The Girl Who's Right on the Money: A Review of Money Idol Exchanger (PSX)

 💰Introduction💰

Last time, when talking about Magical Drop, I mentioned how I wasn’t too big into puzzlers. While I’m still not someone who actively plays puzzlers outside of casually killing time, my love for Magical Drop possessed me to check out some other games in the genre. While browsing the internet, I found a cute-looking puzzle game that almost instantly caught my attention. This game was called Money Idol Exchanger.

From a cursory glance, the game looked like something right up my alley. It was a puzzle game with gameplay similar to Magical Drop with a focus on exchanging coins into bills. The game was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system, and since I couldn’t get the Neo Geo emulator to work properly on my PC, the only way I could play the game for a while was to visit the local retro game arcade...which is an hour-long drive from my house.

It wasn’t until a bit later that I learned the game was also ported to home consoles and systems. So, I downloaded the PlayStation 1 version, booted it up on an emulator, and played it a considerable amount. The only real caveat was the fact that the PSX version was never translated into English, so I had to play the game in Japanese. That said though, while the game was quite simple, I still had a lot of fun with it and have a lot I wish to discuss and preach to the choir about. So, without further ado, Let’s Exchanging to Cash!! 

💸Development💸

Money Idol Exchanger is an action Vs. Puzzler game that was developed by Face and originally released in arcades in 1997. It was actually the last title developed by Face before it folded and filed for bankruptcy in 2000. Face was also responsible for titles such as Hany on the Road, Gururin, and Cyber ​​Cross. 

The game's dev team mostly consisted of former employees from a company known as Technōs Japan, a now-defunct Japanese video game developer best known for the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun franchises. The lead producer of the game was Kengo Asai. The planner goes by the pseudonym Starman, while the programmer goes by Piggy. The graphic designs were done by Toshikazu Uechi, Mariko Sumiyoshi, Mutsuo Kaneko, and someone with the pseudonym Sabby. The sound director was Daikoku Azuma, and the composers were Kennosuke Suemura and Norihiko Togashi. Atsuko Ishisa handled the character designs, and the animation was outsourced to JC Staff.

JC, or Japan Creative, was a Japanese animation studio founded in 1987. They are most popular for series such as Toradora!, One Punch Man, and Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan.

A soundtrack for the game was released, featuring the talents of voice actresses Sakura Tange, Yukana Nogami, and Machiko Toyoshima, with the former two later voicing the characters Sakura Kinomoto and Meiling Li from Cardcaptor Sakura respectively.

This game also featured several other voice actors, but I will point them out one by one as I introduce the respective characters they voice.

When the game originally came out for arcades, it was localized in the West and renamed to Money Puzzle Exchanger, a change I’m not too fond of. In the 90s, a Westerner wouldn’t be familiar with the term “Idol,” so I can see why it was changed, but I wish they had chosen something else. The main character’s alter ego is called “Exchanger,” and “Money Idol” is a little title that the heroine has. Having little titles like that followed by the name of the titular character is a common trope seen in a lot of older anime, like Mobile Suit Gundam, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, or Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and the title “Money Idol Exchanger” fits the magical girl anime motif the game has.

Changing “Idol” to “Puzzle” changes the meaning to simply refer to the genre of the game, which is a bit boring. I felt they could have gone with “Pop Star,” “Diva,” or some other descriptor that applies to the main character. When the whole thing is put together, “Money Puzzle Exchanger” isn’t really a title that means anything to me. I’m probably being pedantic, though; I just really enjoy looking for little differences and nuances like that. Apart from that though, the game features yen coins in the Japanese version, but these were changed to generic coins in the US version. Additionally, the English Arcade version also removes some of the voice clips and Japanese text that appears in some of the animations. 

The PlayStation 1 version was ported over by Athena Co. Ltd. a Japanese video game development company that went defunct in 2013… You know, I’m starting to notice a trend with a lot of these development companies that I talk about. Anyways, Athena was responsible for other titles such as the Dezaemon games, Pocket Bowling for the GameBoy Color, Sword Master for the NES, and Virtual Bowling for the Virtual Boy. 

This PSX port includes an added Story mode, a “How to Play!” mode, and an Options mode on top of the modes that were already in the arcade version. Additionally, while in the arcade versions of the single-player campaign, you could only play as either Exchanger or Debtmiser, in the PSX version, you can play as any of the eight main characters. Furthermore, in the single-player campaign, the PSX version adds an Easy and Hard mode.

