Discovering what went on elsewhere: Girl's Club

[Mr Creosote]

Subtitle: The Fantasy Dating Game, released only on Philips' ill-fated CD-i. Directed by David Riordan, mastermind behind Cinemaware's finest hour, It Came from the Desert.

It would be easy to mock this one for its ultra-dated aestetics, awful acting, girly theme... though actually, it's quite a solid design, achieving exactly what it attempts to do.

[Nishicorn]

You might also like the old Arcade classic, "Daisu-Kiss", because it's a really humorous, but well-done 'dating game', that has actually cute graphics, really good gameplay, beautiful colors and great music in my opinion.

It's also very humorous and just all-in-all, great fun. I discovered it some years ago, and have loved it ever since.

The title is a word play, because the japanese word 'Daisuki (desu)' means 'I love you' (it'd be too hard to explain the subtleties as to why it's not literally that, but it's used like that), and 'kiss' of course means 'kiss'. (In Katakana, it would be 'Daisu-kisu')

It's similar to the old japanese song about Tulips - after all, 'Tulip' is written as 'Churippu' in katakana, and japanese onomatopeia for kissing sound is 'chu' (a bit like 'smack' in english, perhaps, but more kiss-specific), and 'Lips' would be 'Rippu' in katakana as well. So 'Tulip' is basically Chu + Lips - meaning, kiss on the lips.

Chu-chu-chu-chu-chuuu-rippu! That's one part of the lyrics, if I recall correctly.

This kind of things can be a lot of fun, but what I don't understand is, why would you think it's easy to 'mock' something for "ultra-dated aesthetics' (I corrected this word for ya)? I mean, 'dated' doesn't mean bad, and on the other hand, graphics (which I think you meant..) do not 'date'. You can 'date' something based on its graphics sometimes, but since ALL kinds of graphics and methods for doing graphics are still used, it's a bit debatable as well.

The most astonishing thing about your post is .. 'girly theme'. Why would ANY theme be something to be used as a mocking point? What's wrong with 'girly theme'? Aren't we all equal, isn't any theme just as valid and good, if done well? I don't get this part at all. Are Barbie games bad because of the theme or the gameplay?

Why mock something based on 'theme', and why assume a certain theme is automatically somehow more 'mockable' than others? Let all themes live and appreciate everything!

Grow up from your childish attempt to squeeze human beings into tiny boxes based on their genitalia or preferences - let everyone love and like whatever they happen or want to love or like without assigning some kind of mock-automation to it!

Oh, I see you identify as being an 'evil mastermind'. Well, there's nothing 'masterful' about your post, but it certainly fits the first part of your really horrible self-identification, that in my opinion, is way more automatically mockable (as juvenile and toxic as it is) than 'a girly theme'. Are you avoiding any game with girls in them, so you can't play Street Fighter games or Tekkens?

That kind of theme-mocking or assumption is just ridiculous, and I am not even going to call it sexist, which it also is.

[Mr Creosote]

Nishicorn, before you go all ad hominem next time, could I politely ask you to actually read what I have posted and linked next time? You would have found that I'm doing none of what you are accusing me of. Yes, I'm also explaining what I mean with "ultra-dated aesthetics", and no, it is not the graphics. Thank you for your interest.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

Nishicorn, before you go all ad hominem next time, could I politely ask you to actually read what I have posted and linked next time?

If you look at all the posts that Nishicorn delivered today you might see a common theme and that is 'jumping to conclusions in record time'. That being said you actually got me interested in having a look at Girl's Club – The Fantasy Dating Game.

[saimon69]

Make me think in real life he is as fun as a root canal with no anesthesia -_-

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by saimon69

Make me think in real life he is as fun as a root canal with no anesthesia -_-

Not cool to put that in my head.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Not cool to put that in my head.

Yeah, not funny, been sorta there -_-

[Anubis]

From hot girlz to root canal in record time...

You guys are masters!!!

I am able to come to wrong conclusions on fly and in an instant, but Nishicorn, your mind is something else.

Now I have to check that damn game. Congratulation!

[Anubis]

Seems that 'Her Story' is available on xBox Game Pass - is this in the same category??

From the mind of Sam Barlow -- the creator of Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories -- Her Story isn't as unique now in 2022, but when it was released in 2015, as the indie scene was really getting off the ground, it caught many by surprise and its novelty was a big reason it earned critical acclaim. Over on Metacritic, the highest-rated version boasts a very impressive 91.

