The characters’ interpersonal relationships beg to be fleshed out (if you’ll pardon the expression) for instance, two of your potential girlfriends are mother and daughter, yet there are no scenes where they interact. HuniePop’s writing is surprisingly solid. The twelve girls all have strong (if stereotypical) personalities, and the conversations that introduce each of them are genuinely hilarious (if a little on the vulgar side). This is billed as a “gameplay first” dating sim, so this choice isn’t exactly surprising, but it is a little disappointing. In most of these games, each girl will have her own story to string the sex scenes together and get you invested in her, but here you just take them out on four dates and then bang them. The story is bare-bones, even… no, especially for a dating sim. She takes you under her wing, claiming you “will be her greatest accomplishment yet.” Throughout the game Kyu acts as your invisible dating coach, your nymphomaniac roommate, and once you have a few notches on your belt, a potential conquest. See, that girl is actually Kyu, a pink-haired “love fairy” who makes it her mission to get desperate folks into a sexual relationship. One night you make a disastrous pass at a cute brunette at the end of the bar, and it changes your life forever.
In HuniePop you play a pathetic, unemployed loser – male or female, the choice is yours – who spends the day in their room playing video games and only goes out at night to drink alone in bars. All told, these are some of the best production values I’ve seen in any adventure game, let alone a Kickstarter project. An infectious pop soundtrack from freelance composer Jonathan Wandag rounds out the package, imbuing scenes with a playful, happy mood. The voice actresses are mostly newcomers from the sound of things (which makes sense aside from Dan Green – the star of Yu-Gi-Oh – most voiceover professionals stay away from this stuff), but their line delivery is very smooth and natural – heck, even their fake enthusiasm sounds more convincing than most of the girls I’ve dated. Not only are they well-drawn, they’re also animated with multiple expressions and lip-syncing to the game’s fully-voiced dialogue. As for the dating sim elements, where most western takes on the anime style tend to be subtly off, HuniePop’s character portraits could give most Japanese eroge circles a run for their money. The game’s interface looks fantastic, and its puzzle visuals can easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Bejeweled, Tetris, and Puzzle League in terms of all-important clarity and simplicity. Designer Ryan Koons (an ex-Insomniac employee) brought on a team of supremely talented artists to help bring his filthy vision to life, and the results are plain to see. The first thing you’ll notice when you boot up the game is that it looks – and sounds – really, really good.
Well, that’s not the only thing that sets it apart. What sets HuniePop apart is that all of this is accomplished through match-three puzzle gameplay – yes, even the sex. The goal of the game, such as there is one, is to seduce a multitude of women (the technical term is “waifus”) with diverse personalities and ethnic backgrounds so that they’ll send you increasingly racy pictures and eventually sleep with you. HuniePop is one of those “dating simulators” or “galge” (Gal-Games) that’s so popular in Japan, but let’s cut the weak euphemism – it’s convoluted pornography. This is a difficult review to write – not because HuniePop is hard to evaluate by any stretch, but because in writing this I have to admit that I played it.
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