Apart from that, the only other thing that changed was that the character, Bill Bank, now has a new voice actor, but this change only applies to the story mode cutscenes, since those have new voice lines added. In actual matches, he uses the OG voice lines, which are much higher pitched than in the added story mode.  

In September 2023, the publishing company, Hamster Corporation, announced that they would acquire the rights to Athena's library of games which were then released through their Arcade Archives series. 

This series would also get a sub-series called ACA Neo Geo, which focused on re-releasing Neo Geo titles onto modern systems. This series is actually the best method to play Money Idol Exchanger on modern home consoles without relying on piracy or emulation. However, this version is the arcade version of the game, so it lacks the added material from the PSX version.

 

💴Background Info💴

Money Idol Exchanger is essentially a parody of Magical Girl and Shoujo anime. The game doesn’t take itself seriously at all and is unabashed about its inspirations and how it parodies them. I mean, the main objective of the game is exchanging yen coins for bills.

But first, let’s introduce the main cast. A lot of the characters are based on character tropes seen in a lot of Shoujo anime: the brash protag, her shy best friend, the jock, the nerd, the attractive teacher, etc. Furthermore, a lot of the characters also have very punny names referencing either money, banks, economics, or specific stores. 

Starting off, we have the main character, Sakura Mitsukoshi (CV: Sakura Tange). She’s a penny-pinching high school girl who’s very blunt, headstrong, and greedy. She's the type of bitch to try to bargain for a further discount at Dollar Tree on Black Friday. Despite being the main heroine, she displays very few heroic or redeeming characteristics. She’s always talking shit, starting fights, and essentially uses her best friend as a personal ATM. She’s so toxic, and I’m all for it. Her surname, Mitsukoshi (三越), is likely a reference to a popular department store chain in Japan with the same name. Her given name, Sakura, is a very common feminine name used in many anime for protagonist characters.

Fun fact, though: the main character was originally going to be a coin-like mascot character named "Coin-kun." However, with the Bishoujo Boom of the '90s, they shifted direction to make the lead character a Bishoujo character instead and enlisted the help of Atsuko Ishida for the designs. All of the character traits associated with Coin-kun were then given to Sakura.

Anyways, Sakura has the ability to transform, and doing so changes her into the titular Money Idol Exchanger. In this form, her appearance resembles that of a Japanese pop idol, her hair color changes, she gets cat ears, and she can exchange money—hence the name “Exchanger.”

This image, as well as the other images of the transformed 

characters, comes from the Japanese PSX Manual of the game.

Her best friend, Asahi Takashima (CV: Yukana Nogami, though she professionally is referred to as just “Yukana”), is a much shyer, compassionate, and kindhearted girl. She’s known Sakura her whole life, and they both go to the same school. She’s really generous and has no problems loaning people her money, though she has her limits. In the story mode, it’s revealed that Sakura has borrowed a total of 1,234,300 yen from her over the years, and her refusal to pay her back awakens her dormant anger. If you’re playing the story mode as Sakura, you fight Asahi as the final boss, and vice versa. Like Mitsukoshi, Takashima (高島) is also the name of a Japanese department store. 

When Asahi transforms, she becomes Loan Fighter Debtmiser. Like Exchanger, her outfit resembles that of an idol, except Debtmiser has bunny ears rather than cat ears. Her alter ego’s name combines the term “debt” with “miser,” with the latter term referring to a person who hoards and spends as little money as possible, which is ironic.

During the game, the two heroines encounter members of an organization called The Order of Monee (The Japanese spelling of the English word “money” is “マネー” but the story mode spells this as “マニー,” so the misspelling “Monee” is used to represent this). 

Their goals aren’t clearly explained during the game, but the first member I’ll mention is Bill Bank (CV: Daisuke Sakaguchi [Arcade], Yasuaki Horie [PSX]). Bill is a timid, soft-spoken, and childlike young boy who easily bursts into tears, whether he’s happy or sad. When Sakura meets him for the first time, she quite literally fights her inner demons to stop herself from bullying him, but he says it’s okay—his sister bullies him all the time. Conversely, Asahi’s interactions with him are quite funny. When introduced, he stutters a lot and struggles to get his words out, and Asahi, being the saint she is, is really patient and gives him the time he needs to speak. 

The scene itself is pretty funny, the two of them could’ve quite literally gone all day if Sakura didn’t say anything. However, I also just really like how sweet and accommodating Asashi is towards him. I wish these two had more scenes together, they’re cute. 

