The many top-heavy characters of Senran Kagura are back once again and this time around they’re no longer engaging in over-the-top combat and instead are doing over-the-top cooking in the ryhthm game, Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! for Playstation Vita. A digital-only game for the handheld that maintains the flashy and ridiculous nature of Senran Kagura, but in a cooking competition. Button-mashing is still present as well, but you’ll be doing so on beat and in tune with the music. Certainly a different direction in terms of gameplay, but I would say Senran Kagura Bon Appetiti! is a fairly good rhythm game.

The concept is simple, even for how ridiculous it is all presented. The characters of the Senran Kagura universe compete with each in various cook-offs. Each character has their own story and reasons for participating and wanting to win the competition. These story experiences are featured in the game’s story mode. You can also opt in to the Arcade mode which features the same battles in story, but without the story parts. Then there’s Free Mode where you can pick your own battles to play through.

These cook-offs are where the gameplay happens, you’ll see two horizontal bars at the bottom of the screen. When the music starts, directions and buttons will slowly appear and scroll towards the left on either line and you’ll need to tap the appropriate button on time, hold it for a specific amount of time, or mash it depending on the type of note. Like most rhythm games, you’ll earn a rating based on your timing like Perfect, Great, Fine, and Bad. Notes could also appear at the same time on both lines, which amps up the difficulty. The game will also be keeping track of your combo, where only earning a Bad will lose your combo. As you hit notes on beat, you’ll be building up your Ninja Arts meter which you activate with the L or R button. Once activated, you’ll earn bonus points, and the Ninja Art will stay active and increase in level as long as you keep your combo going, and will disappear once you miss a note. A battle gauge, shown at the top of the screen, keeps track of who is currently winning the battle. Maintaining combo and good timing are key to winning.

Songs in the game are tied to the character you are up against. The base game will feature two of the four ninja schools, so that’s a total of 10 songs. With the other two clans being available as DLC for an additional 10, and two more through another DLC pack. Three difficulties are tied to each song with the usual Easy, Medium, and Hard settings.

The Good: What Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! lacks in combat, it makes up in food. The ridiculous nature of combat found normally in these Senran Kagura games is kept well intact in these cooking battles. As the battle progresses you’ll see the characters cooking at fast speeds in the background which may get distracting during gameplay for that added challenge. Even the reactions from the food judge and the food portions presented are a show in itself. That typical Senran Kagura craziness is nicely represented in this game.

Those familiar with Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus will know that there is a lot of DLC for that game. Dressing up your characters with various outfits and hairstyles. That is all present in Bon Appetit! since all purchased DLC is compatible. So you can dress up characters in your same favorite outfit that you did in the other game. This also applies to character DLC, in which the two additional characters will earn you two more songs for play. It should be noted though that only one of the two DLC characters will be unlocked. In order to unlock the other DLC character, you’ll need to purchase the additional Bon Appetit! DLC that features the other two classes. Even with that said, it’s nice to see that DLC purchases will work for both games.

In terms of rhythm games, Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! provides a nice challenge for genre veterans. However, there is a bit of a difficulty spike in the final battle found in story mode on Normal. Caught me off guard a bit, but I didn’t find it too difficult to warrant frustration. Other than that, I found the overall difficulty in Bon Appetit! pretty good. Once you’re familiar enough with the game and the music, HARD songs are doable. With the main challenge being able to maintain a high combo throughout the song. I’ve managed to get full combos on a couple songs in Normal and Hard, which was very satisfying. It’s also nice that you can’t fail a song during play, since the final third round decides the victor. So those playing to learn patterns will be able to do so without needing to worry about a life meter.

The Bad: While I did find the controls simple and straightforward, there is a small problem I had with it. That’s with the “Mash” notes that require you to mash the noted button a certain amount of times in order to complete the note. While it says to mash, the game doesn’t actually keep track of your mashes in real-time. I’ve had instances where I was mashing as fast as I can, but only two or three notes would have registered over that time. Slowing my button presses down a bit and having a bit more rhythm to it, the game registered them more properly. So that minor thing took some getting use to, but I still found it a bit off-putting since the word “Mash” is tied to it. This also applies to parts where notes appear closely together, where pushing buttons too fast won’t register in the game. So there’s a small learning curve with those parts, but became less of an issue once I got used to it.

One thing that might push back rhythm fans from checking out Bon Appetit! might be the amount of songs and cost. As I said before, there are 10 songs available in the base game, which costs $14.99. With an extra 12 being found through DLC, which costs $5.99 and $14.99. So you’re looking at a total cost of over $35 for 22 songs for the full Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! experience. A bit costly compared to the Project DIVA series which feature over 40 songs for around the same price. That’s not to say Bon Appetit! is not worth investing in, which is an entirely different matter. Just something to keep in mind for those cost-centric folks.

At this point, people should already know if the Senran Kagura series is for them. Things like characters losing their clothes and saying suggestive things are still found in this title. There’s even a part in the game that features the characters in lewd positions and only covered in food. So needless to say, if that stuff bothers you, it will still bother you in this game. I would even say that stuff is more present in this game than in previous. This is a rhythm game, but it is still very much a Senran Kagura game. On the other hand, fans of those things will continue to enjoy them in Bon Appetit!.

Overall Thoughts: I enjoy rhythm games and I enjoy Senran Kagura. While I never would have thought to put the two together in a cooking battle setting, Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! turned out to be a very enjoyable title. While I wouldn’t say it will dethrone the Project DIVA series as the go-to rhythm game on Vita, Bon Appetit! features it’s own set of appeal and challenge that can still satisfy rhythm game fans. The songs are catchy and the presentation is ridiculous that it just added to my overall enjoyment. Helps to be into Senran Kagura, but not entirely needed. Overall, Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! is a rhythm game that’s definitely worth checking out.