"Her Story is the award-winning video game from Sam Barlow, creator of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Aisle. A crime fiction game with non-linear storytelling, Her Story revolves around a police database full of live-action video footage. It stars Viva Seifert, actress and one half of the band Joe Gideon and the Shark."

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Seems that 'Her Story' is available on xBox Game Pass - is this in the same category??

Since I'm able to read Mr Creosote's review I'll just say no. Girl's Club is a game for teenage girls, while Her Story is an interactive fiction detective game. Both use FMV, but that's as far as similarities go (unless there is a hidden dark plot in Girl's Story ).

[Anubis]

You think that will stop Nishicorn from gettin' it all wrong??

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

You think that will stop Nishicorn from gettin' it all wrong??

It's hard to imagine anything can do that

[Mr Creosote]

Haha, I didn't expect this post to receive much attention at all, but now it certainly took a direction I never anticipated

I haven't played Her Story, but I read a discussion about it some years ago. Indeed seems fundamentally different. The closest game to Girl's Club I have previously played is actually the C64 Barbie game where you have to find appropriate clothes for her depending on the date Ken proposes. But much better than that!

[Anubis]

To bad Dizzy and Fred are too busy with RL to give their opinion, as I am sure they have quite collection of Barbie-like gamez.

Reason I mentioned Her Story, just got added to xbox game pass, and I remember someone here recommending it a while back.

Another game recommended that got released on XGP is Little Witch in the Woods (Stardew Valley like game according to an article I've read yesterday).

Funny, I have never played Stardew Valley, but my kids love the game.

Sorry for going bit off topic here. I will check this game over weekend, thanks to your review and Nishicorn's comment.

[Mr Creosote]

Thinking about it, there is one thing Girl's Club and Her Story have in common. Both are about gradually revealing facettes of a character upon player interaction. Just that Girl's Club plays more like a party game, could be done with cards as well.

[Anubis]

Have not played anything on Phillips CD-i since last time I checked Links and Zelda games. Now after setting it up again, will have to try that Mario game as well. Anyway, will play bit more, but started with Girl's Club Party.




Not sure why screenshots are not scaling correctly, they show correctly on screen.

[Mr Creosote]

It's an interlaced signal originally. The output scaler likely simply doubles the pixels vertically.

Hotel Mario is actually a nice game in my view. Also gets a lot of bad press based on those cartoon cutscenes, but the core gameplay is solid.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

It's an interlaced signal originally. The output scaler likely simply doubles the pixels vertically.

Yes, it seems RetroArch just doubled horizontal lines.

Originally Posted by Mr Creosote

Hotel Mario is actually a nice game in my view. Also gets a lot of bad press based on those cartoon cutscenes, but the core gameplay is solid.

Completely agree with this. I set it up with few more games that I will try to complete. (Zelda and other game you recommended - Steel Machine. LaunchBox with RetroArch integration made this much better experience then last time I run CD-i emulation.


Back to Girl's Club, interesting concept, Was this their try to reach to girls gamer?! I am really interested to see what kind of research happened to make decision that game like this would be a good outreach.

[Mr Creosote]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Back to Girl's Club, interesting concept, Was this their try to reach to girls gamer?! I am really interested to see what kind of research happened to make decision that game like this would be a good outreach.

Having played a number of CD-i games by now, I think it was really a system specific strategy. There is a large number of games available there which clearly are aimed at not-at-all the usual gamer crowd. Some, I would hardly call "video games" in the core sense. The CD-i hooked up to a living room (or bedroom) TV, controlled with a infrared remote instead of a mouse or a gamepad, they wanted to market it much more like an appliance than a gaming system. Much like the CDTV, if you think about it Though on the software side, I would say that Philips was more successful getting "entertainment products" out in that vein. Even if it finally all failed.

I mean, look at this one. There is no challenge to speak of. None at all. There is no skill to master. More or less, you just go with the flow of what you're presented with, smile or laugh at it, and make (again) more or less meaningless/random choices. Much of it actually takes place only in the minds of the people in front of the TV. Like: what will the others think of me when I make this choice? I would assume this one was intended as an enabler for social interaction rather than a real game. As such, I really maintain it's well made!