Love is... in Bloom (Nintendo DS) - Review by Chris

Introduction

The creation of video games and other media based on comics is not a new idea and has been around since the dawn of gaming. Yet, creating a game based on a comic strip, a few cells of animation with little in the way of continual story, has never been attempted for very apparent reasons. Elephant Games, however, has deemed the Love Is... range of comic strips worthy of a translation to video games in the clear hope of hitting it off with the new casual crowd that have settled on Nintendo's DS console. Unfortunately, even this can is too bare for their eyes.

Gameplay

Love Is... In Bloom is based off of a comic strip by New Zealand born artist Kim Grove and stars two nude characters, one male and one female, who begin to fall in love with one another. The game continues that theme and sets about showing the growing relationship between the two nameless characters as they spend more time together working in a flower shop, earning money so that they can buy gifts for one another and strengthen the relationship. As such, you're gameplay duties will involve a succession of days where each character will head out to pick flowers to sell for money so that a gift can be bought, with the sale price of the flowers varying each day, with a letter appearing in your mailbox every morning telling you what flowers are the most sought after for the day, and so careful selection of flowers is needed if you want to get enough cash.

With an empty flower shop and the dream of gifting the partner with a present to show them how much you care, you'll head off to your dream garden where you'll undertake a slew, or rather 12 very basic and boring mini-games to get the flowers you need to ultimate sell for money. The games come in a small variety with them taking the form of lawn mowing, flower protection or just simply picking as many flowers as possibly can within the time limit until your basket is full. Once you've got a collection of flowers, you can then sell them and use the money to help unlock further mini-games, as you're only given a small selection to start with and have to buy the rest of them from the store. It's a cheap way of making you have to replay certain mini-games so you get enough money to unlock the rest of them but even when you get the full 12 unlocked, it does alleviate the feeling of boredom that the initial ones bring as the tasks remain as repetitive as before. As the days progress and you collect and sell more flowers, you'll earn hearts and once 7 have been collected, the game is done. With such a small selection of gameplay on offer, it's a wonder as to why they thought a game could be made of the comic strip as there isn't enough source material there to do the license justice. Should you wish it, you can replay the mini-games through the only other gameplay option in the main menu, Quick Play, for high scores. And that's your lot. No multiplayer or anything. The games will give you some very short relief but after that, you'll be stuck trying to think of any reason to come back.

Controls

The menus and most of the in-game mini-games are controlled through use of the touch screen. It works well enough but the controls aren't exactly taxing for even the youngest of gamers. A tap here and slide across the screen there. It's very easy to get to grips with and to navigate through the options. The d-pad is brought into use in some of the mini-games but it hasn't been implemented as well as it could have been giving a delayed response to your inputs and to when you stop pressing the buttons. It can make the mini-games where it is used a little more difficult than they should otherwise be but you'll learn to compensate for it should you endeavour to play through the game.

Graphics

Bringing a mixture of 2d and 3d artwork to the fold, the game doesn't look very good. 3d character models, specifically those of the two main characters, are the best of the bunch but everything falls short of the expectations we have for a Nintendo DS title. The characters look incredibly angular and lack any attention to detail to make them believable. They even look lifeless in comparison with the version of the characters that are so commonly found within the comic strips. The 2d work isn't much better, looking blocky and just generally looking of a low standard. The comic strip interludes that tell the story are perhaps the saving grace of the graphics managing to get the correct feel of the strip but it's a fleeting moment of saving as you'll soon be back into the game where everything screams 'bland'.

Sound

One piece of music punctuates the entirety of the game. It's constantly on a loop and while if it had been interesting, it could have perhaps been bearable but this is so irritating you'll want to turn the sound off. Granted, the game is based off of a comic strip where it's only represented as pictures and words but when you bring that over to a video game, you need to cover all the bases and even though there is music present, anything would have been better than having a single, monotonous song repeat over and over again.

Dual screen

The mini-games all play out on the touch screen, all implementing touch controls, but it's all very basic as is the use of the top screen. Neither screens are used particularly well, although in town the top screen does show a 3d display of the map which is on the touch screen but it just isn't wholly needed.

Final comments

If it's not apparent by now, the Love Is... comic strips do not translate over to a video game well and as a result, Love Is... In Bloom turns out to be a truly awful game. There are very few reasons why anyone should endure this game, with bland and repetitive gameplay which is over quicker than it started and a presentation that looks so lazy that even the characters in the game feel sorry for the team who had to design this. This really isn't worth your time as a gamer at all.

Pro: Controls are easy to use and accessible
Con: Gameplay is shallow and boring, presentation is awful apart from the comic strip sequences, entire package feels ridiculously cheap
Final score: 1.6

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