Product: Life is a Love Story|Publisher: Zed|Format: Mobile
|Genre: Casual
|Players: 1
|Format: J2ME
|File size: 438KB
|Reviewed on: Sony Ericsson W850i other handsets|Version: Europe
Marriage. It's been the staple of romance stories for decades. From the initial relationship mishaps to the wedding day jitters, there's plenty of drama for writers to sink their teeth into.
The climax to these tales often involves the man dropping to his knees and opening a small box, orchestra swelling, sun setting. You get the picture.
What I've yet to see, though, is a romance that climaxes with a stranger accepting a proposal because they were handed a flower that was stolen from a pond the night before. Until now.
In Life is a Love Story you play Lima Coconut, heir to the almost extinct Coconut family fortune. Unfortunately, her batty Aunt has decided to alter her will so that the two remaining children, Lima and her brother, will be cut out of the inheritance unless they marry by the end of the week.
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Luckily, you only need to steal a flower to achieve this. At least it's original.
Instead of being able to just pick the flower from the beginning, the game only allows you to examine specific items at prescribed points during the story. Consequently, the game turns into 'hunt the magic pointing hand' as you rush between rooms desperately trying to work out it wants you to do next.
This wouldn't be so bad if the tasks followed a decent logic. In one particularly annoying section a character needs a pair of sunglasses before he can be persuaded to go to a party. After fruitlessly searching every room without success I suddenly saw the aforementioned pointing hand in the corner of the lobby.
They were in a pot plant. Of course.
Like the 'puzzles', the writing is skittish, vying between odd streams of conciousness, kooky jokes and some less than perfect translation. The descriptions and dialogue skirt over things extremely quickly, resulting in a plot that feels incredibly rushed, especially near the end of the game.
To balance these frustrations, the graphics do a good job of being bright, colourful and cartoony despite the locations being limited in variety. The controls are responsive and the animations simple but non-intrusive.
The most disappointing aspect, however, is the length - it took forty minutes to complete the game the first time, and around twenty on subsequent playthroughs. There are multiple endings depending on whom you marry to add a bit of extra distance, but these choices essentially boil down to a different line of text at the end with no variation in the plot or gameplay.
Life is a Love Story's brevity would be fine if the story and alternative endings justified the length, but the rushed nature of the plot, illogical puzzles and the lack of reward for replaying sully the experience significantly.
Love is a Life Story is an incredibly short interactive story with a sub-par plot and illogical puzzles. Occasionally amusing and cartoony, there just simply isn't enough game to make it a worthwhile purchase
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