Anyways, on the topic of his sister, his sister's the leader of the Order of Monee, and despite Bill being the Secretary of Miscellaneous Affairs and second in command, his sister only really has Bill do basic grunt work, and threatens him by denying him food for the day if he fails his missions. His first name, Bill, is a common male-given name, but it’s also a play on the term “bank bill,” a bill of exchange between banks. Hell, reversing his name gives you the term “Bank Bill.”

When Bill transforms, he becomes Coquetrybouncer. His transformation is much less impressive than some of the others, as Bill just puts on a fursuit, but he claims that it's a mech suit. The term “Coquetry” refers to flirtatious behavior, and I assume “bouncer” refers to club bouncers.

The dogboy

Next is Lulula Franc (CV: Machiko Toyoshima), a young girl who’s very bubbly, very loud, and very pink. Despite being only a year younger than Sakura and Asahi, she behaves much more childishly and is often seen carrying a plushie named “Moneysaurus.” According to the wikis, despite her appearance, she’s described to be a haraguro character, someone who looks sweet on the outside but cruel on the inside. Many sources refer to her as a liar and spiteful, and you can see this quite a bit in the manga. This isn't seen much in game, however. Well, aside from the vile and evil shit she writes down in her losing animation!

It says “Baka.”

Within the Order of Monee, she runs the Order’s toy shop. Her surname, Franc, refers to the basic monetary unit used in Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg before being replaced by the Euro. 

KONNICHI~WA!

When Lulula transforms, she becomes Cherrybeiter or Cherrybiter. This form adds bubbles to her hair, big yellow boots, and a giant yellow ribbon on her backside.

She has yellow boots in game...

Next is En Arashizaki (CV: Rumi Kasahara): a kind and athletic young woman who works as a clerk at the convenience store, Monee Mart. Despite her sweet demeanor, she’s very prone to going into fits of rage. Her first name, En (円), simply refers to “yen,” the common currency of Japan. Her surname, Arashizaki (嵐崎), combines the characters for "storm" (嵐) and "cape" (崎), possibly reflecting her more fiery nature. 

Just a quick note though, while a lot of English wikis and sites refer to her given name as En or Ena, some reference sheets and official artwork refer to her name as “Madoka Ranzaki.” Madoka is simply the kun'yomi reading of the Kanji 円, while En is the on'yomi reading. The same applies to her last name Arashizaki vs. Ranzaki. 

When she transforms, she becomes Everyworker. As Everyworker, she dresses like a professional athlete and wears a giant white bandana wrapped into a bow around her head, similar to Sakura from Street Fighter. In this form, she's very much the mayor of Tomboy Town.

Then there’s Cecil Pound (CV: Hoko Kuwashima), or uh, “Seshil.” She’s an overzealous academic who loves to study and gloat about her knowledge. She seems to have a bit of a rivalry with Asahi, as she claims that she beats Asahi in every subject except for language class, and challenges her to settle the score. Within the Order of Monee, she runs an arcade called High Tech Monee. Her surname, Pound, simply refers to the British currency. 

She really said “🤓☝️”

When Cecil transforms, she becomes hot—er, um... let’s try that again.

When Cecil transforms, she becomes Eldylabor. As Eldylabor, her glasses reveal her eyes, her hair is straightened and appears longer, and she exudes much more confidence. She dresses more daringly, gains antennae, and wears fingerless gloves and tall boots. Despite her confident look, Japanese sources claim that she doesn’t like her transformation at all and is embarrassed by it. The name Eldylabor seems to be a portmanteau of “elder” and “labor.

Next, we have Billybarb Sakata, or Mr. Sakata (CV: Hideo Ishikawa), a mild-mannered teacher at the school Sakura and Asahi attend. According to the game’s story mode, he is also Sakura’s cousin. Also in the story mode, Sakura mocks him for having only 351 yen to his name—who knew teacher salaries were so low, even in ’90s Japan… His surname, Sakata, is a common Japanese surname, but it may also reference Kintarō Sakata, a folk hero known for his superhuman strength, raised by a yama-uba (mountain witch). 

His first name…is a bit of a nightmare for me to interpret. Birībāvu (ビリィバーヴ) can be interpreted in many different ways, and a lot of English wiki sites render this name as Blibov while others refer to him as Billybob. The prefix “Bli” doesn’t make too much sense to me, considering it omits the /i/ sound in ビ. Also, in the story mode, Sakura refers to him as “ビリィ,” so the nickname “Billy” would make more sense, and it also contains the term “Bill.” 

