Previous: Part 1
Next: Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Ending

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!

If you remember from last time, we left off about to select what our extracurricular activity was going to be!

We are doing this.  I’ve got bad vibes from the doctor, but he’s really cute, so what’s the worst that could possibly happen??

Yuuya what the heck.  Not only is “aphrodisiacs” spelled wrong, but you sound totally suspicious.

NEED YOU EVEN ASK?  Open drawers are an invitation.  Snoop, snoop, snoop!!!

OHGOD NINJA DOCTOR.  Thankfully he calmed down a bit when he learned I actually worked here…  Whew!  Off the hook for now, but why do I feel like that was such a close one…?

Okay Shuu some of the things you say are just scary.

By the way, Bani-chan lives hunter-gatherer-style in a cave.  Why are houses off-limits to humans?  I’m not sure if we’ll find out during this playthrough…

Field trip!  Let’s chat with our friend Ryouta.

What friends are for.  If your friends try to tell you otherwise, eat their lunches anyway.  It’s how you show them you care.

Another day, another sporting event I guess.

Sorry, I don’t do physical activity.  But maybe Bani-chan can hook up with the hot doctor in the first-aid tent!

…Or maybe Yuuya will be there instead.

Ah, see, Bani-chan and I are following the same train of thought after all.  Whatever is Dr. Iwamine up to, though?  Anyway, Bani-chan spent the Sports Festival patching up damaged doves with Yuuya.

Summer already? How time flies.

The first semester is getting wrapped up now – it won’t be long before Summer break!  How will Bani-chan fare before the semester ends, and how will she spend her Summer?  FIND OUT NEXT TIME…

Useful Link: Download Hatoful Boyfriend here!
Previous: Part 1
Next: Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Ending

There is no easy way to describe this game.

Okay, so it’s about pigeons.  And it’s a dating game, of the otome variety, if you know the term.  In a high school setting.  Yes, it really is an actual game; someone thought of this.  And then made it.

And then it garnered enough attention on this side of the ocean to warrant a translation of the full version of the game in English.

It was released last night, and you can download it right here, a marvelously appropriate Valentine’s Day gift indeed.

What do you mean you don’t want to play the absurd dating game about schoolgoing pigeons??  OF COURSE YOU DO.

Okay, so let me level with you on some things about this game.  It isn’t some slapped-together April Fool’s joke.  There is a legitimate backstory behind the concept of the game’s premise, and it’s more intriguing than you think.  Furthermore, no matter which bird you decide to pursue romantically, you are guaranteed an entertaining and fleshed-out story.

So, let’s check out this game I’m playing, Hatoful Boyfriend.

I know what you’re thinking.  This looks ridiculous!  Okay, so it is ridiculous.  But it’s also really fun!  It’s crazy and fun!  Crazy-fun!  And I can promise you that before you’re halfway through your story, you will entirely forget that the characters are pigeons.  Really!  Okay.  I’m done trying to convince you of Hatoful Boyfriend’s legitimacy.  Let’s just play.

Bunny Bani.  That’s me.

Hmmm…

And then our friend, Ryouta Kawara, shows up:

Hey!  That’s not a bird, that’s a boy!  No, no, it’s just an image that’s simulated for you so you can attribute a human face to your birdie friend.  You’ll never see his cute Shotaro face again after this introduction.

The first term begins.  Bunny Bani goes about her first day of school, meeting all kinds of new birdie friends!

There’s Nanaki Kazuaki, our homeroom teacher.  Tends to doze off in mid-sentence.

The transfer student, Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane.  Bani-chan is optimistic, but he just sounds like a snob to me!

A trip to the library introduces us to this shy fellow, Nageki Fujishiro.

A commotion in the hallway just after that brings us face-to-face with Yuuya Sakazaki, the kind of birdie everybirdie should know.

Oh, dear.  Most players should want to avoid the intimidating doctor, Shuu Iwamine, after hearing Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy playing so ominously in the background of this introduction…

and then there’s Oko San.

That’s all of the birds that will be introduced for now.  If you happen to scope out the Demo Version of the game (along with the English Patch) because you’re not committed enough to drop ~$5 on the Full Version, these are all of the birds that you’ll see.  However, now that the full version is out, there is one… special… additional… character.

