Magical Date (Playstation)

 Back in the ancient past when I reviewed Graduation, I mentioned that I've never been able to do well with the stat-heavy micromangaement of games like that and Tokimeki Memorial. Which is kind of a shame, as when I was about 14, the idea of there being games themed around dating like that was really interesting to me. Of course, none of them were available in English at that time, so the distant curiosity is all there was. And by the time translations for them did start to appear, I'd already long since lost interest in them! If only I'd known back then about Magical Date: Doki Doki Kokuhaku Daisakusen (Magical Date: The Great Heart-Pounding Love Confession Strategy).

 

This is a game about going on dates, and though I'd not played it until the recent translation patch came out, it would have been almost completely playable without Japanese knowledge. And almost as importantly, without an interest in complex and detailed stat management. Instead, it's a collection of minigames, all completely unrelated to the situation you're in. You pick one of three girls, and then a date destination. You're then shown a path made up of a few squares leading to the destination, each of which represents a mini-game. You could compare the set up to Bishi Bashi, or Tanto-R, but personally, it feels to me a lot like Tenkomori Shooting, but without the shooting (mostly). Maybe it's just the polygons making me feel that way, though.

 

The games are pretty varied, there's stuff that really takes advantage of being in 3D like identifying a giant 3D letter that you can only see from the sides, or counting the number of cubes in a rotating formation. Simple classics like the old "find the pairs of cards" memory test, and skill/reaction type games like flying a seagull through some rings (this once being excellently entitled "Seagull Aeronautics"), shooting down Adamski-type UFOs with your laser eyes, or punching giant faces that grow out of the walls. One per date, you'll also be asked a series of yes or no questions by your paramour, and while you can't lose lives in these bits, you are still scored on them, and doing well and increase your affection meter a stage. These parts are the only ones (that I've encountered) that would have required Japanese knowledge if the game hadn't been translated, and like I said: even they aren't super-important. Possibly a concession to the fact that you're expected to know which answer would be preferred, when the questions are being asked by an approximation of a mid-90s Japanese teenager as written by who I assume was an adult male game developer.

 

Magical Date is a decent enough game, but unless you have someone with whom to play it competitively (The empty space for a second player is marked on some screens with "Love Rival Wanted!", so I guess you're both vying for the affection of the same girl, rather than some kind of boy versus girl aggressive date situation), it probably won't hold your attention for long. The big draw is probably the very charming mid-90s polygonal graphics, which are admittedly very nice, and the minigame format means that there's a bit of variety to them to, unconstrained by the necessity of any kind of cohesion. Download the fan translation, play it for a while, take some screenshots or gifs, and move on. Though I do think it would've got a lot of playtime if I'd known about and been able to get a copy of it back around the year 2000.