The second part, “bāvu,” could be Bov, Bob, Bawb, or anything like that. I only went with “Barb” because that’s what the official reference sheets used. On GiantBomb, I’ve seen it claimed that he is half-Russian, but I can’t find any other source to corroborate this. But in that case, if it was supposed to be the name Блибов (Blibov), it would have been spelled as ブリボフ in Japanese. 

  

When Sakata transforms, he becomes the more eccentric Manly Spirit of Osaka: Macker Morkary. In this form, he gains a long white cape, red spandex, and gains a heavy Kansai accent. It is unclear whether or not Macker is a part of the Order of Monee or not; every other antagonist fought in the story mode is an agent from the Order of Monee, but some sources describe Morkary as some sort of guardian of Sakura and Asahi, in the same vein as someone like Tuxedo Mask, or at the very least a parody of that character type.

In the story mode, when he introduces himself as Morkary, Sakura (either intentionally or unintentionally) mishears it as mokkorii (もっこりー), which is a slang term meaning “erection” in Japanese—much to his irritation. It’s really silly. 

In the following line, he says something like “I-it ain’t Mokkorii! It’s MORKARY!! That's M-O-R-K-A-R-Y!” This in-game spelling of the name is actually why I chose to call him “Macker Morkary” in this post rather than “Mackermocally,” the name used in a lot of English fan wikis.

His voice is probably my favorite voice in the game.

Lastly, there’s Note Bank (CV: Yuko Nagashima), the chairwoman of the Bank Zaibatsu, leader of The Order of Monee, and Bill’s older sister. As the game’s final boss, she is haughty, domineering, and self-absorbed. Despite being only 20 years old, she has a complex about her age and being seen as old, and Sakura mocks her a lot of it in the story mode, going so far as calling her “Oba-san.”

Her given name, Note, is a play on “banknote” (a paper currency) and another term for “bill.” Additionally, reversing her full name gives you the term “Bank Note.”

Ohohohohoho!

When Note transforms, she becomes Mightdealer, a portmanteau of “might,” referring to her strength, and “dealer,” like a bank dealer. She loses her glasses, lets her hair flow freely, and wears a long, open-hip dress (which is red in official art but blue in-game). This is less of a transformation and more of a simple outfit change, but hey, she’s the boss, so she plays by different rules.

In addition to this lovely cast of characters, there is also a prologue story. This prologue was published in the March 1997 issue of Dengeki G’s Paradise, a Japanese magazine published by ASCII Media Works. This story was written by the game's original planner, Kengo Asai and illustrated by Atsuko Ishida, and the two would later work on the game's novelization. This prologue story sets the stage for the events that occur during the game, and gives more context to Sakura's character.

        Since this story was written by the game’s original planner, I will treat it as it’s canon. And I mention this because, good grief, it’s hard to find consistent lore on this game online. Every online resource I’ve looked at regarding Sakura's backstory and how she became a magical girl varies greatly depending on the website you use. Some say she was born into poverty, others say she was born into wealth; some say her mom has passed away, others say it’s her dad. Some sources claim she got her magical powers from a statue in an antique store, while others say they’re from a latent magical ability she was born with. Some say she’s hot, some say she’s cold; some say she’s yes, some say she’s no; some say she’s in, some say she’s out; some say she’s up, some say she’s down.

       Anyways, a translated version of this story can be read here, and below, I will provide a brief summary.

---

Summary

On an average day at Kisaragi Private School for Girls, we meet Sakura Mitsukoshi. When introduced, she's talking about some of her favorite pastimes, which include saving money, checking her balance, and not paying back debts. She explains that currently, she has a total of fifteen million, six hundred twenty thousand, four hundred fifty-two yen saved up in her account. She also explains that her father owns said bank.

Sakura is suddenly called into the nurse's office and is told by the school's nurse, Ms. Fujiko, that she's detected the presence of the endogenous opiod “bundorphin” in her body, an advanced organism hiding unknown potential. While much of this organism is unknown, what is known is:

"The people who secrete bundorphins… They are so completely dominated by otherworldly greed, they wouldn’t hesitate to sell off their own parents!" stated Ms. Fujiko.

The nurse proceeded to conduct more and more experiments on her and analyze this rare find. At the sight of a one thousand yen bill, Sakura gets so excited that she transforms and becomes Exchanger.

