Brooktown High: Senior Year review

The PSP gets its first "I forgot how much I hated High School" simulation

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But you quickly discover that your goal is a tough one because nobody makes sense, and there's a lot of other stuff that just seems broken. Loading screens are a constant drag, and you can only talk to other students in person before class on Monday morning - you can squeeze in maybe four conversations, tops. Then, the entire week zooms by in a cut scene and, if you've earned a person's phone number, you can call them on Saturday morning. That's it, and it's so weird we wonder if it was supposed to be different, but something went wrong.

Then again, not talking to people is sometimes good because there are about a zillion moments when the tone of your conversation choices is unclear - such as when you must decide between mentioning "blue hair" and "sausages," - one is an insult and one a compliment, but how can you tell which? Other times,your dialogue choices areout-and-out traps. For example, we had a discussion in which the only options were to either insult the girl or ask her out - one of which made her mad, the other of which forced us to cheat on our girlfriend - who immediately found out. This conversational minefield is compounded by the fact that Brooktown rations out only one saved game, so you can't just make a new save and try both choices.

Incidentally, one choice we're 99% sure you never get is that of an alternate lifestyle. Boy avatars can date girls and girl player characters can obviously date boys, but we couldn't find any way to initiate a same-sex relationship. It's not as if the conversation trees would need to change (you could just choose an orientation at the same time you pick your gender), or that there would be graphic depictions of PDA to potentially offend conservative folks - even kisses are replaced by video montages of roses blooming, rockets lifting off, and so on - so we're kind of at a loss with that one.

More info

GenreStrategy
DescriptionJust like real high school romance, this clique-ish dating sim is too neurotic to last.
Platform"PSP"
US censor rating"Teen"
UK censor rating""
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.