Original Release: Nihon Bussan, Pairs, 1989
Match Two and steer clear of a hideous porker while you try to get the cute girls naked and do rude things to them
Pairs (Arcade, Nihon Bussan, 1989)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: Master-B
Nihon Bussin’ is primarily known for legitimate arcade releases in the 1980s and 90s, perhaps best of all the pioneering Crazy Climber. But the company had an “after dark” side that came out from time to time, and Pairs is one of those releases.
It’s definitely more creative than the usual arcade peepshow title of the time, all the more so for using a basic match-2 card game as its base. The goal of each level is to find the cute girlie faces, but it’s actually better to put that off a bit to build up money (more on that in a bit) and points, as well as providing opportunity to replenish your lost lives.
One of the twists that makes it interesting is that you get an ever-so-brief peek at the cards before each level begins; however, hit a Nuke card and everything will be randomly shuffled up on you. You also want to avoid the pig-girl antagonist as you lose a heart instantly for uncovering one of her cards … but if you know the location of another one, matching two actually restores three of your hearts (with a rather Shiren the Wanderer-ish sound).
The other creative (or at least funny) twist is the shady pervert dealers of SEXUAL TORTURE DEVICES in between levels. The coins you come across in the levels are put to use here, as you choose an object to buy to harass the girlie of the moment with (leading to some amusing animations).
The game isn’t good for more than an evening’s light entertainment, as after you see each of the two scenes with the five or six girls it just loops back through them with harder levels (a greater number of cards, and more Nukes and Pig Girls scattered into the mix). And I’m not sure it even has an ending, if it does it’s much farther in than I was willing to play it. Definitely worth a look for laughs though, Nihon put some effort into making this one entertaining.
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