“The hope of today’s payslip!

The dream of tomorrow’s balance inquiry!

Even the most foul villain’s cash is still good!

Money Idol Exchanger!

My time… has come!”

Sakura’s transformation into the money-guardian idol Exchanger was influenced by her hidden desire to become an idol in addition to her love for tokusatsu superhero shows. The moment money is on the line, her spirit reacts strongly and moves her into action.

By the time Sakura had finished with the nurse, it was already nighttime when she found Asahi outside looking for her wallet. After hearing the amount of money that was in her wallet, Sakura unexpectedly transforms into Exchanger again and asks for a cut out of the cash if they find the wallet. And it is here where our heroine is born…

Exchanger!

---

💲Gameplay💲

Moving onto the gameplay, you move a little chibi version of your character on the bottom of a 7x12 board as you pick up and throw yen coins to make matches and combos. These combos send garbage to your opponent’s board, and to win, you need to overwhelm your opponent with so much garbage that it reaches the bottom of their screen.

It shares a lot of the same controls and core gameplay as Magical Drop. It also shares the same money-exchanging system as Moujiya, another puzzle video game from Fujitsu Pasocom Systems. The games were so similar that a lot of Japanese players jokingly referred to Money Idol as  "Magical Moujiya" or "Moujiya Drop."

Data East didn’t find the similarities as funny though, as Data East tried to sue Face for copyright infringement. However, this lawsuit didn’t go very far because Face went bankrupt just a year after this lawsuit was initially filed, and Data East went bankrupt very soon afterward, resulting in the lawsuit completely fizzling out and the two companies made up. That said, it’s really fucking ironic for the game all about money to result in the development company getting sued.  

Anyways, while the basic premise is similar, Money Idol Exchanger has a lot of differences as well. When making matches, rather than matching balloons of the same color, you’re matching yen coins of the same denominations. The denominations available to you are 1 yen coins, 5 yen coins, 10 yen coins, 50 yen coins, 100 yen coins, and 500 yen coins. 

However, simply matching yen doesn’t clear them from your board. For example, when you match five 10 yen coins, they just get exchanged for a single 50 yen coin. You then have to match the 50 yen coin with another 50 yen coin to make it into a single 100 yen coin. Now, you have to match that 100 yen coin with four other 100 yen coins to make a 500 yen coin. Then that 500 is matched with another 500, then it gets cleared from your board. 

Additionally, if you match more than the required number of yen coins needed to make a match, the remainder just gets cleared from your board. So for example, if you match six 10 yen coins, they still just become one 50 yen coin and the extra 10 yen coin just vanishes from existence, which could be something good to remember for clearing out space from your board.

Because of the way matching works, it naturally takes longer to clear out your board. To compensate though, the way yen coins are matched isn’t very strict. They could be matched vertically, horizontally, L-shaped, C-shaped, Z-shaped, or anything; they just can't be matched diagonally. Sorry.

Additionally, once in a sweet blue moon, you may encounter one of two power-ups on the board. One labeled ER, Eraser, and one labeled RU, Rank Up. If you match two ERs together, they erase every coin of a particular denomination from your board. The type of coin is decided by whatever the adjacent coin next to where you matched your two ERs is. So if you match two ERs adjacent to a 1-yen coin, every 1-yen coin will be removed from your board, which not only clears out space but also promotes further combos.

If you match two RUs, it ranks up every coin of a particular denomination to whatever the next denomination is. So if you match two RUs adjacent to a 100-yen coin, every 100-yen coin will “rank up” to 500-yen coins. Since obtaining two of these power-ups in a board can usually take a while, for the time while you wait for the other, they may end up taking up space and getting in the way, so be wary of that.

Like many puzzlers, this game is very dependent on making combos and chains to send trash to your opponent’s board. If your opponent is getting a good chain of combos, the amount of lines that will be sent your way can be seen in the center of your screen under A-Lines, or Attack Lines. Keep note that like Magical Drop, the amount of A-Lines you can send to your opponent caps at 8. 

Speaking of Attack Lines, like Magical Drop, each of the eight characters has their own unique drop patterns which differentiates how each of them plays against one another. Also like Magical Drop, some drop patterns are nastier than others, Mightdealer and Macker have particularly more vicious patterns while Debtmiser and Everyworker have much easier to deal with patterns, this is why competitive Money Idol games also follow the same mirror match ruleset. 

