Shuttlecock-H | Nintendo Switch

EastAsiaSoft is at it yet again. Trying to lure in an audience of wayward weeaboos with lite Western Hentai in the form of a half-baked game. The old adage, "Sex Sells" comes to mind often with these types of releases, and I have no doubt it may still very will find it's buyers despite what I'm about to say. 

With "Shuttlecock-H" art and gameplay gimmicks are of base level indie design. Almost like asset flips. Low effort material with spicy content included for the thrills. In it the developer reverse engineers the shmup genre, and turns it into a collect-a-thon with a dodgeball focus. 

You basically collect groups of five hearts that appear onscreen for a limited time while dodging bullet hell that shoots by faster than your ship is able to move. There's a certain number of hearts to collect per stage, and a certain number of the series of five hearts that must be obtained for that perfect playthrough. Your only ways of achieving this is by dodging bullets, and other hazards while utilizing a boost mechanic that doesn't even seem to work.

Stages are divided up, as per usual, by a host of hotblooded female characters. A student, a nurse, and an HR manager that feeds into the various fetishes that weeaboos fantasize about. The girls, or women included each come complete with a bio of enticing details about who they are and what it is they are seeking. Like a Tinder profile. It's got the hobbies, occupations, and all that jazz. 

With each girl comes a set of stages in which the goal is to dodge bullets, and hazards while collecting hearts. The hearts fill up a meter, and in filling up that meter the player will unlock lightly animated scenes of the sexual kind wherein skin is bared, and textual flirtation is shared. Before each stage starts the girls all pop-in for a brief sexual pun, and some sultry words of encouragement. And as you succeed in winning them over via hearts collected they reveal more and more of themselves in a striptease-like fashion. Stuff that can later be viewed in the game's gallery.

In the way of modes the game features a main mode, and additional CR levels. The CR levels, or "Covered Rematch" levels are apparently the censored versions of the nudity inclusive stages. For those of you who want to buy a perverted video game, and pretend you are not perverted in buying it. Outside of the two modes lies the Gallery, and it is here where all unlocked art is collected for your viewing pleasure. Those naughty pics being the whole driving force behind the experience.

The Verdict ...

This game comes off as a cheaply made cash grab with minimal effort applied. It banks on sex appeal, and faux-anime art to lure weeaboos in for the purchase. It's gimmicky, and poorly created given the style of gameplay they were going after. Even getting some shots of the girl's butt cheeks, and them simulating riding a "Shuttlecock" does little to impress a guy like me, and I could tell you of some entertainment from my alternate adult review site that would easily make this game look less than by comparison. 

I think if you're going to sell sex you need to go all out. If you're going to sell a game then sell a game. Don't try to do one over the other though. It leads to an experience that is shallow. There are ways to make this sort of thing work though, and you can include nudity/sexual themes without it overshadowing gameplay. At the end of the day I feel this game failed in that it sacrificed focus on actual gameplay elements for a focus on flirtatious f***ery. That's my opinion. Also this Western anime isn't impressive to true anime fans. EastAsiaSoft's developers need to commission some actual anime artists. That, at least, would be more worth buying into.