Love Love Show

Reviewed by Craxton (craxton@erols.com)

Publisher: JAST USA Japanese Publisher: Hobibox Europe Cost: $19.95 *New price* Genre: Puzzle Availability: Now

LLS is very simple in concept: a spiced-up version of Connect Four executed in the tournament style of a fighting game. If you ever played Street Fighter or any of it's descendants, you know the drill. Choosing one of seven competitors, you fight through the other six, and a few bosses, to the final confrontation with the (ridiculously-named) ringmaster, Schlossbockelheimer. Success unlocks your chosen character's CG gallery, and multiple successes unlock the chance to play as the bosses.

Instead of martial-arts mayham, however, the game is mental. You and your opponent take turns dropping tokens into a ten-by-ten grid. First to line up five of their tokens horizontally, vertically, or diagonally takes the round, two out of three rounds wins the match. If you win, you advance in the tournament, and your opponent gets a turn in the bondage gear. To make the game a little more interesting, you and your opponent also get special moves that allow you to drop null tokens into the grid, delete tokens, or otherwise mess with the board.

It's more fun then it sounds. In fact, it's rather challenging. The AI is not stupid. It usually thwarts the direct approach and sees right through simple ploys. To win, you'll have to learn to weave complex traps and use your specials effectively. You also have to pay attention to the entire board, because a single move can change it drastically. If you're not careful, defeat can sneak up on you. It'll take some practice before you can confidently rambo through the game, and even then you'll probably get your ass kicked once or twice on your way to Schlossbockelheimer.

What Love Love Show scores with gameplay, it doubles with presentation. The music is certainly worth mention -- though some themes are annoying, (Karen's sounds like a three-year old making music on his mother's kitchenwares) many, are bright, energetic, and catchy. Especially good is Triple-A's wild MegaManish theme. The character designs are extraordinarily adorable, with ladies who are alternately sexy and super-cute. The drawing is likewise marvelous, with over-the-top superdeformed posturing and bright, vivacious colors accentuating the cuteness of the cast. Unfortunately, this artistic approach somewhat undermines the bondage scenes. Though it's easy to imagine, for example, a feral tiger-girl visiting sexual humiliation on defeated opponents, it's more difficult when the inflictor is a well-drawn mahou shoujo heroine or a nurse. Additionally, there's only one scene for each character, meaning once you've played the game twice, there are no surprises left. Ironically, the sex scenes turn out to be this game's weak point.

You'll noticed I haven't mentioned the plot, and with good reason. It's not there. Or rather, it IS there- in Japanese. Hobibox was unable to translate beyond the menus. Hence, the opening taunts, victory speeches, endings, and everything else, will be incomprehensible to anyone who does not know the language. Apparently, the original developers did not retain the source code to LLS, and without it, translation is too hard. (I dispute "impossible" -- Famicom/Super Famicom RPG's have been translated by amateur hackers using emulation for years.) Now, I don't know whether or not Love Love Show's plot is any good, but regardless, being able to read the dialogue is important. Visual appearance is only half of a character's personality, and not being able to read their words handicaps Love Love Show severely. Most notably, with their personalities only half-defined, the characters become mere pictures, and the sex scenes don't have the edge they might have had otherwise.

Hobibox attempts to compensate with an "Uncensored Game" bearing no relation whatsoever to the original aside from using the same art (uncensored, of course). Unfortunately, their efforts are not glorious- a concentration game that is as thoroughly blah as concentration usually is, and two, yes TWO different implementations of the fifteen puzzles. Andrew Plotkin is weeping for sorrow. Personally, I would have preferred a script or something so I could at least read along with the Japanese dialogue. Oh, and there's also a trailer for their upcoming "Creamy Luv Tart", starring one of the LLS girls. Whatever.

Despite the discouraging problem of translation, however, I can give at least a lukewarm recommendation to Love Love Show. It's not the kind of game you really devote yourself to- more of something to kill time in place of Free Cell- but it's still a fun game with an addictive simplicity and surprising tactical depth. If only I could understand what these ladies were saying...

Rating: 3 out of 5