While the patterns themselves are different, there aren’t any unique shapes like two vampiric fangs hanging on the sides of the screens or anything like that, they’re just flat patterns. They actually wouldn’t be too useful anyway considering this game doesn’t have quota. Below, I’ve provided an example of Everyworker’s attack pattern compared to Mokkorii’s. These images are taken from user Deka Fumo Death Cult.

There are two patterns shown, but the only difference between the two is that 

in the one on the right, the 500-yen coin is replaced with an ER

Everyworker’s pattern, as you can see, has a lot of potential for matches, a lot of 1-coins near one another, a lot of 10-coins near each other, and a 500-coin/ER in the center. 

Conversely, Mokkorii’s pattern is a lot more sporadic. Very few coins of similar denominations are near one another, so you have to fight a lot to make matches. With a lot of the higher-tier characters, the worst thing that can happen is being stuck in a situation where you’re essentially playing a game of Tower of Hanoi in order to make space for matches.  

When starting the game, you have six options to choose from. First is the VS COM mode, in which you get to “fight to computer” as stated in the English translation of the arcade version. What this actually means is that this is the standard single-player campaign, where you play against several opponents until you reach the final boss. In Easy mode, you fight against three opponents; in normal mode, you fight against seven characters; and in hard mode, you fight against eight opponents.    

Solo Play is the Endless/Practice Mode. You play on your own and see how high of a score you can get before you get overwhelmed. 

After that is the 1P vs 2P mode, which is the standard multiplayer mode in which you can play against someone else and compete in a best-of-three to see who can survive the longest while screwing one another over. But if you somehow struggle to find other people willing to play the Japanese Idol Magical Girl anime puzzle game, it’s just another mode you can skip.

Next, we have the Story Mode, which is basically the VS COM mode except with character dialogue in between matches. In this mode, you can only play as either Sakura or Asahi, and the two characters have their own respective character interactions and cutscenes. Since this game was only released in Japan, and there is no fan translation, I’d normally say that there’s no reason to play this mode over the standard VS COM mode, however, the script was translated online and you can read that as you play. The links for the dialogue of both Sakura and Asahi’s routes will be provided here.

Furthermore, you can also watch the cutscenes with English subtitles on YouTube, I’ll provide both of those videos as well.

The next mode is the “How to Play!” mode. In this mode, it’s just an animated sequence of the game’s mechanics being explained. As you’d expect, it’s all in Japanese, but all the info being explained is the same stuff that I mentioned in the above paragraphs. The biggest selling point though is that it’s all voice acted, so instead of reading some motherfucker on the internet explain everything, you can instead hear a cute anime girl explain it instead.

  

After that is the Options mode, which has a lot of the same options you’d expect from any game like this. You can change the number of games needed to win in the multiplayer mode, turn off the BGM or SE, turn off the demo video, etc. The most interesting thing in this menu is the Omake option, which is just the Sound Test mode. You can listen to the character's voices, various sound effects, and the game’s OST.

Speaking of the OST, that’s one of the bigger highlights of this game for me. The actual pool of songs to listen to is quite shallow, I admit, but each of them is very catchy and are songs that I listen to frequently. 

Actually, more on that, while Magical Drop had theme songs for every character in a roster of 22, this game only actually has 4 unique battle themes, and they surprisingly work well for the characters they’re assigned to. 

There’s Shakkin Senshi Debtmiser, which is, uh, Debtmiser’s theme; Theme of Mightdealer, for Mightdealer; the more silly Rival Theme for Coquertybouncer and Cherrybeiter; then there’s Ryoukai Senshi Exchanger, the theme used for…everyone else, Exchanger, Eldylabor, Everyworker, and Macker Morkary.

Generally, my biggest pros for this game are the cutesy art style and character designs, the OST, the gameplay, and the strategic depth. While the meta isn’t as deep as Magical Drop, there’s still enough to keep me invested in learning the game and improving, while also being different enough from Magical Drop to make each game feel completely unique.

A criticism I have, however, is that this game is definitely light on content. The PSX version added a Story Mode, yes, but it’s not much different from the VS COM mode. There’s effectively just a Solo Mode and the Single Player campaign. It would be nice to see something like Magical Drop’s Magical Adventure mode, or a more full-fledged adventure mode akin to something like Subspace Emissary or designed like an RPG similar to Magical Drop F’s adventure mode. This is hypothetical, of course; realistically, if the game did have those modes, Data East would have more reason to sue.

