The 3D Adventures of Sailor Moon
A totally bogus journey to a radically tubular time!
Once
upon a time, when Chibiusa was only "Rini" and Kousagi hadn't even
been born yet, an alternate dimension played home to a very much alive Queen
Beryl.
The year was 1997. Sailor Moon was just
about to air on Cartoon Network, after two years on various syndicated networks
across North America. In celebration of her new success, licensing for use of
the series' famous stars was given over briefly to a company known as 3VR. The
result was a guilty pleasure known as "The 3D Adventures of Sailor
Moon".
Aimed at an audience aged 6 years and
older, the game features many tie-ins to the Americanized version. The game was
on a white CD-ROM with Sailor Moon imitating her famous "And that means
you!" pose, as a Wonderful World of DiC logo covers her elbow.
The game is compatible with Windows 95/98
and requires a Pentium 90 or above processor, double-speed CD-ROM drive and no
less than 16 MB of RAM. I play it on my Windows XP machine with no complaints.
Let's borrow Rini's Time Key, and travel
back to this period in time. I'll not only give you a review of the game, I'll
also show you snapshots, videos, and I'll tell you how to beat the game in
under 10 minutes!
Okay Kousagi-chan! Let's GO!
In case you have never seen this game
before, here are some shots to look out for, in case you want to try looking
for it online:
Promotional Ad
The actual CD-ROM case
The CD-ROM itself
Sailor Moon back
story/instructions
Troubleshooting page
Back Cover on the
CD-ROM case
Mouse Guide
When you first put the CD-Rom in, it will remind you to set your colors through
your desktop settings to "16 bit". Take the disc out and then put it
back in, after you reset your colors.
The only people who have avoided that lil' box, are those whom still have
Windows 95, or otherwise hate color. Anyway once that's done, you will the be
greeted by a little box:
Click yes.
The game begins with the 3VR logo, and a rainbow, introducing Sailor Moon to
you.
This is followed by a music video, hosted by Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Moon.
Music
Video Screenshot
The video features the five Inner Senshi in 3D graphics, dancing to the Sailor
Moon theme song.
The Sailor Senshi's
lights flying from one planet
Sailors Moon,
Mars and Venus' lights
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor
Mercury's lights
The Sailor Senshi's
lights landing on the Play Area's planet
Sailor Moon and
Sailor Mercury
Sailor
Jupiter and Sailor Venus... sniffing themselves?
Sailor Moon from
behind
Sailor Venus and
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon,
Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars do the hustle!
Sailor Venus twirling
Sailor Mercury
twirling
Sailor Mars
twirling
Sailor Jupiter
twirling
Sailor Moon and
Sailor Mercury dance while Sailor Venus grabs Sailor Jupiter's hand!
Sailor Moon and Sailor
Mercury pose while dancing
Sailor Moon and
Sailor Mercury reach for.... um... something???? O_O
Sailor Mercury and
Sailor Mars do an impossible twirl
Tuxedo
Mask lurking behind the bushes, watching the Senshi???
Tuxedo Mask sniffing
a Rose
During the video, we are greeted by a ghostly image of Queen Beryl, a shadowy
Tuxedo Mask, and a fat Luna dancing with Artemis, who is wearing makeup.
If you know the tune then why not sing along! Yeah!
Just for you, I ripped out two different Dream Mirrors. The pink Dream Mirror
has the DiC/Cloverway lyrics North American fans remember. The Golden Dream
Mirror has the original Japanese lyrics. I'll just return these to Sailor Moon
and Sailor Mini Moon when you're done, okay? No worries!
The DiC version was written by Andy Heyward, former head of DiC.
The original was written by Naoko Takeuchi, creator of Sailormoon.
In Japanese episode 46, a set of extended lyrics was added, as Princess
Serenity is thinking of Ami, Rei, Mako and Mina, just before their spirits come
to help her. Here are the extra lyrics:
After the video, a voiceover says
"Oh No. Queen Beryl has captured the
Sailor Scouts transformational items!"
You are then transported to the play
area:
Clicking on the blue moon book transports
you to the pre-story. This is where you are told all about your mission.....
