Money Puzzle Exchanger

The Good
This port is very faithful to the Arcade original in regards to game mechanics and interface. Adding to it are three difficulty modes, so you don’t need to mess with dip switches or BIOS as you do on the arcade. Even with a game pad, you can comfortably play just as efficiently as you could with a digital joystick and plunger buttons. An extra bonus is that you can play as any of the eight characters against the CPU as opposed to only playing as them against a second player.

The Bad
As the Story Mode curtain unveils, the features that break this port begin to show. Between gameplay you are staring at lazily produced dithered photographic backgrounds with still and static images of Asashi and Sakura. It’s basically about those two picking fights against other people forming a crime ring which nobody has ever heard of. And a finishing double whammy is both main characters fighting each other over Sakura’s selfish, douchey actions. What a beautiful and cheaply produced plot that isn’t even derived from the manga.

Worsening this plot is that it puts the characters in a seemingly random order so you sometimes fight easy opponents and the next moment you fight hard opponents, not in line with the gradual increase of difficulty you got in the arcade version.

The Bottom Line
Frankly this is where a bad budget went into this game and what it both brought and didn’t bring really messed it up. At the end of the day, FACE really couldn’t save face with this port or make the best of the CD’s space, let alone the PlayStation’s capabilities. A lesson is learned that not all console ports at home can capture an arcade perfect experience. No one is currently missing an English dub of this one.