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Summer Session is a simple to play Anime based dating game. Guide your somewhat geeky male character through six gruelling weeks of summer school, struggling to pass classes while you make passes at your classmates and even one or two teachers along the way. Set out your timetable for the week, making sure to allow time for study, schmoozing and relaxation because you wouldn't want to pop off from too much stress now would you?

Summer Session is rather typical of the genre, pretty graphics in a very standard Anime style with some rather good cheerful and bouncy music in the background. The gameplay and controls are pretty simple too, just choose your option, point and click, click, click. So that is three plus points right off the bat. But is it any good?

Unfortunately the answer has to be yes and no. Yes in that it is kind of fun to play at dating, chasing some very cute Anime style girls. Yes because it's the sort of game you can put down and then pick up again later with absolutely no difficulty what so ever. But unfortunately it fails for three main reasons.

Firstly it is utterly unoriginal, there are lots of games just like this out there and some of them are a lot better.

Secondly it's purely a male heterosexual's game. There are lots of girls who play games, and lots of gay people who are gamers also, so where is the option to play it from another point of view? This is the one major point of innovation that seems to always be ignored by developers.

Thirdly it has absolutely no depth to it. Yes it is a dating game and how much depth can one expect but that said it would for once find one of this genre of games that has enough depth to it to make it possible to at least get your toes wet. This comes out mainly as you seem to not so much be playing your character as vaguely advising him and then coming along for the ride. Ever been a third wheel at a date? That's about how this game feels to play.

This isn't the worst of these games this reviewer has played, a few others come to mind as far more abominable, but it's very close to the bottom. It has the prettiness, the fun music and the right level of silliness a game like this needs to succeed but. It's just such a shame that the developers let themselves down by following the herd and not exploiting their opportunity to expand the genre.

Summer Session by Tycoon games receives a disappointing 2/5 from me for being the sort of disappointment that turns sweet innocent gamer girls to the dark side of gaming where headshots and body counts rule supreme.

Learn more about this author, Harper Gallagher.
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