Something else that would be cool is if a modern port or remake added some in-game collectibles or achievements, similar to the role trophies had in Super Smash Bros. It would be a small change but would add more content and replayability.

One of the bigger criticisms I have with the PSX version specifically is the loading screens, though that’s not unique to this game. You may remember I briefly complained about that in my Magical Drop review, but in Money Idol Exchanger, it’s notably worse. You have to sit through a loading screen any time you swap to and from a match. So very, very frequently. The loading times themselves last up to about 12 seconds, and that time adds up a lot.

Another more subjective criticism is the difficulty. This game is a port of an arcade game designed to eat as many of your quarters as possible, and it shows—a lot. This game is ruthless. I swear to god, the AI straight-up cheats sometimes. When I played this game in arcades, I straight up cannot progress past Eldylabor. And even in the PSX version, I found myself struggling even on easy mode.

The least stressful game of Money Idol Exchanger

You might say that I probably just suck, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but a lot of other people find this game to be quite hard as well. In the single-player campaign, it’s common for players to get hard-walled at Eldylabor or Macker. I mention that this is a bit of a subjective criticism, though, because I can see a lot of people enjoying this kind of difficulty. It forces the player to really lock-in and learn the mechanics, patterns, and strategies of the game. When you combine that with the fact that this game is overall easy to get into, it creates an experience with a low barrier to entry but a high skill ceiling, which fosters a lot of potential playtime to compensate for the game’s lower amount of content.

Another thing I kind of like about games like this is that the brutal nature of the difficulty greatly contrasts with the game’s overall cutesy and bubbly appearance. It’s always funny to me when cutesy or innocuous-looking games suddenly sucker-punch you with the most bastardous difficulty you can imagine. It feels somewhat like a practical joke or like the devs are trolling you, and a lot of the joy comes from the surprise, laughing it off, and learning to overcome that difficulty. It’s an underrated type of experience that not many people talk about or can relate to, but it’s almost like the video game version of seeing Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse say, “Fuck!”

🏦Ports and Additional Media🏦

As I stated previously, this game was originally released for the Neo Geo MVS Arcade system and was ported to the PSX by the publishing company, Athena. Before that though, it was also ported to the GameBoy. This version was also published by Athena and is essentially a one-to-one port of the arcade version but with inferior graphics and a chiptune OST. You also now have a 7x9 board rather than a 7x12 board, and only the player board is shown in the game rather than both the player and opponent boards.  

The game was also ported to Windows ‘95 by a company called GMF and Ado Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. I couldn’t find much information regarding this version, but it’s likely that it was just a 1:1 port of the arcade version.

 

Additionally, Money Idol Exchanger was originally planned to be ported to the Sega Saturn by Athena and was priced at ¥5,800. However, for unknown reasons, this port was canceled. 

Image taken from Sega Saturn Perfect Catalogue (1997) Page 86

In 2006, this game was rereleased in Japan for the Vodafone Live!—now known as Yahoo! Mobile—a mobile phone IP connection service provided by SoftBank. This version of the game was playable using an app called V Appli, now called S! Appli, a Java application that allowed users to play mobile games. 

After that, the Japanese PlayStation version was made available by MonkeyPaw Games on the PlayStation Network's import store on November 16, 2010. Additionally, the PS Vita also got a port of this game in Japan in 2012.

Lastly, as I discussed before, the arcade version was also ported to modern systems in 2018. It was re-released as part of the Arcade Archives Neo Geo series for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

This may be surprising, but this game actually has received quite a bit of supplemental media. One such material is the Drama CD. Which retells the story of the game with some differences. For one, some of the voice actors are different, like Bill Bank being voiced by Junko Noda, rather than Daisuke Sakaguchi or Yasuaki Horie. A new character was also added, Won Vorg Gyalpilazzo (CV: Nobutoshi Kanna) Note Bank’s personal butler.   

Additionally, there was a light novel written by Asai Kengo and published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. The first edition was released in November of 1997 and has the ISBN of 4-8291-2783-X (ISBN-10) and 978-4829127834 (ISBN-13), just in case you were interested in looking into it. Luckily, a translation of the first chapter is available online by the same person who translated the story mode.

Lastly, there’s the manga adaptation, which I’m still currently reading. The manga was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's monthly manga magazine Monthly Dragon Age from the September 1997 issue to the June 1998 issue. It was illustrated by Okura Masahiko and contains two volumes. 

