A simple little game that can be completed in under 2 hours. I got it for a few bucks, but it's not so bad that I'd exploit the refund policy. That said, a few bucks is all it's really good for as most of the content is pretty tame and you're pretty much on rails for the most part unless you are really bad at paying attention. To be honest, I was simply/morbidly curious and there's not a whole lot of people posting reviews.
The art is hit-or-miss. I'm not really a big fan of the style, but if you like that Scott Pilgrim-ish look, they've done a pretty good job. Without the DLC, you get what you see in the screenshots; with it, less clothing is there. At first, I thought the game was playing it pretty safe as most of the shots are simply topless affairs, however it does have more explicit artwork in the second half of the game so it's not as tame as you might think.
That aside, the game looks like an RPG but plays like a point and click adventure game. You get coached at every step on where to go next and who to talk to. At points, you'll fetch objects and bring them to where they need to be to progress. It's not very complicated, nor is it demanding or sloggy enough to be unplayable... until you die. That was unexpected; there are a few places where you can get a game over and there is no checkpoint system so make liberal use of the save-anywhere feature or you'll be forced to re-do a lot of the game because there's no other compelling reason to make saves and it's easy to be lured into a false sense of security. Aside from that, there's a second half where you can revisit each character and get even more pictures of them, but you have to do some specific things to actually get there (which isn't hard to figure out).
Plotwise, it's the first episode of [i]Golden Boy[/i]. You're a dude who is hired to be a janitor at an office full of women, but unlike [i]Golden Boy[/i], you're not there to study the business. Instead you're there to make money, only you get an offer to take lewd photos of the women in the workplace for a bonus. This would be upsettingly creepy except every woman you can take a photo of is down to do so provided you do them favors. It's all very flirty and implausible. Very 80s raunchy comedy except it's got no comedy chops.
Despite its adult content, I don't think this game is for adults. It's for younger folks that like to get their hands on forbidden fruit and point and giggle at it, like [i]Leisure Suit Larry[/i] was in the day. I seriously doubt anyone's getting their jollies from this stuff, but it's not really up to LSL standards, either. It just kinda exists and is a decent, if bland way to kill some time. It would greatly be improved if it was witty and hilarious, but it just isn't. It's more... functional. The point is to get lewd photos and that's precisely what you do. I really can't fault it for that.
So in all honesty I don't really recommend this unless you're dreadfully curious like I was. You miss nothing by not playing it, but I also don't feel it deserves a thumbs-down. It's a small game and it doesn't take up too much of your time. The artwork, despite not being my thing, is actually pretty well done - as an aesthetic, I love pixel art in general. The writing is just okay. If anything, I think Sweet Banana is capable of much more than what they've put out with this game. The only hang-up is the lack of a checkpoint before handing you a game-over; for something this small, it seems like an unusual thing to leave players to their own devices for something they cannot possibly predict. It's an old-school thing, to be sure, and the game isn't so long that it's impossible to deal with, but it just seems out of place here. Do with this info what you will. Peace.
