Out of pure coincidence, both Kidokoro and Kirie finished Final Fantasy 13 at around the same time.
We found this to be a good opportunity to do, for the first time on our blog, a joint review.
As we had a lot to say about the game, this article is longer than usual.
I just wrote a review on Trash Panic a few days ago, but the review today is on a slightly arranged version (available at PlayStation Store Japan) called “100-yen GOMIBAKO.”
As the name suggests, the cost is 100yen, which will give you 3 credits, just like an arcade game. with 1 credit, you’ll be able to play up until end of Stage 3.
There are 2 courses: the “Regular Gomibako” and the “Harden Steel Gomibako.” The “Regular” course is just like the normal Trash Panic where you’d play with the blue garbage can. The “Harden Steel” on the other hand is, as the official website suggests, for “complete beginners.” That’s no lie, as it’s much easier to crash the garbage, and it’s pretty cool to see how easily garbage would burn or decompose.
Given the greatly reduced difficulty level and how pretty much anyone can enjoy the destruction of garbage (which certainly is the beauty of this game in my humble opinion), 100-yen GOMIBAKO seems like a better deal than the normal version, but this isn’t the only pro side of this version. Completing “Regular” will earn you some reward items you can use in PlayStation Home (determined by score and rating upon completion), and completing “Harden Steel” will earn you the “Harden Steel Can,” an item which is extremely difficult to earn in the normal version of the game. However, you must have a save file for the normal Trash Panic to earn the “Harden Steel Can” (meaning you had to have purchased Trash Panic first, create a save file, and then play 100-yen).
If you have an account with PlayStation Store Japan, and are debating whether to buy Trash Panic or not, I would suggest trying out the 100-yen GOMIBAKO first. As I mentioned earlier, 100 yen will get you 3 credits, so spend a credit to try it out, and if you like it, purchase the normal version and use the remaining credits to earn the rewards. Unlike an arcade, you don’t have to use up all 3 credits in one go.
If you have an account with the North American PlayStation Store, you could probably consider yourself lucky, since there is a playable demo of Trash Panic available (which, by the way, is not something offered in its Japanese counterpart).
As I was browsing through PlayStation Store (Japan), I noticed that this particular game was on sale as part of a campaign to celebrate the release of the slim PS3 (note: it was a limited time offer until Sept. 17, 2009; the price is now back to the original).
I’ve been curious about this game for a while, and this stuck me as a perfect opportunity for purchase.
The concept of the game is quite simple: trash falls from top of the screen, you chuck them in the trash can until you reach a certain amount.
However, it does drive your brain cells nuts to an extent, as it calls for usage of various techniques in order to cram more stuff into the can before it starts overflowing: you can “crash” the trash either by dropping them from up high or by hitting other trash already in the can, set trash on fire using a source of fire (cigarettes, torch) and flammable objects (toilet paper, oil), or decompose them by throwing in a special item into water which triggers decomposition.
At the end of each stage, you’ll either be rated as an EGO Player (by using techniques that harm the environment, such as burning) or an ECO player (by using eco-friendly techniques such as decomposition). This seems to me as if it’s a bit of a reflection on the recent ECO-movement (ie. preservation of environment, recycling/reusing materials, etc) that’s somewhat prominent in not only Japanese society (of where this game originates from), but also in North-American society (just how many of you carry one of those reusable grocery bags nowadays?)
The game uses a motif like trash, which is something we see commonly in our daily lives, and preserves its original characteristics, and even tweaks with the background (such as the shelves in the office) as you “compact” the trash, which looks rather realistic to me. Yet, you also see a rather nonsensical side when you end up seeing completely random objects in a stage (eg. katanas, dynamite, and fish lying around in an office), which enhances the amusement factor of the game.
Overall, the game is fun – smashing things in to pieces and blowing up random objects, how can that not be fun? However, I do want to note that this might be a bit of a tough game for beginners, given that even the easiest level (“SWEETS” in the Japanese version) is hard to beat. Also… might I be the only one thinking that the trophies are rather hard to achieve from this game?