Tutorial1
Tutorial2
In a not too far away
dimension, evil Queen Beryl Lavishes over her newly stolen possessions, for now
she has the transformational pens and the moon wand belonging to Sailor Moon
and her squad of teenage fighters, known as the Sailor Scouts. The once
protectors of the universe are now unable to ward off the evil powers of the
Negaverse, what is the world to do? Evil Queen Beryl had secretly hidden these
transformational items in different dimensional Sailor rooms, and it is your
duty as a Sailor Scout in training to help the Sailors thwart off Queen Beryl's
evil plans to drain the Earth of it's precious life-forces. Fight for all that
is right and triumph over all evils, and that means you!
Good Luck!
At any time throughout the game, if you need help, the right-bottom of the
screen features Luna, Artemis or Luna-P. Clicking on them produces a voiceover
guide, informing you of your instructions.
Also, for those of you who might not remember the dubbed version, here's a
short list of characters:
Serena=Usagi Tsukino
Darien Shields=Mamoru Chiba
Rini=Chibiusa Tsukino
Amy Anderson=Ami Mizuno
Raye Hino=Rei Hino
Lita=Makoto Kino
Mina=Minako Aino
Malachite=Kunzite
By the way, absolutely NONE of the voiceovers from the dubbed anime are used in
this game. NONE. In their place are motivational 13-year olds trying to imitate
Sailor Mercury, Rini and Queen Beryl. On occasion, a "cool dude"
voice takes over for Darien.
To beat the game, you have to play through the areas, to get the wands back.
Here's how to beat the game in under 20 minutes. First, double-click on the
puzzle room.
Puzzle Room
You'll note that with each trip to one of the rooms, a loading screen featuring
a twirling Sailor Moon will greet you. On either side of the screen will be a
Sailormoon character.
Here is the Puzzle Room's Loading Screen.
Each time you play the game, the puzzles will vary. There are several puzzles
in three different sizes.
The Puzzles.
To find Sailor Mercury's pen, just solve three of the easy ones.
Solving the puzzles is pretty easy, just click and drag the boxes. It can be a
little challenging at times, since Sailor Moon is always right behind you.
Easy Mode Solving
Medium Mode
Solving
Hard Mode Solving
Some of the puzzles feature pictures that were either Japanese promotion only,
or from moments in the anime that were cut out! My favorite is a picture of a Blue Eyed
Rini!
Here are pics from ALL of the puzzles that you could get. Remember, each time
you put the CD-ROM in your disk drive, you could get one of two different sets
of puzzles at random. You will get 6 puzzles for each difficulty, and the
variety changes each time.
* The Sailor Senshi through time pic was in the introduction of
Black/Wicked Lady. An episode that did NOT air in North America until a year
after this game's debut!!
** Taken from one of the
the original season one openers!
*** Taken from one of the
original season two openers!
**** Taken from the Sailormoon
R return from commercial spot!
Once you are through with that, we move on to the Galactic Moon Library.
Galactic
Moon Library
Loading Screen
Upon entry, you'll be in a cheesy 1990's like lab. Behind you is the
exit, to one side
is a spinning star
that leads you to Lita's fact sheet. The other side has a spinning heart.
Serena's Side
Darien's Side
But the main screen features all five Inner Senshi, Rini and Darien flashing
quickly. I managed to capture Rini's screen. BE WARNED the following might not
be suitable for all audiences.
Rini's Screen
I also got shots for each of the others too.
Sailor Moon, Darien, Amy, Raye, Lita
What? No Mina??? Moving on...
A double click of the mouse will lead you to Sailor Moon's fact sheet. Below
are screen shots for each of the DiC fact sheets. Be aware that these sheets
are NOT accurate, and that the FULL facts for each Senshi are found in various
Moon Sisters pages.
Sailor
Moon
Sailor
Mercury
Sailor
Mars
Sailor
Jupiter
Sailor
Venus
Tuxedo
Mask
Rini
They really put an emphasis on reading, didn't they? But then again, this was
the era of the
semi-educational "Sailor Says" segments. Ah DiC. Nobody misses you.
To go along with this, I typed out verbatim what the voiceover tells you about
each Senshi.
