AMA Speed Date Review

Costas Stephanides’s Review

No need to panic on that first date any more

AMA are back with another 'love game'. Wash your filthy minds as this is not one of 'those' games and is concerned more with the affairs of the heart.

Speed Date lets you tackle the drama that is speed dating and AMA have continued their inimitable comic style as seen in AMA Heartbreakers. The game starts with customising your character and generating your own avatar. This is a detailed part of the game and everything from the shape of your nose to the colour of your shirt can fiddled around with. Speed Date lets you play as either male or female with two separate save slots and customisation options.

After customising, the next step is to enter the speed dating hall and run through the tutorial with the host (and engage in some flirting along the way). The key to a successful speed date are apparently eye contact, body language and your ability to listen. To prove your worth, mini games are set to challenge your above abilities. The games are very basic in concept and are there to provide a break from all the reading.

The mini games comprise a simple memory game; a maze game where you have to find the path to her eyes and not her bosom. The final mini game requires you to follow which icon receive the most sound waves. This game in particular starts very easy but ends up with the icons flying around and exchaging waves and also lasting a little bit too long to be interesting. The games are important to the date, if you fail too many of them, your date won't think you are comptible and put a dreaded cross against your name and that means no more dating with her.

As with Heartbreakers, this is a script heavy game. Thankfully the script is pretty amusing with a good mix of cheesy one liners and scathing put downs.

After the initial speed date you have the chance to go on a one-on-one date. There's no mini games here just pure dialogue where you have a choice of responses to give. The key to success is remembering what was said in the previous round and getting a general feel for the type of woman she is and choosing the correct responses to push her buttons. If this goes well you will have the chance for another date and maybe more.

We've played through 12 speed dates over a couple of hours before writing this and each date has a different feel and we still haven't played enough to reach the next stage in our seduction, the longevity of the game is not a problem as long as the humour keeps up. Speed Date is not an all action game but good way to unwind at the end of a hard day. You never know, you might even learn a few tricks for the next time you have your shark fin out.