MGG: Manic Game Girl (2002)

Developer: Joycast Co., Ltd.
Platforms: PlayStation
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A scrappy, ambitious beat-em-up RPG that feels like a passionate but rough first attempt at something bigger, carrying the earnest energy of a country's nascent game industry finding its footing.

action-heavyscrappyambitiousjankysci-fi tingedbrawler-pacedpioneeringrough around the edges

About

Manic Game Girl is an action-adventure RPG with 3D brawler mechanics created with the help of Han Jong Lee, one of the main programmers on Parasite Eve and part of the engine development team for Final Fantasy 8. "The first self-developed PlayStation game in Korea." The games development was started in 1999 and was originally planned for the Dreamcast but later switched to the PlayStation. There was trouble with the games development as the market for video games was just starting in South Korea which lead to a lack of people with experience making games at the time. The game was released at the end of the PlayStation's production cycle after the launch of the PlayStation 2 earlier in the year. This was reflected in it's marketing at the time which mentions how it will run just as well on the newer system. There were plans to release the game internationally by the end of the year with the North American publisher Conspiracy Entertainment but that was eventually canceled.

More games like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.