Sprung (also: Crush) (Nintendo DS) - Review by Flakmagnet

Introduction

What makes a game a game in these crazy ages? Gaming is often used as a form of escapism, allowing you to safely do what you would never dare, or could never even accomplish, standing alone against an army of alien invaders, race like crazy on city streets or even just rescue a princess from a large glorified turtle with spikes and fire breath. Now, thanks to Ubisoft, you can go "on the pull" without having to leave home, and without the use of the phrase "a/s/l?" That?s right, the DS has a dating sim, of sorts anyway.

Gameplay

You start by choosing to play as either Brett or Becky, 2 friends that have ended up at a mountain resort together, and basically trying to either hook up with someone new, or, if you get screwed over by your current fling, getting revenge on them. You play only by talking, you are very rarely able to actually perform an action, the talking is controlled much like conversations in a standard point and click game, you are given several, usually silly, phrases you can utter to help try to advance the plot.

Every mission is given an objective, and you simply have to steer things your way. Unfortunately there is often one direct way through a particular scene, and often it?s not the way you would think, it seems no one ever sticks to their stereotypes. Strangely something that would be a better result, such as being dragged into a threesome, still ends in failure!

Controls

Not a great deal to control here really, you have a load of text options, which you can either tap with the stylus, which can be fiddly as the text is relatively small, or you can simply select them using the buttons.

Graphics

Not exactly straining the DS, the pre-rendered backgrounds and the characters are drawn well, but don?t push anything that a GBA couldn?t handle. The characters don?t really have many expressions though, and you often end up visiting each area time and again, so the backgrounds feel overused.

Sound

Best played with the sound off, as the music is okay at first, but will quickly become repetitive as the music is on a very short loop in each area, getting very irritating very fast.

Dual screen

You are able to see the person you are speaking to and their response on the top screen, and can see yourself and your own reactions to anything that anyone says on the bottom screen. Both screens are used, but it could easily be done on one, switching between the two when necessary. To be honest, the whole game feels like it could have easily been handled on the GBA.

Final comments

Some of the conversations will offer you a slight chuckle, but other than that, the game can often prove to be a frustrating experience as you live each conversation time and again to go through the right tree of answers. If you feel like a quick giggle, think about picking it up, but I would advocate renting it if you can, there really is little to no replay value.

Then again if you want a good laugh I?d really suggest picking up any of the "Secret of Monkey Island" series for PC, or any other point and clickadventure, not only do most of them have similar conversation elements, every one I have played had a better replay value and better gameplay.

Pro: Amusing from time to time.
Con: Where to begin? Uninspiring graphics, little interaction, frustrating situations, poor sound, not at all innovative.
Final score: 3.1

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