I’ll try to scope him out as best as I can, but the truth is I’ve already played through this once (last night, just after I finished downloading it), and went through the whole game without so much as a glimpse at the new guy!  Looks like you’ll just have to sit tight and read along with my adventures if you want to see if I can find him this time. :3

Now, before we end this introduction to our pigeony adventure, let’s see the first set of options we’ll get to choose from.  Let’s choose what Bunny Bani will spend most of her time doing after class!

Oh, oh??  What is this?  ‘Infirmary Staff’?  This is especially interesting, because remember that I said I already played through this once last night?  Well, that fourth option was not there that time!  There is an absurd amount of replay value packaged up inside Hatoful Boyfriend, not only due to the branches and branches of stories, but because of stuff like this – options that aren’t even available to you unless you’ve cleared the game a certain number of times.

And thus ends part one!  Which after-school task will Bani-chan choose??  Which bird will capture her romantic affections, and will she survive the ordeals ahead??  The implications are more grave than you even know…

One last time, here’s the link to download Hatoful Boyfriend for yourself.

Next: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Ending

May 8, 2011

Hi there!  Welcome to our FIRST EVER INSTALLMENT of This Game I’m Playing.

Since today is Mother’s Day, a day that my mom always says is a great day to safely assume there won’t be any more frosts (hooray, Springtime!) and is therefore the perfect day to go outside and do some gardening…  Well, the most obvious game we should review is Gardening Mama!  I mean, can you even get any more appropriate than that?

First off, I wanna get us started by saying that this game is freaking adorable.  I’d actually never played any of the Cooking Mama series besides small demos, so this was my first actual purchase of the series. What made me dive into it?  Well, I rather like quirky minigames.  I also like flowers/girly things in general, and pixel art, and happy colors.  When I saw the box art for this game, my little heart squee’d with joy. SO MANY BRIGHT COLORS AND THOSE FLOWERS ARE SO CUTE OMG THIS GAME LOOKS SO CUTE AHHH

So anyway.

The general gameplay is the same as any other Cooking Mama installments. The process of growing flowers is handled through touch screen-controlled minigames, which basically follow the same steps you’d take in real life but sometimes Mama’s methods are pretty out there.

BUT BEFORE WE GET TO THE MINIGAMES

I like checking out the other game options before playing the actual game. \( ._.)/

This is the Decorate the Garden mode.  The dotted outlines are places where we can put cute garden decorations and flowers!  There are actually a lot of customization options, but right now we just see a lot of “?” icons because they need to be unlocked by playing the actual game. c; The empty plots (surrounded by pink picket fences) would even showcase the flowers that you’ve grown so far! Cute!! Yeah, we should probably get on that whole “growing flowers” thing. Like, that should be the main part of this review.

NOPE. LET’S DRESS UP MAMA FIRST.  The menu option that says “Make it Fancy” leads to this. More “?” icons. MANNN. I guess we really should actually do some gardening. Those secret dress-up options aren’t going to unlock themselves. (Bee-tee-dubs, the colorful flowers that you can drag around to make the floral headpiece are so pretty. ; 3;~)

OKAY COOL. LET’S GET PLANTING.

Oh hey look those decorations we placed actually show up in the garden while we’re working.  And Mama* is actually wearing that spiffy outfit we put together for her. Neat! *Having never actually played a Cooking Mama game before this, I’m assuming that we refer to this character as “Mama.” o_O

Pansies are my most favoritest flowers, so we’re going to start with those!  Sowing the seeds! That should be easy! Let’s get started!

Some simple games get those seeds in the ground! Your touch screen controls things like directing the shovel, tilting the watering can, and patting down soil. c:  It’s all pretty leisurely, even with a timer counting down the seconds. I messed up one step, but Mama promised she’d make things right! XD

Yup, everything turned out okay. c:

And now we wait a bit while the flowers are sleeping (I guess?).

I might continue this and show how the flowers turned out when they finished growing, but let’s wrap up this post for now!

Hope you enjoyed my little article! I’ll be covering more cute games in the future!  Have a happy Mother’s Day!

If you want to check out Gardening Mama for yourself, here’s where you can find it on Amazon and here it is on Play-Asia!