriented games. 

Those of you like me who have played cards growing up decades ago may have heard of a game called "War". Speed is basically a version of that. Playing it you have to be the first to rid your hand, and deck of all your cards to win. This is achieved by quickly slapping down cards in sequential order upon a growing stack of center cards before your opponent has the chance. Each player starts off with a shuffled half deck worth of cards, and draws four from it. Replacing a used card with a card from the deck every time a card is played. This is done until one player lays down their last card. Subjectively speaking this version of the card game comes complete with ten unique anime girls acting as the players you'll be playing against, Named, and scantily clad. Some sporting ears even. They are your opponents, and through two modes of play they will put your Speed skills to the test ...

Pretty Girls Speed, being the fast paced card game that it is, comes with a tutorial that that contains descriptive text, and imagery that explains away the rules of the game. The only detail worth noting beyond the rules are how cards are played. Each card is assigned to LEFT, UP, DOWN, and RIGHT. In that order. Pressing those buttons when the card can be played will automatically place your card on the center facing card supposing your opponent didn't beat you to it. It's all about speed, and knowing that the sequence of cards can be played forward or reverse with face cards accounted for.

When it comes to modes there are two not so different modes of play. Battle Mode, and Challenge Mode. In both modes the rules stay the same, and have you competing against AI controlled animated, and voiced anime opponents. The only real differences between the two modes being the match length, and setup. Battle Mode is where you'll unlock, and level up the girls by continuously beating them in a best two out of three match. Giving you a ranking, and win percentage as well as placement on the global leaderboards. Times beaten being the score focus there. In contrast Challenge Mode is comprised of 100 one round matches against the whole host of anime girls. These are more about completing goals, and do not really play into the competitive aspect of the experience. Though it is a crucial part of the trophies that you can earn.

Outside of gameplay the offerings are bare minimum. You have a settings menu for sound, and language adjustments as well as a zoom option where you can oogle over the pretty girls in their respective backgrounds. If you like anime, and like waifu type games this might suit your fancy. It's a half anime, and half card game. A hybrid with it's own brand name.

The Verdict ...

I've honestly never really been a big card game fan. That being said the anime aesthetic is definitely appealing. The anime art is a step above Western anime, and certainly has a slightly sexy vibe about it. Nothing overtly sexy though. I think that's what a lot of the series' fans will be looking forward to. The new anime girls. Some gamers may even enjoy the speedy gameplay. For the price you pay you are getting your money's worth, but to be honest it's not the most outstanding thing I've seen released by EastAsiaSoft. You're also not getting any lewd stripping mechanics with this one being it's on the PS4.