Before I begin, let me address two things. First, I at some point in the next week or two, I'm going to need to send my laptop to the repair shop. I might be able to use my old machine (if it still works) to update the blog, but there's still a chance that I'll be going dark for a couple days.
Second, some of you out there may be thinking, "What's he going to do now that games from the 2012-2013 academic year are pouring in and disrupting the alphabetical system?" Well, my plan is to first ignore the games from this year and, once I've finished with the other ones, go back and review this year's installments before the year's end (hopefully).
Alright, enough beating around the bush, let's get to Kisses (you should totally use that line on a date. Guaranteed success).
So I started up the game, got through a few menus, and screamed very loudly. The avatar that is supposed to represent you is the most horrifying thing mankind has yet to contrive. I'm not going to dwell on this, but let me just say that the uncanny valley called...
After that, I sat through a competent if boring tutorial during which I was instructed about the mechanics of the game. Essentially, it's resource management with a pinch of romance...just a pinch. See, the game seems to center itself around building up relationships with AI of the opposite sex (and hey, no love for the gay crowd? Eh, whatever). Building a game like that is fine as long as the player can actually get invested in the characters. Otherwise, it just gets boring. Ever wonder why there are so many dating sims out there based on popular anime? It's because those shows already made their viewers care for the characters, so all someone has to do to make a decent dating sim is to take those characters and make them smooch. Easy.
So, needless to say, I won't be giving any kisses to Kisses any time soon. Apart from the boring relationship mechanics, the entire game boils down to walking to a place to collect resources, going back to your igloo to refine them, and then consuming them. It's terribly formulaic and gets real tedious real fast.
I do have to say, though, apart from its less than stellar design, Kisses is damn amazing on the technical end. The textures are pretty impressive, especially since this was done in 2003. The framerate is solid and I didn't encounter any glitches. So there, a diamond in the rough.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay warm
Links
Anti-Climactic Foreplay with People You Don't Really Care For: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=525
