3x3 Eyes

~ 3X3 EYES ~

NEC Home Electronics / Nihon Create

Arcade-Card-Enhanced Super CD-ROM

1994

If you have an Arcade Card, you should own this game. It doesn't matter whether or not you like digital comics, and it doesn't matter whether or not you're familiar with the 3x3 Eyes manga or anime. Plunk down ten bucks for this CD because it has some of the most amazing cinemas ever to hit the Duo, incredible examples of the sort of theatrics this technology is actually capable of. You won't see animation of this caliber in many other PCE games.

As for the game itself, it's an interesting beast. You have to sit through long, boring stretches where the characters hang around and talk, and then, for brief spurts, ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! Large bugs burrow into people's heads, limbs are severed, bodies are chopped in half, sphinxes and giant lizards and three-eyed girls appear, bathroom walls turn monstrous, beautiful women hurl your character down and have their way with him... it's bloody and crazy, and you'll experience quite a few shocking moments if you play it. You just need to be willing to sit through the slow stuff.

It's possible to get Game Overs, but they're not such a big deal. After playing through the adventure multiple times, taking different paths and reaching different endings, I can recall getting only one Game Over, during the brutal scene where the guy's mother stabs him and the dad beats him down with a golf club.

Still, you'll probably want to keep multiple save files going to avoid finding yourself in a bad position. More annoying than the inclusion of Game Overs is a first-person maze sequence late in the game; I hate when good comics implement this idiotic maze stuff. (You can take a separate path and avoid the maze, but you'll probably end up having to navigate it your first time through.) But to note another positive, there's a handy in-game option under the System command that allows you to see the files currently stored in your backup RAM, how much room they're taking up, and how much free space is available. And, as mentioned a moment ago, you'll probably want to have multiple 3x3 Eyes files going concurrently--not only to sidestep Game Overs but to experience all of the available scenes as well.