Despite their prominence overseas, visual novels are largely despised in the western world. There’s plenty of criticism to be leveled at the genre, to be sure — visual novels contain little gameplay, they often cater to bizarre niches and fetishes, and many titles are blatantly pornographic. Yet they remain popular among many audiences in Japan.
Few visual novel games are available in the English language, either, giving North American gamers little first-hand experience with the genre. Thanks to the ease of publishing in the App Store, however, visual novels have flourished on the iPhone. The platform has hosted ports of successful PC games like Gift and Memories Off, and many titles are available for purchase in North America, though they often lack English language support.
Daidai Inc’s My Neighbor Girl, released today, is one of the App Store’s few visual novels to feature a full English translation. Even more remarkably, it also includes English dubbing for the dialog sequences — and it’s drop-dead hilarious.
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Tags: adventure, daidai, iphone oddities, my neighbor girl, simulation, visual novel
Every so often, while browsing the new App Store releases, I come across a game that I’ve seen dozens of times before. It might be called Crazy Eggs, or Eggs Collector, or Eggs from USSR, or The Eggs. Each one is a simple, Game & Watch-styled LCD game in which a wolf character catches falling eggs. Miss three eggs, and the game is over.
After watching thousands of new apps roll in over the past several months, I can safely say that “Eggs” is one of the most-cloned game in the App Store. Curiously, each “new” version of Eggs is written by a different author, yet it features the exact same gameplay (and often, the exact same graphics) as the numerous clones that came before it.
So what is “Eggs?” Let’s find out!
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Tags: Action, eggs, game & watch, iphone oddities, nu pogodi, Puzzle
Sometimes, I come across an App Store release that makes me pause and consider just how ridiculous and improbable the iPhone’s software library can be. There are good games. There are bad games. There are really bad games. And then there are games that can only exist on the iPhone, and could never be released on any other platform, ever.
Example: Wonderland Quest, a hidden-object game published by Friskies. Yes. The cat food brand.
Wonderland Quest challenges players to find hidden pieces of Friskies-brand cat food hidden throughout a number of painted backdrops. The pieces are often cleverly hidden — a cloud can be in the shape of a fish, or a logo on a tennis shoe can be a concealed cow’s head. It’s decently fun, believe it or not, and it’s free.
It’s also a game based on cat food. This kind of thing hasn’t been seen since the days of Chase the Chuck Wagon. No one’s going to release a Purina-branded dog food game for the Nintendo DS, or a PSP game where the object is to wrestle an animal into a Snuggie.
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Tags: friskies, hidden object, iphone oddities, Puzzle, wonderland quest
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Despite their prominence overseas, visual novels are largely despised in the western world. There’s plenty of criticism to be leveled at the genre, to be sure — visual novels contain little gameplay, they often cater to bizarre niches and fetishes, and many titles are blatantly pornographic. Yet they remain popular among many audiences in Japan.
