Review: HuniePop
Well, today is Valentine’s Day so I decided to break away from my Final Fantasy marathon to bring a review of…. HuniePop.
I don’t know if I should be ashamed to review this title or not. Let’s be honest, this game is very much fanservice for Weeabos… It is part dating-sim and part puzzle game. The point of the game is hook up with hot anime chicks. Nothing else. That’s it. You see, in this game you play a nameless loser who can’t get an ounce of female attention. It is your lucky day, however! You meet a “sex-fairy” who is more than happy to give you all the help you need to meet and sleep with hot women. The key to your success is a magical PDA called the HunieBee. This device helps track local hotties as well as store their vital statistics.
Of course, for the HunieBee to be of any use, you have to talk to the girls to learn their likes and dislikes and uncover their personalities. Naturally, all this talking makes a girl hungry… so in order to keep engaging them you have to spend your hard-earned dollars on feeding them. Once you have enough rapport with a particular girl, you can ask them on a date. That’s when things get somewhat difficult.
In this game, the success of your date is determined by a Bejeweled-style mini game. If you manage to fill up the meter within the required number of turns, the date went well. If not, it is a bust. The key here is each girl has certain qualities that she likes and dislikes. These qualities are represented by different colored jewels in the mini-game. Through the game you can earn various gifts to give your date that enhance or change the effect of the jewels to make things easier.
Once you have completed enough dates with a particular girl, you can invite her back to your place for some…. entertainment. Upon successful completion of this, you are rewarded with a provocative visual. To win the game, you need to “entertain” every girl. If you manage to do so, there are even some hidden girls to unlock.
I should note that this game is available on Steam in a censored form. (Censored as in, the end-game reward is modified and not outright pornographic.) However, the patch to remove the censorship is easy enough to find online. The developer also released a regular patch today that adds Steam achievements. I’ve decided to reply the game in the near future to unlock these one at a time, instead of loading a save game and raking them in at once.
So if you’re lonely this Valentine’s Day…. here you go.
Version Reviewed: PC
Difficulty: Easy – I say this game is easy, but that’s really only true once you’ve managed to get the hang of it. Understanding how to upgrade your traits and how to use gifts to your advantage is the key to this game. Also, when it comes to the “Date Puzzle”, my mind was fixed on games like Candy Crush and Bejeweled, where you are limited into only moving pieces within three squares on the grid. In this game, you have access to move any piece in the same “line” to make a match. Getting your head around this freedom, actually makes the game much easier.
Multiplayer: No.
Story: The story here is very shallow. Although a recent patch has tried to add little more plot to the game. Honestly, it still fails in the story area. But…. who is playing this for the story, really?
Originality: As far as dating sims go, this game manages to actually be quite original. The puzzle-aspect is a nice touch and sets the game apart from most others of it’s kind.
Soundtrack: HuniePop features a pretty groovy sound track, surprisingly. The voice acting is also very well done and manages to give the girls personality.
Fun: I hate to admit it, but this game is actually quite fun. The characters are entertaining and overall gameplay is quite engaging.
Graphics: The artwork here is standard anime fare. But I found it to be vibrant and very pleasing to the eye. The characters are cute and the overall use of color is very good. There’s not much here for animation, but then again, that’s not the type of game this is.
Playcontrol: Point and click. No issues.
Downloadable Content: N/A
Mature Content: The whole concept of this game revolves around sexual themes. The subject matter is mature and of a sexual nature. The characters curse, some do drugs. The uncensored version of the game features pornographic nudity (animated). Some will also argue that this game objectifies women.
Value: The game currently goes for about $10 on Steam and if this is your type of thing, it’s worth the price. The developers seem pretty active, and recently added achievements to the game, etc.
Overall score (1-100): 75 – The sexual content of the game will either turn off some player or entice others. But looking past that, we actually have a pretty well polished engaging game. The characters are interesting and sometimes downright funny.
Original System: PC
Available today on: PC – (Updated as of Spring 2022)
Best Experience: PC – (Updated as of Spring 2022)