No, really. This is REALLY what's said.
Tuxedo Mask, Rini, Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus
To get Sailor Jupiter's pen back, go through Tuxedo Mask's profile, and then
hit the arrow button facing left two times, then click the arrow facing right
two times.
Before you leave, you might want to check out each profile's galleries!
Check out some awesome shots I got!
Sailor Moon and
Tuxedo Mask, aww how sweet!
A nice close-up
of Tuxedo Mask
An AWESOME shot
of Sailor Moon posing, after her Moon Crystal Power transformation
A cool "I'm
Sailor Moon" pose
Darien... future
daddy alright! ^_^
There are several shots hidden with the Inner Senshi's profiles that were
edited out of the DiC series!
Here's one cut from the first half of season one:
Here are a few that were taken out of the first original beginnings from
Sailormoon and Sailormoon R:
Sailor Moon with
Luna
Sailor Mercury
with a green background
Sailor Mercury
twirling
Sailor Mars
close-up
Raye with rose
petals
Sailor Mars posing
Sailor Jupiter
Close-up
Sailor Jupiter
almost floating
Lita bowing
during a spin
Sailor Venus
winking
Sailor Venus ready
for a fight
Rini's section features only two pics from Sailormoon R, and a TON of shots
from the Sailormoon R movie~ about 3 years BEFORE it was dubbed! However, her
gallery is also shared by Luna and Artemis. LAME! Why not give each one their
OWN spot, instead of this?
Anyway, here are the shots in Rini's gallery:
Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3
Movie 4
Movie 5
Cheap redrawn Artemis
Cheap redrawn Luna
Here are even more shots, check out the "Sparkle Cam" on these
beauties:
You
probably already noticed that some of the pics are cheaply redrawn versions of
already well known episodes and events. Look for this as we move along through
the rest of the game.
Some of these same re-drawn images even appear later on the covers of some of
the DVDs!
But then there are some where the drawing style is highly flawed.
Next, it's time for some super Sailor "Make UP!!" fun, as we mosey on
to the Moon Fashion Salon
Moon Fashion
Salon
Loading Screen
Each time you click on one of the symbols at the bottom of your screen, a
different Senshi will strut down a catwalk for you. ^___^ I'm sure you'll just
LOVE those realistic 1997 graphics!
Sailor Moon
Sailor Mercury
Sailor Mars
Sailor Jupiter
Sailor Venus
Tuxedo Mask
Sailor Moon from the
side
Sailor Mercury from
the side
Sailor Mars from the
side
Sailor Jupiter from
the side
Sailor Venus from the
side
Tuxedo Mask turns to
one side...
and now the other.
Sailor Moon from
behind
Sailor Mercury from
behind
Sailor Mars from
behind
Sailor Jupiter from
behind
Sailor Venus from
behind
Tuxedo Mask from
behind
WHAT???No Rini??? That's not fair!!! Oh well, it could have been Queen
Beryl on her off day. YUCK!! And did you catch how super skinny they are?
That's not healthy, EAT SOMETHING! Anyway, to get Sailor Venus's pen back,
double click on the Venus icon, then click on Sailor Venus. Once there, click
the three bottom film strips, the third one you click on will chime, letting
you know that you found her pen! Before you leave, let's explore some of the
fashions you can use with the six Senshi. Some of these fashions are dorky
"Mom and Dad" wear, and SOME of them are directed at the ADULTS who
still play this game!
Here are some goodies I caught for ya:
Serena wearing a
1902 style dress, with country bumpkin duds aside her.
Darien going on
safari... or fishing, you pick. GEEZ this screams "Daddy"...
Before we move on, lemme point out that this next one WILL offend all we women
out there!!
Sailor Mercury....
fast food clerk and 2 shakes from the ol' barefoot and pregnant routine.
That's right girlies! We want you to be stupid, slang speakin' bubble-gum
chompin' idjits who troll the malls and then spend their free time at home
doin' what the men folk say. YAY!! Not.
Okay, back to the rest of the shots!
Sailor
Mars... little China girl? Wait... she's JAPANESE!!
Darien, Kung
Fu star?
Rollerblading
Sailor Mercury?
