Beauty Salon (Handheld Game) - Game B Longplay

Beauty Salon (Handheld Game) - Game B Longplay -

Sorry about the low audio. Below is the game description...

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Beauty Salon is a handheld electronic game released by Bandai in 1981 as part of their early LCD product line. The device uses a single fixed-segment liquid-crystal display, with all gameplay taking place on one screen. As with most handheld games of this generation, all character positions are predefined segments that activate depending on the situation. There is no backlight; visibility depends entirely on ambient light, which was standard for Bandai units of this period.

The player controls a stylist located on the bottom row of the screen. Movement is limited to two directions: left and right. Customers appear in specific chairs across the upper portion of the display. Once a customer sits down, a short waiting period begins.

The player must move to the corresponding chair and press the action button to provide service. Each completed service awards points and resets the chair for the next customer. Customers advance through a simple state cycle: arrival, waiting, impatience, and departure. When a customer reaches the final impatience stage, a life is lost. The game ends once all lives have been depleted.

In addition to regular customers, the game introduces two bonus elements. At irregular intervals, a cash register symbol appears on the right edge of the screen. Moving to this position and pressing the action button awards supplementary points. A similar mechanic exists on the left edge, where a tea station appears occasionally. Reaching it provides a larger bonus but requires briefly prioritising it over waiting customers. These bonuses do not interrupt the standard gameplay loop; they are integrated into the regular flow.

Difficulty increases steadily as the session progresses. Customer arrival times shorten, the interval between impatience states decreases, and the rhythm becomes more demanding. There are no stages, transitions, cutscenes, or alternate game modes. The structure is continuous, and scoring is open-ended. The only objective is to survive as long as possible while maintaining service and managing the occasional bonuses. When the final life is lost, the screen clears and the game returns to its initial state.

The unit’s construction follows Bandai’s typical approach at the time: a compact, rectangular plastic shell, membrane-style buttons, a simple speaker providing single-tone sound effects, and operation powered by button-cell batteries. Depending on the production batch, minor cosmetic variations can be found, but the gameplay across versions is identical.

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