Hands on with Brooktown High on PSP

We had the chance to go hands on with Brooktown High, part of Konami's continuing PlayStation Portable push, during the Game Developers Conference earlier this month.

An out-of-the-ordinary high school simulation, Brooktown High brings academia and hormones together for a quirky yet surprisingly fun experience. Forget studying — your ultimate goal is to score a partner for the senior prom; naturally, it'll take some hard work, determination, and a bit of hair gel to land a hot date.

Before you enroll for classes, you take an introductory quiz. The game starts off with a slate of questions, with your answers influencing how other characters will treat you. Ranging from what style of clothes you like to how your parents treat you, there are about a dozen questions intended to gauge your personality. Based on your answers, you'll be plopped into a US-centric social class: rebel, jock, nerd, or prep.

Shockingly, we were placed among the nerds. At least we were able to adjust our character's appearance so as to tone down his geek factor – Brooktown High will feature a range of options for customising you character's physical appearance in order to make him or her unique.

We woke up the morning of our first day of school and proceeded to dress. You'll start off each day dressing your character using clothes bought from within the game. New clothing becomes available throughout the school year, changing with the seasons and trends. Keeping mindful of what you're wearing is important, since others will check out your threads and judge you accordingly.

In a desperate attempt at coolness, we clothed our guy in a pair of faded jeans and a white t-shirt. This made it much easier to approach rebels, for example, who otherwise might have been put off by our social alignment.

Much of Brooktown High plays out through conversations that change based on your input. Your confidence meter, which sits in the lower right of the screen, indicates your potential success in a conversation; naturally, higher confidence levels result in greater success. Using the face buttons to select phrases, you can engage classmates to make friends, accept simple missions, or even ask them on a date.

Missions are infrequent, but we did get a chance to play through one which addressed the needs of a health food-starved jock girl. Bemoaning the lack of healthy snacks in the vending machines, the young girl pleaded for our help in petitioning the school board to switch up the snacks. By gathering enough signatures around campus, we were not only able to secure the swap, but also gained crucial points with said girl.

You can track all of your relationships via the personal social organizer on your trusty in-game PDA. With 20 different characters up for grabs, you'll want to keep a keen eye for your best prospect. When it comes time to ask your crush out, be prepared for a grilling.

In having our nerdy little boy ask a girl out, we were prompted to select a location, date, and time. Unfortunately, our love interest was hesitant, claiming she was busy on the day we asked for her company. At this point, we had the option of running for cover or being persistent and asking for a date on a different date. Success! She totally could hang out at the mall the next weekend.

You'll have to spend quite a bit of time courting someone in Brooktown High. Getting a date takes perseverance and a lot of work, but just like a real date the rewards are worth it.

American gamers won't have to wait too long to take Brooktown High out on the town; it's slated to hit the shelves in early summer. We're still waiting for details of a European release, but we're not hugely confident we'll see one.