Short Reviews - Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: 3nd Impact
By: RJ (@rga_02)
- Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: 3nd Impact
- Developer - Grasshopper Manufacturer
- Publisher - Namco Bandai
- PlayStation Portable
- Rating - CERO C
*Note: This game is in Japanese only.
Here’s a heads up. The core staff of this site….well mostly Omar, Ryan, and I love Evangelion. (Well I’m not sure about Omar, but I’m sure he appreciates it) Heck, our site runs on Evangelion jokes (Editors Note: *insert long rant about what convoluted nonsense Evangelion 3.33 is, even by Eva standards).
3nd Impact is a wonderful rhythm game based around the music featured in the reboot movies. The name is a pun on third impact. With third being pronounced as saado in Japanese and combined with -nd, it is some weird hybrid word that makes it pronounced as sound. So “Sound Impact”. It sounds silly, the name sounds silly, but it’s actually pretty dang good.
3nd Impact has around 30 stages that tells the events of Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance, in chronological order. The songs you hear from these two films are present throughout all stages you play through. Expect to go through a lot of the same songs over and over again such as Angel Attack or Decisive Battle.
The gameplay in 3nd impact is pretty fun. It’s more than just your standard ‘tap the note’, affair that you’d find in a traditional music game. For example, one mode has you syncing up your button mashing to the beats whenever you have control of the UN forces while battling an angel. If you want something a bit more traditional, there is of course the option for the more typical, “press X or O on the screen when prompted mode”.
One game mode I found annoying were the stages that had you scanning characters minds to hear their thoughts. This involved using the joystick to move around the the screen to hit the right note. It gets pretty annoying sometimes when the game doesn’t register your hit. This mode is also downright creepy at times. There is little to no music being played in the background, plus you hear the thoughts of the character assigned to the song. No one wants to hear the thoughts of an overly contemplative Shinj or worse girl such as Rei. After completing a certain amount of songs you get a nice little, “Next time on Evangelion” card. It’s a nice little touch.
The game is fairy quick to complete. It took me about a week with moderate play to complete the game. As for the difficulty, this isn’t a hard music game at all. The only way you can miss notes is if you’re not paying attention to the screen at all. For comparison, easy songs in Project Diva F are much harder than this game.
The game is in Japanese but you don’t need any knowledge of the language to enjoy the game. All you need is a love for Evangelion, the music, and a basic knowledge of how to press buttons. Just make sure the UMD stays in the damn robot….err PSP.