To my surprise, this manga has an English fan translation done by the group tl;dt (Too Long; Didn't Translate), the group also responsible for the translation of the manga, Tensei Kyuuketsuki-san wa Ohirune ga Shitai. To my further surprise, this translation is actually still ongoing, as the most recent translation of Chapter 7 was released in August of this year.

This manga deviates quite a bit from the lore seen in the game and is almost more in line with a traditional Magical Girl manga. The story starts when Sakura is killed by a car, she goes to hell and meets a deity named Ebisu, the god of fortune. Ebisu offers to revive her but only if she defeats and collects all the Greed Bugs that have possessed the humans on Earth. She is given the power to transform into "Exchanger," the Money Idol, and equipped with the tools necessary to defeat these Greed Bugs. Additionally, she must also pay back her revitalization fee. Following her is a Maneki-Neko mascot character named Sandayuu.

 

Sakura in the manga is characterized quite differently, being less of a twat and more of just a cheapskate. It’s also established in this manga that her family is on the poorer side, which I think makes her frugal nature more warranted compared to the games. In the manga, Sakura’s dad is just a simple Taxi Driver, and her mother has passed away, she also has two younger siblings: a brother named Shinto and a sister named Tomato.  

Since I’m only on chapter 3, I can’t speak much about any of the other characters, but what I can say is that I like how Bill is presented in the manga. He’s sent to Sakura’s school by Note to dig up info on Sakura, and he very much ends up being the popular foreign exchange student character that all the girls have a crush on, all the guys want to be his friend, he’s good at all the sports, and he gets good grades in his classes. It’s funny when he gets back home and Note asks him to report on what kind of info he got about Sakura, then he starts talking about all the friends he made.

The best part though is that my aforementioned comment about wishing Asahi and Bill had more scenes together is realized here. They end up developing feelings for one another and become really close. When one of the Greed Bugs attacks the school, Bill transforms into Coquertybouncer and protects Asahi, and while everyone else is laughing at Bill for how lame his transformation is, Asahi is there supporting him. Bill, as Coquerty, goes against his sister’s orders and holds off the Greed Bug until Sakura, as Exchanger, is able to catch up to them and save the day. 

🏧Conclusion🏧

Well, that’s everything I have to say about Money Idol Exchanger! I hope I did a good job of explaining everything and piquing your interest in this game, or at the very least, I hope I got you into some of the supplemental material. As I implied, if you enjoyed Magical Drop, Moujiya, Magical Girl anime, Shoujo anime, or even if you just think the game looks cute, I’d definitely recommend it. It’s fairly cheap to get on modern systems, so if you’re looking for a new easy-to-get-into puzzler to kill time, this is definitely worth your time and money...heh...

For a game that’s essentially just a simple arcade game, I was actually surprised at how much lore and details existed for this game. This might not be my longest blog post, but it did require notably more research than some of the other games I’ve talked about, as English information is rather scarce and can sometimes be unreliable. That said, I appreciate anyone who was willing to stick around and read through everything I had to say, and I hope to see you next time!    

💰References💰

Money Puzzle Exchanger (1997) - MobyGames. (2018). MobyGames. https://www.mobygames.com/game/35678/money-puzzle-exchanger/ 

‌ウィキメディアプロジェクトへの貢献者. (2006, October 11). マネーアイドルエクスチェンジャー. Wikipedia.org; ウィキメディア財団. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%8D%E3%83%BC%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89%E3%83%AB%E3%82%A8%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E3%83%81%E3%82%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC 

Wikipedia Contributors. (2024, October 22). Money Puzzle Exchanger. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Puzzle_Exchanger 

Money Idol Exchanger. Money Idol Exchanger Wiki; Fandom, Inc. https://moneyidolexchanger.fandom.com/wiki/Money_Idol_Exchanger 

Money Puzzle Exchanger. (1997, January 17). Giant Bomb. https://www.giantbomb.com/money-puzzle-exchanger/3030-26416/ 

Anim’Archive. (2020, August 15). Tumblr. https://animarchive.tumblr.com/post/626539329078050816/money-idol-exchanger-illustrations-by-atsuko 

Money Idol Exchanger. (2024, August 19). NamuWiki. https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EB%A8%B8%EB%8B%88%20%EC%95%84%EC%9D%B4%EB%8F%8C%20%EC%9D%B5%EC%8A%A4%EC%B2%B4%EC%9D%B8%EC%A0%80