I know absolutely nothing about the Pretty Girls series of games, but from what I can gather, they take classic games – sometimes with enhancements – and whack some questionable manga artwork into the mix. Artwork that consists of unproportioned women – not girls, as the disclaimer points out they’re all adults – in various costumes, all featuring very small mouths.
This particular game is based around the 2048 puzzle game, of which there are dozens of cheap or free alternatives in your favourite app store. The concept involves tilting the board so that tiles slide in one of the four directions, and if two identical numbers slide into each other, they merge, and the tile score is combined. After every slide a new tile is added, and the game is over once the board fills and you are unable to merge any more tiles.
The goal, however, rather than trying to achieve 2048 point tiles, is to ‘battle’ your opponent who exists within a tile on the board. This introduces some tactical elements as the value of the tile that slides into them is taken off their health bar. As the battle progresses, your opponent will often call for help and new enemies join the board, and in later levels, immovable blocks are added to make things more tricky.
The other difference is the introduction of special powers – you can choose your power at the start of each stage and it can be used when feel you’re about to get unstuck. These take a number of turns to build up and can randomise the tiles, merge some at random, and apply damage to your enemies. The most useful however is to sort the remaining tiles into numerical order, which allows you some quick doubling of tiles and shunts your opponents to the bottom.
The game itself is actually quite enjoyable, and it held my attention enough to actually want to finish all fifty stages against your five foes. Trophies are given as you progress after defeating 1, 5, and 10 stages for each opponent. As well as the stages, there are also endless modes featuring differing grid sizes to add some longevity.
As you progress you also unlock points, which can be spent on unlocking costumes, backgrounds, and characters. The main reason for unlocking these is to create your own dioramas if that’s your thing. There are just enough points to be earned from the 50 stages to buy every single item. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the gameplay, but I still felt the ick associated with the artwork.
Pretty Girls 2048 Strike is out now on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for £5.79 // $6.99 // €6.99.
