HuniePop Review

  One of the most infamous games to have come out in the last few years is HuniePop by HuniePot.  This game became well known for it sexual content and was also on the forefront of content control on Twitch.  These type of games never really made it into my radar but it was in a humble bundle and I made a drunk decision to try it. For the sake of charity.

The Game:   

  HuniePop is a puzzle "dating simulator" where your goal is to get with several women.  You are greeted by a fairy early on who tells you she is there to help you meet women.  She gives you a device that will track down women you meet and hints on what each girl likes to be bought.  Once you meet one of these girls you can track down where they are and go ask them out on a date or talk with them. 

  The dates are a connect three puzzle game. There are four primary colors that represent a trait and special pieces you can use to increase your dates passion, gain more turns, gain sentiment, or lose your progress.  Sentiment will allow you to give your dates gifts that you can bring along that will do special things like erasing all the broken heart pieces.  If you are successful you will gain a heart with them and after so many hearts you can take them on a night date and if successful you will get to sleep with said female.  This is also a puzzle game without the broken hearts.

  You gain cash through successfully completing dates and "hunie" through talking with the girls and learning and remembering their traits.  There are also questions that girls will ask when you are having a conversation with them that go with their personality.  If you answer the way they like you will gain hunie from it.  

  The dating sim part comes with a shop where you can buy gifts for your dates.  Some of these items will increase the amount of hunie you get when talking to your dates.  You also have a traits page that will allow you to spend hunie to improve the effectiveness of some orbs in the puzzle.  

My Thoughts:

  This game was a surprise to me.  Not by the content, I knew what kind of game it was, but that it wasn't at all boring.  It was surprisingly pretty entertaining and on top of that was the well drawn anime dates.  While not being a game I will openly talk about playing (as I am blogging about it) it is also one that I won't find myself trashing.

  The voice acting in the game was OK and the soundtrack was decent enough to not feel repetitive in the levels.  The range of character in the date was interesting and some of them were kind of fun to get to know a little mor.  Each of these girls plays an archetype of a stereotype, which at times was pretty amusing.

  I did not expect the puzzle three game to be this entertaining.  This was by far the highlight of the game, unless anime boobs are your thing, then its more of a secondary highlight.  The added mechanics to the puzzle three makes it more then just a mindless puzzle game where you are just trying to line up three colors.  Having to pay attention to the one the date likes along with knowing when to use your special items while avoiding broken hearts was some pretty entertaining gameplay.  This as a stand alone could have been a survivable game but with the other stuff added it just worked.

  Dating sims have never really been all appealing to me but I definitely see the draw now.  They are a hyper fantasy of what you would prefer the dating life to be as apposed to what it actually is.  When you get rejected in HuniePop you just come back the next day and try a different answer or buy more items.  It definitely serves to a desire for something that is not even close to realism. This is also a reason I like games.  While I feel this one uses a baser fantasy of sex to sell it, it's still a fantasy that some people would like to be a part of.

  If you aren't sketched out by games like this its not bad.  The entertainment is definitely there and the mechanics in the game are mostly clean.  I say mostly because their were times my combos stopped on the puzzles because the hearts would sometimes not disappear even when lined up.  This wasn't that big deal though. Otherwise I will say its a pretty game for what it is.  There is a patch on the Steam forum posted by the devs where you can get the unedited images back into the game.  If you are like me and fell its important to play games as intended.

TL;DR:

  HuniePop is a puzzle dating simulator.  It's an anime adult themed game with an entertaining gameplay loop.  If you are interested, old enough, and haven't played it yet it is worth the time.