Princess Punt Sweets: If you Liked Angry Birds, You'll Get a Kick Out of This Japanese Game

There’s a wacky creativity behind some Japanese-made games that I really enjoy. It’s the same humorous spirit that went into Ponus’s Battle Cats, and I suppose its probably the same sort of notion that led earlier pioneers to create strange characters like Mario Bros and Kirby.

I couldn’t help but think about those games as I tried to rationalize what must have been going through the minds of the folks at Gung Ho Entertainment (JASDAQ:3765) when they came up with Princess Punt, an unusual game where you play a princess who sends her heroes into battle with a good swift kick. Gung Ho’s recent follow-up, Princess Punt Sweets, is my first introduction to the strange mobile game. So far since its release earlier this week, Princess Punt Sweets has been doing well on the charts in Japan, becoming the top free iOS app on Monday, where it currently still sits. The title is in Japanese only, but you can play the previous Princess Punt in English if you’d like.

While I like the creative character concept, the game clearly borrows very liberally from Rovio’s Angry Birds. The princess’s kick is pretty much the same mechanic as Rovio’s slingshot, and some of the enemy structures can look pretty similar at times as well. In addition, the three star rating for level completion is very much like Angry Birds. But I guess half the mobile game devs in the world are using this by now.

Where Princess Punt Sweet has made an improvement, however, is by putting enemies together in sequence in a round. So when you have finished punting your way past the first group of bad guys, you simple run past whatever is left of them to face the next enemies in that particular level. There are also gacha elements in the game, as well as the ability to level up your heroes as you progress through levels. I should note that I experienced a few error alerts when playing, so at this early stage it looks like there are still some bugs to work through.

As you may know, Gung Ho is best known for its hit game Puzzles and Dragons. I have yet to get really hooked on that title, but it’s available on the US App Store if you’d like to give it a try. If Princess Punt Sweets can manage even a fraction of the popularity of Puzzles and Dragons, then I’m sure everyone at Gung Ho will be delighted.