I didn’t like high school for a reason. Playing Brooktown High, the newest sim game from Konami, forcibly reminded me of all the reasons being a teenager royally bites. Style is everything, people are catty, rumors are spread, and dating is a Darwinian fight for survival.
In this one-player game you are the new student at the aforementioned Brooktown High School and you pretty much set your course by the two minute survey you take to start things off. You have to pigeonhole yourself as a jock, a pretty boy/girl, or a brainiac. Where you go from there is all about how well you kiss up to everyone and play into stereotypes. The best part? It can all be achieved in three or four hours of play.
The animation is strong for this type of game, with a large cast of characters and several locations, including many school dances and classrooms. That, though, is where the positives end.
No matter how you choose to play, you end up doing many of the same things over and over again and after thirty minutes it is exceedingly monotonous. You can only practice kissing in your bedroom so many times before you are ready to write off any romantic interludes all together. And in the mini-game “Boogie-Tron 5000,” which is similar to Dance Dance Revolution, there is only one song.
The biggest problems though, are several glitches which seem to have slipped by the game designers. When dating you are constantly reminded to call your significant other every night, but often times the conversations are word for word the same until the fifth or sixth phone call. One time that I played I had not even spoken to a particular girl yet (I was playing as a teenage boy), but when I called her we were listed as “going steady.” This made for bigger problems later on and is clearly a fault that needs to be worked out.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
I have a SanDisk 1 GB memory stick, and have had no issues saving my game.
2 - Kate C. Harding
That's good feedback, Ken. I know a couple of other people who have had the same problem but maybe the problem is only in a certain pressing of the game.
3 - Matt Paprocki
What exactly does it do (or not do) when you try to save?
4 - Kate C. Harding
When I used the memory stick that did not come with my PSP, I got the same problem in two different places. The game promts you to enable (or not) an auto save feature. When I tried to enable it, it didn't recognize that there was a memory stick inserted.
If I tried to manually save, it would prompt me to "insert a memory stick" despite there being one in place.
When I put in my Sony one, though, no problems at all.
I did some research online and saw some user reviews citing the same problem. That spurred me to check out the Konami site, where they alluded to complaints about the problem with requests that folks contact them if they are having troubles.
Hope this helps :)
5 - what a cliche
It's such a cliche to claim to hate high school when you, Kate Crnich Harding, were not a loser by any means. You had a boyfriend (the man now your husband) and tons of friends. Now other people, less fortunate than you, had a good reason to hate high school.
6 - Ken Edwards
So call it artistic license.
We all hated high school at one point or another during those days.
7 - Kate C. Harding
"What a Cliche"...I am assuming I know you since you spelled my maiden name correctly. And while I did have a boyfriend and good friends, I did, by no means, enjoy the shark pool that was high school. I had my fair share of bad high school experiences, just like everyone I think!
To each his own :)
8 - JAYY PLUS
Actually theres more than one song on boogietron u gotta scroll thru them -_-
9 - Tirso
I can't play the game, when I talk to someone it will start to show the banner saying "welcome students" and then it will stay there and there is nothing I can do to go back. Can anyone help me please?
10 - kylepascual
how to call someone?
11 - hana.kiss
i have the same problem as tirso... I CANT TALK NOR DATE WITH STUDENTS?? How can i solve this problem??