Developer: HuniePot
Publisher: HuniePot
Rrp: £6.50 (their own site), £6.99 (Steam)
Released: 19th January 2015
Available on Steam, their own website
Played using: Mouse and Keyboard
Y’know for a while I racked my brain trying to come up with some snappy, funny or poetic way to introduce this game, and I have to say, I got nuttin’, sorry.
You play as, well… You. The character isn’t given a name, voice or anything, he (or she if you enable that option) is just a window looking into the world of HuniePop.
Huniepop is a visual novel come dating simulator with a difference, and that difference is how the dates are performed. It’s a match three game! Yes that’s right, dating is a match three game. Although, again, the match three aspect of it works differently to most others. Usually a match three will only allow you to swap one token with another that’s adjacent to it. In Huniepop you can match the symbol with any other as long as it’s in the same column or row. Now you notice I called it it a ‘token’ well that’s the games terminology for the different symbols. Each type has a different meaning such as sexuality, sentiment, passion etc and some women will react better with one type than another. You see, when you match three (or more) tokens it gives a score that goes toward filling a bar beneath the grid, once that bar’s filled you’ve successfully completed a date. The thing is though, you only have a limited number of moves, so you need to be as efficient as you can. You can increase your efficiency with date gifts (seen in a little grid under your ‘date bar’, this uses up a resource called sentiment that can only be gained by matching a certain type of token.
Each date gift will help by changing something in the grid or making a type of token more effective. One thing to bear in mind though is that as the name implies it’s a ‘gift’ as in once it’s used its gone for that date anyway, they return afterward (because magic….).
Upon completion of a date, win or lose, you gain Munie, anyone who has been on a date knows this makes no sense, unless you’re an escort then it totally does. Munie is used to buy items from within your phone, these items come under a few headings but all of them help you along with your dates.
Not long after beginning the game you’ll be given a ‘HunieBee’. This is the possibly the most disturbing aspect of this game. You see, when you meet a girl the HunieBee automatically tracks her, right down to her location, and will allow you to review what you know about the aforementioned girl. So essentially it’s a stalker app, ordinarily I would condemn such a thing but I look at this game as a satire and deconstruction of the entire ‘dating simulator’ genre, so I’m giving this one a free pass.
Anyway, besides the whole ‘tracking’ thing, the HunieBee is also where you can purchase your gifts and various other items, receive messages, upgrade your traits (more on that later) and access the settings.
As you talk to the various potential dates they’ll get hungry, and eventually refuse to answer your questions until you feed them… Like a tamagotchi. This is another place where your Munie comes into play, using the HunieBee you can buy food to give them and continue your interrogation. Something else that happens as you speak to the girls will be that you gain Hunie, you get some for merely speaking to them but if you answer their questions in a way they desire you recieve even more Hunie which is used to upgrade traits which will making your dates easier. To counter this though the more dates with a girl you get the harder the matches will be to make.
As you would expect when you go out on a date the girl changes outfit, when they do this it becomes a permanent option you can select at anytime. If your dates go well you’ll also start to receive picture messages from them, which you can collect… Like a creepy person.
I would not recommend this game to anyone who would take this seriously. There are things that are said and content in this game that is extremely politically incorrect. So if you’re someone who can’t stand a game of Cards Against Humanity it’s probably best if you not play this game. I also don’t recommend it to kids either, this is NSFW especially if you get the free patch which makes the censored Steam version uncensored.
If you liked that then perhaps try;
Cinders
Analogue: A Hate Story
Hatoful Boyfriend
