Ubisoft gets you a date.

If you've read this far, you're either wondering why I bought it, or partially interested in the product itself. Sprung is a venture by Ubisoft to bring the much ignored "Dating Simulator" style game into the American market. The style of which, hasn't really had any dominance for a great deal of time.

Of course, this isn't some quirky Japanese title ported over, it's an actual attempt to bring the genre over more of an American appeal. What it ends up with is, something of a humorous and sometimes bizarrely interesting experience.

There is no real action here, no need to mash your control pad or even really worry about the whole 'touch screen gaming' because in reality nothing that you can do in the touch screen for this game can't be done with the use of the Direction pad, and face buttons.

Sprung basically follows two people on their vacation, Becky the female side of this game is on vacation as a new start having just broken up with her boy friend (still here? well.. I suppose you REALLY must be interested) while Brett is just your vest wearing best friend of Becky who has known her since they were small children.

Anyway, the action (or lack there of) is spread over both screens, with the bottom usually being saved for your character, and the top being the person your chatting or otherwise with at the time.

It's very much text-heavy, as every response, every option to say or otherwise is pretty well written out forcing you to either press random buttons or actually try to think things out in terms of a fantasy dating scene.

As much as it's usually refereed to as a dating sim, it's really not the normal kind that you usually stumble upon. Through the course of the game, you really don't do much real dating per-say more strategic moves that will get you 'hooked up' in the end.

Most of the games inside Sprung require memory to complete (or at least a piece of paper) memorizing peoples names, random quotes, and in one cases, just how you put on makeup properly.

To me, these are not really "Enjoyable" games, though what kept me slightly hooked was the interesting conversations and different reactions you could achieve out of people along the way.

Though, all that said, there really is only a certain number of ways you can "Complete the game" and many of them will require you to go over the same scene again and again and again and again until you say and do everything nearly perfect.

Graphics.

The graphics are relatively simple, each character has a list of basic animations and those tend to repeat almost randomly during some conversations. While this makes for interesting views the first time around, after a while it starts seeming slightly repetitive (much like most aspects of this game)

Sound.

Nothing really stunning in this department either, just enough to keep you from going totally insane, mixed in with some relatively catching riffs. You don't play this game for it's sound experience though and since there is no voice over's it's not exactly a large draw to begin with.

Game play

Like I said before, this game doesn't really use any of the unique features of the Nintendo DS to great detail. Other then the ability to see your own character and the one your talking too at the same time via the dual screen, it's pretty basic.

Everything that can be done on the touch screen, can be done almost easier with the directional pad and face buttons. Which might be a blessing for those people who experience hand cramps from having to hold the DS while you use the stylus (Though, I am not one of those people)

Game play is found in clicking multiple choice responses and picking out specific items of inventory from that particular screen (sometimes having the right item is more important then saying the right thing)

Presentation

Nothing out of the ordinary there, from point and click interface (or move and select) to basic menus, nothings really put here to wow you.

Overall

So where's the fun? For me the fun was in humour that can be found in the conversations, choices, and otherwise scattered throughout each side of the game (You can play once as Becky ,and again as Brett to see each side) Sometimes it was well worth the time spent to do it again just to see what happens when you say the worst possible thing.

Aside from that, it's rather old fashioned style adventure game meets dating sim. Minus all the exploration and viewing new and interesting scenery. It's not for everyone, in fact, it's probably not for most people but those that get a kick out of reading and this type of game should definitely look at picking it up.

Especially if they can get it at a bargain price. As a side note though, it's also not an incredibly long title, even if you play both characters.