Street Darien
Tuxedo
Jupiter? UH-OH what will
Serena say about this???
The next few shots were put in for GROWN-UPS. This sounds silly, considering
it's for ages 6+, but once you see these shots, you'll understand my unusual
disclaimer.
Serena in um...
clown's showgirl attire?
Sailor Mercury after
one wild night at the office!
Raye being... really
frilly... *.*
Mina looking...
well... you decide!
Mina's morning after
Well, we all KNEW she's
the kinky one...
Of course there are also the transformed costumes too! Well, for the most part
anyway...
Here are each of the shots:
Sailor Mars
looking huffy with clumsy red shoes
Sailor Moon
Sailor Mercury?
HEY!! That's not EVEN close to her costume, YOU COP OUTS!!!
Sailor Venus with
pink shoes?
Tuxedo skinny boy
Mask.... NO CAPES!!
Yeah, they gave up trying at 3VR didn't they. Moving on... 9_9
Your next assignment is to visit the Moon Castle TV Show Palace, which bears a
baby like resemblance to the Silver Millennium’s palace. Go figure, eh?
TRIVIA TIME!! When the movie plays just before it says "Now Loading"
look at the TV.
(Sorry, no pic yet) The TV screen says "SAILOR MOON Jupiter and Venus
Arrive", this is from an ACTUAL DiC tape that came out in 1997! They
released about five or six tapes, each with two out of place episodes, and this
is the opening for one of them! (Yeah, I have a copy, so?)
Moon Castle TV
Show Palace
Loading Screen
In this room, you are able to watch short Sailormoon themed vignettes, set to dramatic
and/or Olympic Games style music. The clips feature different moments from
various episodes. The first clip you see is a musical adaptation of the
cut-to-shreds DiC season one and two opener.
There's a video for Mercury, Mars, Venus and Jupiter, one for Serena's
klutziness, one for Tuxedo Mask, one about Serena and Darien's love, and one
about the Sailor Team.
Oh yeah, did anyone else besides me catch that in both the DiC Sailormoon
opening and in the first opening to original Sailormoon R, Usagi/Serena is
running around past a shot of Vincent Van Goh's Starry Starry Night painting?
To get Sailor Mars's pen back, simply hit the left arrow once on the TV, then
hit the right arrow next to it. That's it really. But before you go, here are
some more facts about this room!
There are 8 screens that will frame your video choice at random.
The first video only plays when you first enter the room. To see it again after
you made another selection, exit the room, and then come back. Here are the 8
screens:
Serena and Darien
Blue Eyed Rini and Amy
holding a Happy Birthday cake
Sailor Mars and
Sailor Jupiter ready for combat
Sailor Jupiter with
a pink center charm posing with Sailor Venus
Raye and Mina on a
picnic
Sailor Moon and
Tuxedo Mask
Sailor Mars
relaxing while Sailor Venus stands
Sailor Venus and
Sailor Mercury sitting
Some of the clips will feature out of place moments, like during Serena and
Darien's piece, there's a shot of Luna giving Serena
a "present".
And here's one DiC actually CUT from an episode!
Serena falls on
the cats.
And here's a near decent shot of Tuxedo Mask:
Before you get ready for the final area, I want you to click on the yellow star
on the center of the play area. You'll need a musical warm-up, because you will
ACTUALLY get to see combat in the last area! But first, click that star, won't
you?
The star leads you to the Sing Along room! On each side are Sailor Moon and
Tuxedo Mask holding microphones where their weapons should have been. The next
two screenshots feature clips from the first music video you saw, hosted by
Rini's parents.
Queen Beryl
Fat Luna and
Feminine Artemis
OKAY! Now you are ready for an ACTUAL BATTLE! When you return to the play area,
click on the Crystal Tokyo castle to enter the battle room.
Battle Room
Loading Screen
This battle only appears easy... IF you have a Pentium 2 processor. For those
of us with processors that are Pentium 3 and above, this is a challenge! Each
time you enter, your playfield and enemy targets will be different. At any
time, you could either land in a blood soaked crater, or be transported to a
blue and lavender field on the Moon. Your opponents will either be crystals or
blobbies based on one of season one's villains. The two will mix each time.
