CY Girls

Aska and Ice show off their destructive wares and feminine wilds in Konami's futuristic sci-fi action game, CY Girls. Here's our hands-on preview.

	Version PS2	Developer Konami	Publisher Konami	Genre Action

By Joseph Jackson

The old adage, "good things come to those who wait" certainly applies to Konami's CY Girls. We've been anticipating CY Girls ever since catching the brief trailer shown at E3 2002. Originally slated for an early 2003 release, CY Girls made its presence felt at E3 2003, with a playable version of the game and photo sessions with the real-life CY Girls.

It's been a long wait since the game's first showing at E3 2002 and unfortunately will be an even longer wait until the game's release in November - but in the meantime we managed to take CY Girls for a spin to see if this Bubblegum Crisis/futuristic Charlie's Angels style game would be worth the wait.

Based on the popular action figures from Takara, CY Girls is a sci-fi action thriller that puts players in the roles of Ice and Aska, two sexy Law Enforcers "fighting crime in the future time". The girls are armed with an assortment of weapons and deadly martial arts moves, as well as the ability to dive into a virtual world to access information and enhance their fighting abilities like in the Matrix movies.

Ice and Aska, thrust into a high-tech futuristic world where both virtual and real worlds co-exist, will have to utilize their brains and bodies to put an end to terrorism in both realms by destroying the evil Syndicate. The action will take the girls from South America to North America and various other places including the Far East where they will need to venture through a series of unique levels that take place in both the real and virtual worlds.

The gameplay delivers the goods. Play as either Ice or Aska, each with their own special attributes and both making quite a deadly combo. Aska specializes in martial arts and swordsmanship, making her ideal for close quarter combat. Ice on the other hand specializes in making things go BOOM! A weapons specialist who is well suited for long range attacks that may require stealth and accuracy.

Playing as either Aska or Ice will allow players to experience different storylines, skill sets, levels and boss characters to provide CY Girls long lasting replayability even after completing it with one of the characters.

After becoming somewhat familiar with the controls of Ice, we were leaping out from behind walls and blasting enemies with ease. The multi directional control allows the girls to move in any direction while performing their attacks. The game featured both manual and auto aiming options, auto aiming made the game easy to get into while manual aiming was a complete chore.

With the use of the analog controls CY Girls offers independent control of character movements and aiming. For example, there was a point in the game where we were knocked to the ground by one of the enemies in the virtual world, and while still on the ground, Ice was able to roll over and aim up at her attacker and blow his head off. A very unique move that we think should be adopted in future action games. Other cool techniques also include show-off moves like Ice's ability to run and shoot in the opposite direction by aiming from underneath her arms.

The shoot out portions of the game were very well implemented as you can hide behind walls during shoot outs, then quickly leap out into open view to nail a few of the enemies before running to hug the walls again. It's the solid controls, sharp, quick movements of the characters along with the convenience of auto aiming that provides the game with some of its fast and fun gameplay elements.

As you make your way through the levels you'll encounter many doors that are either locked or unlocked, restricting or providing access to areas necessary to help your progression through the game. Aiding you with your missions is Sancho Poco, a character who appears in the form of a video transmission at the bottom corner of the screen whenever you enter a room that is of some importance. Sancho instructs you on how to proceed and provides you with important intel throughout your missions.

Visuallt, CY Girls is quite lovely to look at. With the game originally rumored to be running off of a modified Metal Gear Solid 2 engine it's no wonder. Some of the levels we ran through were a bit heavy on the green metallic shading like in the MGS series, and the environments in general had cool futuristic settings. Although what was shown looked a bit early and obviously lacked a little polish in a few areas, the textures and lighting effects were very well done and some of the environments displayed cool effects like that of Ice's animated reflection on the ground as she ran. And look Ma - real animated shadows for the characters, not simplistic cheap little circles!

Ice and Aska were very well modeled, textured and animated quite smoothly, showing off some cool moves and poses during play. The enemy designs were also done quite well, sporting solid modeling, details and shading. Their animations looked quite good, with some well done attack and death animations.

Most of the halls we ran through contained only one enemy character to fight, none of which were challenging at all since they seemed to be equipped with metal pipes as weapons, and against Ice who happens to be armed to the hilt with guns, you get the picture. Fortunately some of the later, more populated areas contained more aggressive enemies equipped with firearms.

There were also some CG style cut-scenes showing a dark mysterious figure trying to thwart the efforts of the CY Girls. Importantly, the scenes included sexy close up shots of the girls.

CY Girls is a top-notch effort on Konami's part so far. Barring any more delays, CY Girls should see a release this November. The wait is killer, just like these divas! Stay tuned to Kikizo for progress reports on the game's development until the game's release.