Authors: Stellar (concept),
Hipon (code), Clea Leshlick (Music/Sound), Lazcht and Kodoktua (Graphics)
Availability: Free, Online
/BrowserFormat: Management SimGenre: HumorRating: EMy Scores: (Writing: 3.5, Art: 5, Gameplay: 3)
Found at
http://keygames.com/ or
http://www.kongregate.com/Summary:In
Outsmart, you are Anneite. You and your slacker fiance Robme have been given an ultimatum by his parents: the two of you have two months to raise $50,000 dollars and get married. Otherwise, get out!
Review:Writing:
The first interesting thing that stands out to me is the fact that this is a relationship-based game that already has you in a relationship, and a stable one at that. The story isn't about finding love or losing it. Rather, it's about the two of you getting enough financial independence to be kicked out of the nest. It's a very contemporary theme, since we live in an age where more and more adults (at least in the U.S) are still living with their parents, whether because of a lack of available jobs or because of a lack of work-related ambition. In the case of Robme, it's the latter.
At first I thought that this was either going to be the story of a nice girl being saddled with a mooching loser in the name of "Twu Wuv", or the story of a girl becoming disillusioned and kicking her boyfriend out on his rear. I was pleasantly surprised as the story of Anneite and Robme unfolded and showed that, no, this was not a lop-sided relationship. Robme may be lazy, but he's not ungrateful; and Anneite may be more ambitious, but that doesn't necessarily translate to "female role model".
The English is off, here. For a while, I thought maybe it was an intentional reference to poorly-dubbed anime, but I get the impression that English just isn't the writer's first language. Still, it's a humorous game, and the story is pretty cute.
Art:
The art and graphics are professional quality. The art suggests anime or something similar, although the characters are definitely more wonky than pretty, as in
Castle Chase. Also, I find it hilarious that Robme's mother is apparently a gun-toting robot.
Gameplay:
They say that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and I find that to be remarkably true for this game.
On the one hand, it seems to be utterly dependent on mini-games: your maximum stats are determined by each stat's level, which can only be raised by beating a mini-game. You get most of your money from "special events", which are mini-games. Furthermore, all of these are fast-paced timed games, which I usually loathe particularly. To make matters worse, the game seems to have memory issues that cause it to run slower and slower as you play, so that moving the cursor feels like trying to move a large, flopping fish onto a target by pushing/pulling it across a greased floor.
Fortunately, the lag problem is solvable by saving the game and refreshing the screen, so it isn't impossible to play (Although I recommend trying this early in the game, just to make sure you won't lose your progress). As for the mini-games...well...I had fun. Much to my surprise and bewilderment, I actually had fun. Granted, I still maintain my position that mini-games should not be required for success; If I wanted to play arcade-style games, I would not google sims. But somehow, the pesky little things seemed to own the place here; they seemed almost part of the structure, as it were, and I found myself having more fun than I felt I should have been having.
More importantly, I was impressed by how the stats complemented each-other in this game. Having high intelligence unlocks more efficient ways to boost your charm; having more charm enables you to better raise your love, and love is what enables you to force your boyfriend to work harder, thus earning more money. It's downright beautiful how it all works.
TLDR:Outsmart is a pretty unique sim that takes the idea of relationship-based games in a completely different direction than what one might expect. The story is very contemporary in a way that's both sad and hilarious. It's heavy on the mini-games and has lag issues, but despite this, it's actually very fun.
Of course, this is just what I think, and you may think I'm absolutely full of it. Feel free to state your opinions in the comments.
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