Crystals over a
blood soaked crater
Blobbies on the
Moon
As the non-Darien voiceover tells you, you need to aim at the center of the
targets, and right-click to shoot. This is hard to do, since they move around
so @#$% fast! You need to hit ALL of them as quickly as possible, so your
ending score will be over One Million Points! (Dr. Evil would be proud)
I've only lost two times out of the 89 trillion that I've played, so you'll
probably be just fine.
If you beat them all, you will then face off with THE QUEEN BERYL... box.
Beryl in a box!
Yep. Your BIG boss is trapped in a dinky tiny little box, along with Malachite
and a few baddies of the day. Just three clicks and Sailor Moon gets her wand
back.
Hey! If you're playing as a "Sailor Scout in training" aaaand you
just battled with a Moon Wand, even though Sailor Moon's wand was missing...
then does that mean you've been playing as Rini this whole time? Maybe. Maybe
not. Use your imagination!
When you exit the battle room, you will be congratulated for beating the game.
Click on the yellow star again, and THIS time you will see a congrats message,
followed by an animation of Sailor Moon doing a light attack, followed by your
usual "Now Loading" message.
Congrats!
After a short time, your prize is..... you can now revisit all of the five
rooms and play as much as you like, until you get bored and click the quit
button.
You will now be in a totally 3D environment, and each time you enter a play
room, and then exit back to the new area, the weather changes! It could be fall
over mountains, morning and peaceful, sunny, or starlit, just to name a few:
The Movie Palace at
daytime
The Movie Palace at
night
The Moon Kingdom and
Crystal Tokyo against the mountains
The battle area and
Puzzle room in the mountains
Fall comes to the
Fashion and Movie areas
The Puzzle Room with a
cartoony mountain area
The Puzzle Room in
olden times
The Puzzle Room and
Crystal Tokyo in Rome
2 Moon Kingdoms and
Crystal Tokyo!?!?!
Old world fashion and
movie palaces
Old world again,
looks like Germany
Check how cool Sailor
Moon looks with Rome's sun behind her!
A cartoon Mount Fuji?
Really cartoony
clouds
And check this out! On the floor of this new area, are signs for Mercury,
Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Moon and ... Neptune???
See? It's the
Sign of Neptune, was she a planned character for the game?
As promised, here are ALL of the videos in the game, PLUS videos that 3VR
included on the disc, but didn’t use in the full game!
All of the following videos are in AVI format:
3VR Logo start video
UNRELEASED
Alternate Senshi Video
CGI Sailor Moon
music video
UNRELEASED test
version of Jupiter’s Library animation
Lita/ Sailor
Jupiter music video
Raye/Sailor Mars music
video
Darien/Tuxedo Mask
music video
Amy/Sailor Mercury
music video
Music video about
Serena and Darien in love
CGI Sailor Moon
using her wand from the congrats screen
CGI television with
the Jupiter and Venus arrive title card from an early DiC/Buena Vista tape.
Silent video of CGI
Sailor Moon twirling used for the puzzle room
UNRELEASED CGI of
Sailor Moon dancing on a music box
Music video about the
Sailor Scouts
Music Video about
Serena being a klutz
Music video about the
Sailormoon series
Your Mission as a
Sailor Scout in training!
CGI of Sailor
Moon 1
CGI of Sailor
Moon 2
Sailor Jupiter’s
Library card
Mina/Sailor Venus
music video
What? No Negaverse video? No Rini? Oh well….
In case you missed it earlier, here's what you need to remember for beating the
game:
For as schlocky as it sounds, it's actually a really fun game! Yes, even with
the large amount of facts that they got WRONG, you really can't help but like
it, at least as a guilty pleasure. The game hasn't been produced in over a
decade, and the company went belly-up not long after its biggest hit debuted
(Yes that's Sailor Moon) but on occasion, you might find a copy on ebay.com.
This game is a treasure to own, and a real reminder of an era far far away....
Be sure to look for the link to the game on the Moon Sisters Shopping Guide!
Amazon customers can enjoy a slight discount if you click on the link I put up.
J
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to have Kousagi return the time key.
