There seems to be a non-stop stream of game releases these days, and sometimes it is better to be weird than good to get people’s attention. The Rose & Camellia Collection certainly does what it can to plant its flag in the realm of “weird” and then it proudly stands there, hooting loudly and slapping anyone with enough audacity to stare in its direction. Few recent titles have embraced absurdity with as much gusto as the Rose & Camellia Collection, and honestly that is to the game’s benefit. This compilation brings together five quick little slaphappy games that were originally Flash titles and are now reimagined for the Nintendo Switch. 
At its core, the Rose & Camellia Collection is a series of one-on-one slap battles set against a backdrop of high-society drama. Think Punch-Out!! meets an anime adaptation of Bridgerton that doesn’t seem to have been translated properly and the end result is Rose & Camilla Collection. Players assume the role of Reiko Tsubakikoji, a recently widowed woman seeking to claim her rightful place at the top of a noble family. Her quest involves that typical sort of journey that most would expect from noble, high society families: slapping her way through each and every single person that gets in her way. The story somehow gets weirder from there, escalating into increasingly bizarre situations until ninjas show up and try to create the ultimate slapfighting robot.
Some games manage to get by on vibes alone and this is one of those titles. A lot of the fun here comes from the fact that the game is just sort of weird and charming, and that’s enough to help it stand out. The commitment to its outlandish concept is great and each scenario is infused with a sense of melodrama and humour that just kind of works. It feels like a very niche, very strange anime that becomes a cult classic mostly because of how weird and over the top it is. There aren’t too many parts here that are laugh-out-loud funny, and a lot of the humour comes from how bizarre the situations are rather than legitimately great writing. Still, though, it is a fun setup. Weird is great sometimes and this is at least that fun kind of weird that is memorable and quirky without being annoying.
This charming weirdness is imbued over the whole package. The game opens up with a silly anime style cutscene that feels shockingly plausible to open an actual anime. Visually, Rose & Camellia Collection is great and the strange period-appropriate aesthetics help it stand out further. The art style captures a Victorian Gothic atmosphere, and the animations, though simplistic, do add charm to each encounter. There is something slightly off because the characters’ mouths never move during the dialogue, which might not sound like much but it does make the game feel like more of a budget title than it actually is. The audio complements the visuals well and the voice actresses do a solid job enhancing the narrative’s overdramatic flair.
The gameplay itself revolves around reflex-based combat where timing and pattern recognition is crucial. It feels like Rose & Camilla Collection drew a lot of inspiration from the classic Punch-Out!! titles, even though it never quite reaches those same highs. This is very much a dumbed down version of Punch-Out!!, where mechanics are drawn back or greatly simplified. There are two different controls schemes here, and combat can either be done using the touch screen on the Switch or Joy-Con for those people that really like motion controls and the nagging feeling of frustration that just won’t go away. Basic moves include slapping, dodging, feinting, and countering, and all of those moves are going to need to be mastered to slapfight to the very top.
It does kind of feel like baby’s first Punch-Out!! at times with the way things are set up. The good news is that even baby’s first Punch-Out!! is still kind of fun. Gameplay is turn-based, and players will alternate between doing the slapping and being slapped, and there is timing to figure out with each. Like Punch-Out!!, there are visual cues that need to be followed to be successful, and slapping randomly is a great way to end up with a five-fingered imprint across the side of the face. Enemy characters will raise their hands indicating when the best time to dodge is, and small movements in their defensive posture can also indicate the appropriate moment to launch an attack. Enemies have weak points that allow for extra powerful slaps, and counter-attacks after a missed attack can do huge damage if they’re well aimed. That’s the core of the gameplay and it is a very solid one to base the game around. There are surprisingly few Punch-Out!! clones out there, and this feels close enough while also being distinctly unique from the title that inspired it. That sort of timing-based combat is sort of fun, and it is just enough to carry the gameplay through to the end.
At the same time, though, this is very much a worse version of that very good thing most people are already familiar with. Fights get pretty repetitive quickly and there isn’t as much variation fight to fight as the game needs. A lot of the timing is just “swipe right to avoid when the enemy character raises their hand”, and while there are some small variations to that throughout the course of the game, a huge chunk of the defensive combat here is simply avoiding when the very obvious visual cue happens. There aren’t those same weird, fun varied attack patterns found in Punch-Out!!, so you have a very oversimplified version of the combat that isn’t as enjoyable. Battles blend together quickly and there isn’t a tremendous amount of difference from the first quest’s fight and the final battle in the last quest.
Controls are also just a smidge off. Motion controls, while more immersive and giving the player the full “slapping an 18th-century noblewoman” experience, suffer from a fair amount of imprecision. They tend to be more frustrating than fun, particularly when inputs fail to register correctly. Touch screen controls are definitely better but still a little wonky. There were multiple times when it felt like the very same input was being performed, but for some reason the game registered them differently. It was hard to tell if the game was just extremely precise in terms of what was needed, or if the detection was just a bit off, but either way, the end result is that controls don’t feel as tight as they need to be.
Rose & Camellia Collection is also a fleeting sort of entertainment, not just because of the limited gameplay but also because this is a really short adventure. The game encompasses five different episodes, but the overall collection is surprisingly short. Each scenario can be completed in under an hour, and the entire slap quest offers just a couple of hours of gameplay. It is pretty simple, fairly repetitive, and incredibly minimal, which is an unfortunate combination that winds up holding the game back.
