Game Review: Love Hina Advance

Company: Nintendo
Type: Visual Novel
Language: Japanese
Rating: Worksafe

Info: This is a choose your own adventure-type game. You are the main character, Keitaro Urashima. Keitaro's been trying to get into Tokyo University, mostly because of a promise he made to a girl when he was young. However, he's already failed the entrance exam... TWICE! Not yet wanting to go home, he heads off to his grandma's inn, the Hinatasou, only to learn that it has become a...
The objective of this game is to get one of the girls (Naru, Shinobu, Kitsune, Su, Motoko, Mutsumi, and Sara) to fall in love with you. As you progress through the game, you will be asked to make choices. The girls will like orhate you depending on the choices you make. Make a right choice, and you willgain Hearts. Make the wrong choice, and you lose Hearts. You might alsobe on the recieving end of some abuse! Take too many hits, and the game will end.

Sound: Not too bad, considering the game is limited to the power of the Game Boy Advance. Sakura Saku sounds nice as a midi version XD. Also, the other tunes do create the mood of the story as it goes along, making it more enjoyable for the reader.

Gameplay: This is the game's unique feature. Like any other visual novel, you would have to select one out of two or more choices. However, the only difference is that you have a timer running down while doing so. If you pick the wrong choice or don't select at all, you lose up to 2 lives. You lose if all of your 7+ lives are gone. Cool concept, huh? The hardest choices are actually the ones involving Motoko. You have only 0.5 seconds to react. What the hell...

Visuals: Well presented too, considering the GBA's limitations. The anime characters are well portrayed here.

Replayability: You have to complete the game with different girls to see the different endings, but each girl only has one ending. Still, this game would be able to last you for a few days.

Overall: Try it out. It's an old-school game, but it really is one of the more unique visual novels out there. Plus, there's an English fan-translated patch for non-Japanese speaking fans of Love Hina. Go get it here.