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Summer Session
Tycoon Games
3/5

Getting stressed with those quick-moving RPG games or the super busy time management games? Then take a break from the stress with Summer Session, by Tycoon Games.

This game is a basic role playing turn-based decision game that has been simplified and slowed down. The player is a male, with no choice to be a female, but I soon understood why. The basic premise of the game is to achieve good grades while scoring points with the ladies, maintaining a certain "coolness" and also keeping your stress level down. This is done by attending class, talking with other students and characters, and deciding whether to hit on the teacher, which may turn off most female players.

In each scene, there are eventually choices to make. The dialog between characters appears on the screen, and at the beginning of the game, the player can enter his or her name, so it actually appears on the screen. The thoughts of the character and how he reacts to the events taking place also appear on the screen, giving the player ideas on how to respond to certain choices.

Categories such as strong, smart, cool, lucky, stressed and money change throughout the game as the player makes choices on whether to study, party, exercise or work. It is interesting to see how the other characters react to the decisions the player makes. The reactions are fairly realistic, such as females becoming angry with the character when he makes a stupid remark or asks the wrong question. Scenes can be replayed to make different choices and see how the characters react to the new choices, but there is a skip mode and a fast forward mode that allows the player to move quickly to the areas where another choice must be made.

The graphics are actually quite good, consisting of Manga artwork that has slight animation when the player is talking to characters. The colors are bright and fun to look at, and the music is nice and fitting with the theme. The sound made when status changes take place is slightly annoying and remains the same throughout the game.

Although this is a nice change from high-stress, fast-moving games, it would not be good for children, because of the sexual overtones, posters in the bedroom and occasional cursing in conversations. Also, the player makes activity choices for the whole week based on the first day of class, and as the player goes through the week, studying or partying too much can affect stress levels, but the original selections cannot be changed. Days pass too quickly and the game can quickly become boring.

The trial version of this game seems rather short, as it consists of only one week of summer school, but I highly recommend playing the trial version to be sure this is something you would enjoy before purchasing it. This game is a 3/5 because although the graphics are fantastic and it is interesting to see how the characters react to your choices, you are locked in to certain choices for the entire week, and seems like it might be a quick play. There are other similar games out there that offer much more interaction that simply clicking to move to the next conversation.

Learn more about this author, Adrienne Brunner.
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