Parent's Guide: Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is a beat 'em up in which players whack vampiric bad guys with a variety of kooky and crazy implements - from swords and boxing gloves to oversized kebabs and computer monitors - in an attempt to 'weaken' their clothing so it can be stripped off, thus revealing their skin to the sun's deadly rays, and defeating them. Hey, at least it's logical.

A third person action game with something of a weird story behind it, you'll spend most of your time completing missions set in and around the Akihabara district of Tokyo (by far the nerdiest part of town), as, together with your fellow nerds, you take the fight to a group of vampires known as Synthisters.

The combat is pretty easy to get to grips with, with your attacks split into three different 'areas' - a different button press targets headgear, shirts and skirts/trousers. Once they're sufficiently weakened, holding down the button will whip off the offending garment - and if several other pieces of clothing are ready to come off, if you press the corresponding button shown on screen in time, you can chain strips together for mega damage.

But you'll need to keep a close eye on your clothing too, because those dastardly bad guys are looking to strip you too - leaving you to roast in the sunlight instead (in a handy coincidence, you're also a vampire - but a good one!). It can be a little hard to get the hang of at first, particularly if you spend your time trying to set up chain strip combos, but once you've unclothed enough opponents you'll start to build up an arsenal of better clothes and weapons for yourself.

Between the battle sections - which see you patrolling the Akiba streets, rooting out bad guys and girls - are lengthy conversations between characters and story segments. While fully voiced, a decent reading ability is needed to know the details of many of the quests, where to go and what to do, as well as to read the occasional conversation options that crop up during the main scenes. Picking the right conversation options can increase your popularity with a number of the game's female sidekicks, unlocking different endings depending on who likes you best.

For a game that's about taking people's clothes off, it comes as no surprise that Akiba's Trip has a few obvious sexual references. The battles themselves are done in a silly, light-hearted way, as you whack enemies with baseball bats, oversized kebabs and giant rolled up posters, and most end with the person in question disappearing in a puff of purple smoke, or skulking off embarrassed in their underwear. Sometimes the underwear strays into provocative suspenders and such, and sometimes, if you do a particularly impressive combo, they'll lose their underwear instead - although under cover of a bright light so you don't see anything 'naughty'. Occasional sexually suggestive comments are found in the dialogue, such as the musings of the various "Boys Love" Fangirls that roam the streets, talking about how "Kanda is the brutal, sadistic top, while Akihabra is the easy bottom who cries out in pleasure in bed". You can also unlock various wallpapers for your phone, which sometimes feature the game's female partners in provocative positions, with clothes partially stripped off, or focusing on their cleavage.

Swear words, such as f**k and s*it appear in the dialogue from time to time too - although it's by no means every other word like some other games.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Playstation 3