Stepping back into the first Danganronpa title, we immediately had a feeling of nostalgia hit our bee hearts here at Honey’s Anime. Despite Trigger Happy Havoc is now 11-years old, the first game has held up exceptionally well. Danganronpa Decadence being on the Nintendo Switch has allowed the first game—as well as the two sequels—to gain a new level of beauty as the visuals have been slightly polished up...but this is by no means a remake or remaster. Cutscenes still have a fuzzy look, and the only game to look truly modern is Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. Still, we don’t think plenty of fans—or newcomers—will say any of the Danganronpa games look old. They still have beautiful art and solid gameplay that remains true even after all these years!

Assuming anyone hasn’t played any of the four games in Danganronpa Decadence—more on the fourth game later—here’s the main gist of the first three. Players control one of the characters and must solve various murders committed by one of the main class members. Danganronpa 1-3 follow a similar theme of being split into two parts almost like the Phoenix Wright series. There’s an adventure mode where you’ll examine crime scenes or talk with friends/class members. After you do gain all the evidence you need, you’ll enter phase two, where Danganronpa Decadence shines brightest—the class court trials!

In the class trials, players will need to pay attention to the various statements and alibis given to deduce who is lying and who is telling the truth. These class trials have players shooting—yes, like a gun—statements that they feel are accurate or complete lies. All three games change up this formula slightly by adding various mini-games—which are quite strange, like hangman and literal car racing sequences—but that’s why Danganronpa is a franchise like no other. It's original and, as you play each game, you can see where the developers tried to change things and enhance what worked and what didn’t.

Easily, the best element of Danganronpa Decadence is that you’re getting three meaty titles and a fourth one that takes a side game from one of the titles and fleshes it out a bit. While we love our PSP and PS Vita, playing any of the three main games on the Nintendo Switch while docked or portable is truly a great experience. Plus, those who buy the physical cartridge of Danganronpa Decadence will be pleased to know all 4 games are on the single cartridge!

Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp is a developed version of the Danganronpa V3 minigame: Ultimate Killing Harmony, known as "Ultimate Talent Development Plan."

This game does not have a direct protagonist but does place a slight emphasis on Makoto Naegi (Trigger Happy Havok) and his sister Komaru (Ultra Despair Girls), introducing an extremely basic story that unites all of Danganronpa's characters regardless of whether they had died in any of these editions. So yes, it's basically a short fanservicing game based on Trigger Happy Havok, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, and Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.

In Development Mode, you pick one of the many characters in the saga and use it to traverse a game board for 50 days (50 turns), with the number of squares you can advance dictated by the value of a die. The goal is to reach a boss, defeat him in turn-based combat, obtain the scroll from that island and move to the next one by defeating the mini-bosses blocking the way. All this is greatly facilitated by various cards that you can obtain from other characters or by random events, allowing you to revive, deal more damage in the next fight, or even teleport to your objective.