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'Love Plus' Video Game Requires Players to Kiss Their Nintendo DS

by Amar Toor on November 16, 2009 at 08:17 AM


We understand that dating has certainly changed with the rise of the Internet and virtual relationships. Internet dating sites have become the new coffeehouse, a Facebook poke has become the new raise of an eyebrow from across the room. But a video game out of Japan takes modern courtship to an entirely different -- and totally bizarre -- level.

'Love Plus,' for Nintendo DS, is a dating game... and more. To play, all you have to do is choose a girlfriend, and then start to woo her -- y'know, take her out on dates, do stuff together. Typical. And then, if you start to crack that coquettish shell of hers, she may even let you kiss her. Seriously. You can kiss the screen.

BoingBoing has a fascinating interview with one virtual dater who was really into it, a married Japanese man named Koh. After getting hooked on the game while in Japan, Koh began courting his girlfriend Rinko, who often asked him to do things like say "I love you" 100 times. He admits it's "pretty damn embarrassing," and doesn't play it when his wife is around. The real woman in his life -- the one who actually breathes and stuff -- says she has no problem with it (she, herself, has since become addicted to a game called 'Ryu Ga Gotoku,' which stars female characters who try to become the top earner at a cabaret show).

This isn't the first weird dating video game we've seen, but it may very well be the most explicitly self-aware -- is there any way to be more indelibly reminded of a virtual world's artifice than by kissing a computer screen? But maybe that's the appeal? And maybe physically acknowledging the barrier between reality and fiction is healthier than pretending it doesn't exist. Obviously, there's a market for this, and everyone has their reasons. We're just not sure we could deal with constantly being hit in the face with the real reality of kissing a girl who only exists in virtual reality. [From: LiveScience and BoingBoing]

Tags: big in japan, BigInJapan, japan, love plus, LovePlus, top

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