The Sega Ages series has brought us a lot of great games, such as the excellent port of Virtua Racing and Outrun. However, there is a lot more than can be done and the release of Sega Ages Ichidant-R shows a step in the right direction.Puzzle and Action Ichidant-R was originally a Japan only game from Sega for console and arcade that saw players go through a series of minigames in a small time limit. These minigames wouldn’t be like a boxing game or racing or something like that, no they would be a sort of microgame that you would play for a brief time in quick succession. Now where have we heard that before?
Yes, Ichidant-R has a lot of similarities to the beloved WarioWare series, albeit from slightly different directions. But what sets Ichidant-R apart is that it feel like it is at heart, an arcade game. There are minigames such as shooting down UFOs, hunt for vampires, or finding the correct puzzle pieces and moving them with a crane. The design of the games is done in a way to throw you off and keep you coming back for more, like a quarter muncher. The difference between Ichidant-R and WarioWare boils down to this, since that game was designed for a handheld system while Ichidant-R was made for arcades and had to position the minigames differently.
But is Ichidant-R fun? Oh my yes, the Puzzle and Action series has an amazing polish to it that was not present in most arcade games at the time. Once you realize how the games function, you start to really get into the motions. You will want to keep going and completing as many minigames as you can before getting out, and the flow of the games becomes very inviting. Fans of Nintendo’s series will no doubt be very interested in Ichidant-R, because of this, but so will people who want that quick pick up and play experience. M2 also included a Japanese Mega Drive port of the game as well, which is slightly different but is untranslated. It is a nice bonus and I like that M2 went so far as to include this.
Overall, Ichidant-R is a great port to Switch for the Sega Ages series and one I highly recommend. You will not regret checking this one out.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided