I feel a bit bad enjoying this game so much.

Here are some of the spots for a critical hit on the first three:

1st: right below the eye
2nd: at eye level
3rd: middle of the chin

If anyone could figure out the other two...

You say "Don't over-analyze this game". I just don't know. You are probably right. But when my girlfriend tried it and said : "I didn't felt so much violence in a game for a long time", I understood (and I play a lot of violent games ! :-) ).

I don't think I am politically correct (especially in games), but do you think there is absolutly no "problem" with this game ? I know it has a great gameplay, good design and so on, but still. It's just some questions I have... And I'm not sure of the answer. Maybe I'm just over-analyzing.

I love this game. It's super simple, and really fun. Now if you're going to over analyze the game, then look at it like this. For one, I think people who do have a problem with the game are looking at it from the point of view such as, "You shouldn't hit women". The game is two women slapping each other. I could understand if it was a man character slapping a women character. If it was two men in the game slapping each other I don't think anybody would have as much of a problem with it. In my personal opinion, I feel nobody should hit anybody, not just men shouldn't hit women, but I also believe women shouldn't hit men, women women, men men... You get the idea.

BUT IT'S JUST A GAME TO GET OUT YOUR FRUSTRATIONS. It's better to slap people in a game than in real life. So that's my stance on the game. It's fun, don't look more into it than that.

On a side note, my mouse doesn't like the quick motions you need for this game, so thats a small downside for me. But that's a hardware problem, not a game problem.

Someone PLEASE find a translation, I need to know the story.

Erwan: Yes, you are over-analyzing it. Didn't I tell you not to do that?

I find it interesting that the comments so far discuss who may or may not be offended and why... yet nobody has said they are offended!

Agreed Labyrinth... getting out frustrations is a great use for the game. The quick mouse motions are really the strength of the game, since it involves you in the slapping action viscerally.

Wait, now I'm over-analyzing the game.

This game is quite fun! It kind of reminds me of that samurai game where you slashed with your mouse movements.

4th,

5th,

A single red rose, stirring music, paragraphs of untranslated Japanese and...gosh....someone should teach these ladies the art of competitive flower arranging...or the use of nunchaku.

The game itself is a parody of the french themed shojo mangas/anime (girls comics/animations)like The Rose of Versailles or the bizarre but enjoyable Revolutionary Girl Utena. I can remember quite a few different shojos where the female characters would get into an argument which would end in a slap fight. (Of course, usually only one or two slaps occurred.) The art style, setting, story and production values are all very much similar.

Need a translation and all the critical targets!

I actually found this a crap game. You basically just click a lot. BFW. I still have Diablo II installed if I want to inflict mindless violence by clicking the mouse a lot.

Wow. I could NOT stop LAUGHING while playing this game!! Too bad it's not part of the flash game design competition. I think it has a lot of replay value simply because it is just too funny not to play more than a few times :)

This is the coolest game ever! For those of you who are offended, its no worse than any other fighting game... political correctness has made people too sensitive...

and for those of you who think the game is too simple, there's a lot more to it... the faster you move the mouse and as far as I can tell the closer you follow the original arc pictures the more powerful the hit... and now I see people are finding critical areas... it's really like a fast paced game with a drawing mechanic

OH THAT WAS FUN!!!! I was cackling like a fiend by the third round. What a blast!

Yeah, this game was amazing. Fast, fun and strangely hilarious.

It's a little bit weird how counter-attacking is much more safe and effective then pure attacking.

This game just BEGS for a Hollywood sequel. You know what I'm talking about. Female-dog slap.

How in the world do you defeat the last woma- thing?

See, this is why I hate optical mouses. I want a good old fashioned mouse with the BALL on the bottom, but I haven't seen one in YEARS. I've always disliked optical mouses--you need to find the right surface for them with enough interest for the mouse to pick up that it's moving, and it jumps sometimes if the color doesn't change on the surface your'e using...

I tried this with my touchpad, not too bad, reached the fourth woman, but I read that I needed a mouse, so I plugged mine in, and I couldn't get past the second woman. The optical mouse wouldn't read a THING in the motions I was making. Super peeved!!!!!

Can I analyze your wish not to analyze this game?

Jacob: Use a piece of paper. That's an ideal surface for an optical mouse.

This should be put out on the Wii. And this from someone who can't even use the Wii!

A proper mouse is critical, my foot. :P

I beat the game with a laptop mouse

I'm more interested in who exactly the fifth woman is. I can understand the sister, the mother, the maid, the haunted grandmother, and... the blob's wife?

This is too much fun XD The music goes very well with the game, captures the feeling of a noble family feud hahaha. I like the slapping sound too, very realistic~ It's funny how a simple game like this has so much replay value (at least for me). It should be in the casual gameplay contest!

I finally beat the game on my third try~

Wow, I just tried it. Neat game!

This is not about political correctness. This is about violence toward women, which we have too much in this world already. It really doesn't matter if it's a woman slapping another woman. The truth is, slapping is a very personal insult done against another human being.

I don't like it one bit. No offence to the people who do. When we have the freedom to design games and enjoy them, we have the responsibility to stop, take a second to rethink what this is about.

to beat the last boss:
she dodges quite a lot, so the best way to get her is countering, so attack, dodge, counter. countering is like a second attack, letting you retaliate. the best way to beat her is to dodge her attacks, then counter, bringing the mouse across her face so fast and hard you get that white line across her face. that doesn't mean she's defeated though, so keep on pounding away to defeat her. Oh, yeah. once, she defeated me in one hit, so dodge her attacks or else...

Er, no. How about that? It's a game. Welcome to the real world kiddo, video games are nothing more than that.

Someone didn't get much entertainment as a child, because anyone who can seriously try to bring up a discussion about this game being about hitting women, just hasn't had a childhood.

Seriously, go back home and ask your parents to teach you the difference between fantasy and reality, because my parents did years ago.

Yeah being slapped ain't fun whether you're a man or woman and whether the one slapping you is a man or woman. But this is a game about a woman who loved her husband trying to stand up to the females in his snob family. I think she's quite the heroine. They could've made this game about how her in-laws were trying to blackmail or murder her and it would be even more violent. Instead they have a little cat-fight and then they say sorry to her and have tea and crumpets or whatever it is women do after a fight. Shopping perhaps?

On another note, the game does tell you to "beat her cheeks" not pull her hair and gouge her eyes out. Females may be beautiful, but they're vicious as well.

btw thanks for the tips on critical hits, I didn't know about those. Good game overall.

Its the same discussion again and again. Just because its a game does not mean it has nothing to do with reality. Like child-porn would be unacceptable in a game, you can say as much you like "but its only a game", "but its only a game", it won't change the fact its child-porn. Just to make a random example.

If you believe for example that Counterstrike has in its setting of terrorism nothing to do with 9/11, you are wrong also...

This is turning into an interesting discussion!

Fuzzygrid - I am not sure that the world is quite so black and white in terms of what is right and what is wrong. There's a lot of subjectivity involved and using the example of child pornography which is both morally reprehensible and near-globally illegal seems a little disingenuous. By extension of your argument, artistic works such as Picasso's Guernica are equally wrong.

Personally, I don't have a problem with this game. It is creatively presented and the cartoon-like stylization serves as a very clear visual indication that this is not supposed to be a simulation of any sort of reality.

I do not condone violence of any sort but I am also fearful of living in a world in which artistic and creative freedoms are stifled in the attempt to remain inoffensive to everybody.

To FuzzyGrid and Soey, this really is just a game. Apparently you are spending too much time behind the screen and not enough out in the real world. It is still considered wrong to hit females (well maybe not in pimp culture, but hey they are illegal anyway.) Child porn is not fantasy, it actually happens and the people looking at it pretend it is in their own room. Real people are harmed, here it is a game, if you don't realize that, go out and get help... please.

I think it's interesting that the personal attacks / insults come from the people who are defending this game. Relax. What I was merely saying was please be socially aware of what is going on in this world, (which I believe FuzzyGrid would agree.) Your action in the game world and in reality very much reflects the same thing. It's still you doing it. I understand this is Jay's site and it's a game site. I will stop here.

@jim and jbeaver, please note that I did not voice any opinion if *this* game is right or wrong, or somewhere in between.

My point is, the general point "oh but its just a game", is generally a very bad point, and I "proved" this point with the exaggerated overstatement, child-rape. Even if its done in comic style, or drawn comics, it would still not be okay for a game to do that.

Games change the rules of reality, but that does not mean, they are limitless, and everything in games do not happen. Take it from that side, a game *is* reality in a good deal! As it a real bits and bytes, a real creator, a real player, a real computer, etc.

To the people complaining about the "violence against women" in this game, I have one question: Why are you here on Jay's fabulous site making a stink over a very stylized and cartoonish game when there are hundreds of videogames on the market that contain photorealistic and intense depictions of violence against men? Somehow it's more important to protest this game because violence against men is acceptable while violence against women is not?

I can appreciate the discussion that's going on here, but let's keep it civil and on-topic, please.

Grounded, your comment went a little too far and I'm not going to publish it.

Folks, let's bring the discussion back on track and talk about the game. Cheers!

I liked this game immensely. The most immediate reason being how easy it was to pick up, but how doggedly difficult it can get.

anyway, for those of you who don't read kanji/chinese, the family members by stage are

1. the youngest sister
2. the elder sister
3. the maid
4. mother in law
5. the grand mother in law

a bit more background: it seems like the girl is not from the previliged background that the rest of the family members are from, which explains the hostility. But also, supposedly the grand mother has some wierd dark powers or some such, and once you defeated her, they make mention to how the dark powers behind the household was dissipated and all that, which I thought was just down right hilarious. This whole game just screams parody that makes me enjoy it that much more.

warning: analysis, analysis, analysis.

re: violence in games

I'm of the school that what you play CAN have an effect on how you perceive reality in some fashion. This is not to say that we're gonna start blaming columbine on DOOM or 9/11 on Counterstrike. But rather, I do think that in some way, when you play a game that pushes the envelope, it COULD desensitize you to the objectional content in question.

There has been clinical research supporting the very notion that violent imagery can effect a person's behavior over prolonged exposure. And to completely dismiss that possibility is reductionist.

However, like all things, it's all about the context that you frame it in. This game has female violence, there is no question about that. But it's frame in the reference to the whole cat fight idea in shojou manga and what not. It's not meant to be a promotion of it, but a parody of genre that is very much a japanese phenamona.

It's like "Undercover Brother" making jokes about exploitation films. You watch it without the knowledge of it, and it will all seem like just one movie that promotes racial stereotypes.

As such, to judge the imageries here purely based on our own very much limited understanding is ludicrous.

re: female violence

Trevor does bring up a good point too. What of all the violent games that involve men? Do we think male violence is somehow not as bad as female violence? In our society where sexual equality is still a little far off, it is often implicitly assumed that women are physically weaker than men and thus cannot defend herself, which makes violence against woman akin to violence against children. The very notion of this game itself will probably infuriate feminists. The newly wed bride was completely safe from the family because prior to this a MAN was protecting her. That one man was enough to keep ALL of these women in check somehow. But the moment he dies, these women suddenly all turn into the most horrible people on earth. That very notion, if you want to go that way, can be very very offensive.

However, this is all assuming we live in the perfect PC world, where everyone is equal and blablabla. That is hardly the case. As you can see from people's response to this game, equality is clearly not here else people would not find this game upsetting. And as I have said before, it's about the context of the game. It's based neck deep in stereotypical setting that is common to japanese fiction and that for good or bad, is what it is.

Critic the game, if you want. But really, any real problems you have with the politics of this game should really be levied not just towards the game, but the circumstances that spawned it.

*Jacob*- I have a mouse with a little ball in the bottom :D I'm with you in hating optical mice :)
Sorry if this isn't in typekey Jay, it hasn't been working for me real well either :/

Yay for English translations!!!!

"This is the elegant art of feminine conflict!"

LOL! Gotta love the way he summarizes the whole thing. I admit, I did felt a little bit guilty playing this, but c'mon, this is the most fun I've had in a while with a Flash game. Thanks to Drew for bringing it to us. Go Reiko, slap her cheek!

Doesn't the game in a way go against or mock stereotypes? Selfish snobby women think the commoner woman is helpless without her man, but she's... not? Then

so what if you get desensitized from all the "violence" happening? it's not like you'll actually do those things in really life? in the end, it's all up to your self control.

and what does child porn have anything to do with this game? i hate strawman reasoning...

The new English version is in that link! XD I can finally understand the catfighting. And best of all, it's not even Engrish but really, really decent (even good) English! :P

{goes off to play again}

PS Good to know the debate fizzled out somehow... >_>

I LOL'D! Darn. But still... I can slap just as hard, if not harder than them! Although they're using forehands... I backhand people...

I think it's funny how people are taking the game too seriously and overanalyzing it. It's that sort of thinking (plus the stupid media) that makes certain stupid people dangerous thinkers...unfortunately the person I'm thinking of has way too much power...I'm not only a person who enjoys playing games but I enjoy trying to make them too. I'm not saying people should never give thought to what they are creating when they are creating games. For example, I dislike rape themes in not only games but also books and movies. I also think there can be such a thing as too much violence and such in games and movies. It depends on the product...this I don't see as being all that violent really even though it involves slapping. I've seen and played worse. I'm a female and I feel that this is one of few games that allow females to get their anger out without having to really hurt anyone or have to play as a male character. It's funny and alot of fun.

Wow , depending on how hard you slap...lol I didn't know a slap could be that powerful...Ok , it maybe a little violent because of certain things (if you slap hard enough...you know? heh) But, yeah, even then I know there's worse out there.

Let's give up the double standards, shall we? Video games have been around for quite some time, and you just don't hear many men complaining about all the "shameful" violence that is being inflicted on the male characters. I thought people wanted equality - I know I do - and even though in this instance women being brought into the online gaming experience means getting slapped, hey, that's the deal we all accept when we accept freedom of speech and equality. It's okay to have an opinion and express when you feel offended, but be prepared for a rebuttal because in this case, I find nothing wrong with this game. At least in this game the female characters aren't getting ravaged by some kind of monster or demon, and the protagonist is showing some great metaphorical balls for once. Quit setting back the women's liberation movement back twenty years by complaining about a harmless video game; the complaining just shows how out of whack your priorities are. If you want issues to rally about, how about you open your eyes to the true injustices that are occurring in our world every day against people [not just women...], and once all of those problems are solved, then we can have the luxury of complaining about a silly online game, which is just a grain of sand in the desert in terms of other things you may find offensive to women.

Shall I continue on to point out that virtually no one would complain if all the characters in this game were male, and/or if the characters were punching or shooting guns and dying, instead of slapping and having your honour hurt [in other words, losing face?]? When was the last time you heard someone express that they had a problem with Punch Out? (or whatever the latest boxing game is - I'm sure it'll have nicely rendered blood spatter, and you'll only hear "Cool!," not "Cruel!" spoken about it)

In my opinion, complaining about this little campy, slapping online adventure game and making it a women's issue when there's not a lot to talk about just shows that you do not truly want equality for women; you want women to have special treatment in this case, and probably in a lot of other cases outside of video games too. It's not entirely the fault of those who would hold this view because there's no prominent message in this north american culture that shows/helps us learn how to be equal, and anything that does highlight great philosophies about equality of the sexes is usually labeled 'feminism,' which cuts down men, in my opinion, and can make things lop-sided in the way we look at men and women, despite the call for equality.

Now that I'm in full rant mode, I'll go on to say that sometimes I get the feeling that too many people only enjoy the easy side of freedom - they live how they want to live, and enjoy the freedoms that society has to offer. These people forget the other, more important side to freedom: you must also allow others around you the same amount of space to enjoy their freedoms. This carries over to how we talk to each other: debate and the free exchange of ideas is welcomed and encouraged, but don't forget one big thing - you do NOT have the right to not be offended; this means that if you don't like something, then that's not enough of a basis to ban something, or to make it go away. You can express you views, but expect to hear views from others, and expect for at least some of those views to oppose yours. I'm just reminding people that you can't just go around hindering the progress of freedom because your feelings or sensitivities get a little hurt, otherwise we'd get nowhere.

Anyway, perhaps I'm sounding a bit harsh, and I have definitely invested far too much analysis that a little casual game deserves, but the posts here caught my attention, so I feel a need to express myself. Thanks for the outlet, haha. I'll just say that the most important thing to consider, which is quite often overlooked, is context - in this little game, the slapping has an honourable purpose; it is not just a little flash program where you beat a female character senseless. Yes, there's slapping and yes, women get slapped, but can't you see that it's empowering? The protagonist is taking matters into her own hands, so to speak, and sticking up for herself, and she ends up becoming the hero in the end. The storyline illustrates this, so you may miss it if you just jump into the slapping fights. Even with a possible language barrier one can see that all the characters can dish out as good as they can take - there are no weeping damsels in distress here, and once the winner is declared, the 'violence' ends and no one is beaten into a viscous paste. And once more, we're talking about a game here, like a cartoon or TV soap opera, these are fictional characters and in no way represent a model of behaviour to follow in reality. If you're not mature enough to handle the game and to understand the context, then you simply need to grow up, or just surf to a different web page.

Thanks,

Dan B

Camelia is creepy. 0_o looks like something Ethan Haas would think up. I still don't know who Ethan is, anyway.

I believe that for the 4th Stage with the Lady Hanae you have to hit her in the bridge of the nose or somewhere there (once you see her tears your almost there!) I saw the 5th and I almost had a heart attack >_> if anyone's gotten there.. you know what I mean o.o

Yeah!

I beat her way thru! Here's the proof :)

http://www.supremacy.hu/groundzero/pix/slap.jpg

A hint to beat the Grand Madame:

By the way, I found it much harder to beat the last-but-one old lady than the last one.

Jay, Im probably being a little picky here ...
but I dont really think these posts above mine are really about the actual game. I mean the ones up there are more about why this game shoulnt be made because it has violence and the ones on the other side, that are talking about if the game were about two men fighting nobody would say anything, and the ones defending that saying its just a game Im not saying you shouldn't have those ideas, I just think its not the place to say it.I cant and wont try to change your opinions. Dont you have a part of your site were you talk about violence in games? I visited it once before.Maybe you could make a link to there.Thanks.

Hi Sahbeh, I agree to a point. While it is true that some of the comments are not about the game, per se; on the other hand, it was the game that facilitated the discussion in the first place.

I was monitoring this discussion when much of it was taking place, and had it gone much further I likely would have stepped in and asked people to move back on-topic.

I try not to do that, though.

Did you know that this game is made by the same people who made la-mulana? It's true! Naramura, Duplex, and samieru (sp?) :)

The only violence I found objectionable was when the Evil Grandmother punched her in the face. I always find it funny when the European upper class gets mixed up with Japanese culture, but the haunted Grandma out of nowhere caught me off-guard.

...I was hoping for the final blow to get exaggerated even more, maybe slowed down with some flame effects. You just can't make fun of manga cliches properly without making a mundane action souped up to the point of "ridiculously awesome"

i don't understand how to evade. it never works for me. could someone help me?

The evade arc has to be very low along the screen, basically across your character's shoulders (below the neck - watch the arc). I kept missing evades too, then I realized I was mousing across the face for evades too - that's wrong.

Oh people, this game is just a parody of a cliche in japanese manga/soap opera. Young widowed middle class housewife being oppressed by rich sneering vanilla-cake family. The usual climax in such stories is when the housewife gathers her guts and manages to slap the evil rich harpies.

What fun!

-- Kay

Wow that was WEIRD. But the whole time I was shouting at them, "DO I GOTS TO SLAP A B*TCH?!" So I enjoyed myself immensely.
However, after beating the mother

(she) needs to be educated on the finer points of slap-fighting.
For instance, one does not slap by thrusting one's enclosed fist into an opponent's face.
That's called "Punching" and punches are vulgar.
-_-

Gahh, couldn't get past the first woman...

Not my kind of game. :P

Having trouble getting this to run. Firefox says it can't find the server.

[It was only a temporary issue. Should be fixed now. -Jay]

Still not working. Oh well.

[Still working for me. Try updating your Flash Player and disabling any browser extensions you have installed. If you want to tell me what browser, OS, and Flash Player versions you're trying to access it with, I'll try to reproduce what you're seeing. Also, what part of the world are you in? -Jay]

Also having a problem with the server. Chrome says "Error 105 (net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED): Unable to resolve the server's DNS address."

Firefox says it "can't find the server at nigoro.asterizm.net."

I'm in the UK. Shame, I remember playing this years ago. :(

[Ah, ok, so it's only a DNS problem, which means it should iron itself out eventually. I'm in the US and the name wasn't resolving early Tuesday, but it is today. DNS issues take time to propagate throughout the entire Internet. Give it another day, keep checking back. I am confident that you, too, will eventually be able to play again, and soon. -Jay]