Cy Girls

The game received mixed reviews, with praise for its stylish presentation but criticism for its gameplay and puzzles.

• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Japan • Publisher — Konami • Genre — Action-adventure Third-person shooter • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — PlayStation 2

Cy Girls tells a spy-fi story where in 2058, "Damnation Monday" was the name of a disaster where power failure occurred worldwide. This caused the collapse of various countries and companies. The game's story takes place in 2084, 26 years after "Damnation Monday". The game has two CG agents as the main characters. CG-1 Ice, the genius hacker and firearms expert on the mission to destroy an information file in the highly secure corporate building of a company known as Net Justice in Buenos Aires (where she is navigated by her partner Sancho), and CG-6 Aska, a master female ninja with astonishing athletic ability attempting to avenge the death of her father in a secret village in Japan (where she is navigated by her brother Kogetsu). While only Ice and Aska are made available as player characters, other CG members also appear in the game to provide support.

Cy Girls is an action-adventure game that combines puzzle-solving with two distinctly different combat styles: ninja-oriented melee combat and stealth for Aska, and firearms combat for Ice. Essentially, the game was two different games depending on the character choice, as the game was released as a 2-disc package, containing Aska's data on one disc and Ice's data on the other. After completing the main story on a disc, additional characters from the story were unlocked, as well as an 'Extra Mode', where players could choose any combination of weapons, any unlocked character, or any outfit. Ice and Aska fight with different weapons and techniques. Ice fights with firearms, using cover mechanics that include taking cover behind walls/objects and shoot at enemies. Ice can use gunfight moves such as somersaults and cartwheels when using auto-targeting. For Aska, she fights with a ninjato and other ninja weaponry. Aska has a guard meter which depletes every time she's able to block a physical attack. In addition, Aska's able to run on walls. In addition, all unlocked characters had the ability to 'dive' into the world of cyberspace. Known as Cyber Dimension or Cy-D, standard moves were disabled, forcing all characters to resort to using punches and kicks to defeat enemies within the domain while new moves and skills are only founds in cyberspace data points. In addition, players would have a maximum of 10 minutes within Cy-D before reaching game over (explained in-game as being the amount of time the character could remain within Cy-D without suffering a complete mental breakdown.)

On May 9, 2002, Konami announced that Cy Girls would be released for the PlayStation 2. It was announced at the 2002 Tokyo Toy Show (TTS) that the game would see a 2003 release worldwide. According to Horikami, who was the Konami representative during the TTS event, he hoped that the game would pave the way for the company to consider comic and film adaptations of Cy Girls. Konami said that the game would be shown on May 22, 2002, at the annual E3 convention. During the convention, Konami confirmed plans to release the game in North America. From July 26 to 27, 2003, Cy Girls demos were shown to the public during the World Hobby Expo in Tokyo. The game was also previewed at the 2003 E3 and TGS convention. On October 21, 2004, a "The Best" version of COOL GIRL was released in Japan. The CG movies animated for the game's cutscenes were made by Digital Frontier, a CG company known for creating the CG hair reproduction in the theatre version of "Bono Bono" and Taiyo Matsumoto's "Ping Pong". Sound effects were done by Shizuo Kurahashi. The game uses two camera modes, consisting of "Novice" and "Expert" mode. "Novice" allows the camera to follow along the character when she moves while "Expert" has the player using the controls to move the camera around. Konami had originally intended to leave "Expert" as the default camera mode before including "Novice". An enemy lock feature is also present, which can be toggled on or off. Cy Girls is made up of two discs. Disc 1 is for Ice's scenario while Disc 2 is for Aska's scenario. The game uses the same engine used for Metal Gear Solid 2.

To promote the game, a limited edition Cy Girls figure of Ice was released in Japan in a bundled set with the game. A limited edition Cy Girls figure of Aska based on an outfit that was not implemented in the game, with 100 figures released via lottery to anyone in Japan who sent a survey postcard included in the game. Konami released the COOL GIRL Konami Official Perfect Guide on March 31, 2004.