Duel Love, like most renai games, is more reading and less playing. (Thus, that doesn't exactly make it import-friendly!) Onward the "Loved" and the "Hated"!

Loved

• Voice Acting: The developers were able to cram a fair amount of voice acting onto the DS cartridge. Hunky, Japanese dude voice acting! Sure, a lot of the time, it's just a few catch phrases for each character, but the mini-game massage moaning was a nice touch.
• Art: Duel Love features some stunning dual screen manga-style art. Typically, the upper screen is used for waist up shots of static faced-characters (hello Torsovision!), so the double screen anime art really do a nice job of mixing up things visually. These images don't move, but, like I said, pack a great deal of punch.
• Mini Games: The main attraction! Players get to "touch" pretty anime boys. As DS mini games go, these aren't half bad: There's a rhythm massage game where players need to touch arrows in the order that appear on the character's back. Same for an ice/ointment game. Other games include blowing steam away in the shower and mopping up sweat.

Hated

• Not *that* risky: The game is produced by Namco Bandai for the Nintendo DS, so actually in that regards, Duel Love does push the envelope. But those players expecting non-stop sweat-mopping and steam-blowing will be disappointed. That's merely window dressing on a very pedestrian window.
• Lack of interaction: Playing Duel Love felt like a test more than anything else. Like to see if you're actually paying attention! Characters drone on and on, and then just as you are going to pass out from boredom, someone asks you an inane question about Halloween or about a library book. Players are presentation with two choices. How you answer decides whether or not the male character falls for you. But you don't really have much opportunity to answer these questions or even ask questions. That's fairly standard for some renai games with male characters keep talking at you, not to you. Still, that's dull! No wonder this game is called Duel Love and not Dual Love.
• Crappy Adventure Mode: After you finish listening to other characters drone on and on, then a map will pop up, and it gives you three choices of where you can visit. This is most likely because sandbox style games aren't as popular in Japan.
• No Emotional Investment: Did. Not. Care. About. These. Characters. Whatsoever. Like a lot of manga and anime, Duel Love takes advantage of certain stereotypes or conventions. For example, there's Yuuma, the school's "mood maker" from Osaka. As the stereotypical Osaka person, he often cracks jokes and speaks in the Osaka dialect. Or there's Shinichiro, the glass-wearing bookworm, or melancholy Jin, the melancholy handsome dude. Streamlines the game, and plays on certain "types", but none of them were memorable.
• Music: If you're into synthesizers, you'll love it.
• Why is this a DS game?: Mini-games aside, there's not much reason this is a DS game. The touch screen isn't really used as it's easiest to set the game on "Auto" during the dialogue scenes, instead of touching the touch screen after each line of dialogue. The mini-games are such a small percentage of the game, Duel Love really needs something else to justify its existence on the DS. Or as a game, for that matter.
• Cannot Revisit Old Dialogue: It's possible to toggle ahead through the dialogue. But toggle back? Ha! Forget it, buddy. You must hang on every word. Ungh.

Duel Love never lives up to its saucy screenshot and is gaming's equivalent of the Sears catalogue: Lots of stuff, while only a page or so of underwear models. Those looking for erotic game thrills best look elsewhere. Ditto for those looking for a fun renai game. No love here for Duel Love. At all.

[Pic]

The anime girl says, "Blow to clear away the steam!" See? Helpful.
Duel Love [My Game News Flash]

Spring's in bloom! The season of love has arrived. Now, people want to fall in love, some people are tired of love, other want to forget it. Wouldn't you like to start fresh with Duel Love's Passion Mode? If lovey-dovey couples can play together, it'll be no accident that they get aroused!

She really has a beautiful mosaic. Check out the game's trailer below.

The game is called Duel Love and is actually made for girls to play on their DSs. The demo was extremely short but from what I could gather, the story involves you being a female transfer student who discovers a secret fight club for boys. The boys (who are surprisingly skinny) engage n various matches that cause them to start sweating. Some dialog is exchanged to the effect of "Boy I sure am tired and sweaty after all that working out." You're then taken to another screen showing the close up shot of the shirtless, skinny, hairless (and nipple-less) young man who appears to be fully naked although the picture crops off just above crotch. Some music plays and beads of sweat begin forming on his chest and arms which you then "wipe off" using the stylus. The icon is a little hand with a rag and as you wipe him down we moans a little and after a certain number of sweat beads are wiped away, a little bell sound rings and the background color changes. Once you've finished your arduous task you are rewarded with a bit of innocent flirtation from your boy who tells you "That was a great massage. Be sure you don't walk home alone. You know I could walk you home if you wanted." How sweet!

After that, the demo is over and it takes you back to the start screen. Not really a whole lot of action and I wasn't able to see this infamous "fight club". Literally the entire demo was wiping sweat. Odd to be sure and remarkably un-sexy. As I turned to leave I suddenly realized the game I had been playing was being shown above my head on a large screen and behind me was a quartet of young Japanese girls giggling into their hands. Oddly, when I returned to the press room and told the rest of the guys about the game they all did the same thing...