“Laugh and the world laughs with you”
So I flew in from Cherry Tree High School today and boy are my arms tired…………(cue the crickets). Maybe I don’t have a future in stand up comedy, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t live out that dream digitally. In a video game market that is dominated by the titans of industry with games like ‘Call of Duty,’ ‘Madden NFL Football’ and ‘Mass Effect,’ it’s nice to experience a game that maybe doesn’t have the advertisement or notoriety of one of the previously mentioned franchises, but instead looks to simply provide a fun experience for anyone who picks it up. A game that provides that fun experience for it’s players is Nyu Media’s ‘Cherry Tree High Comedy Club.’ CTHCC(which is what I will call it from now on to save myself from carpal tunnel) is a simulation game that puts you in the shoes of a high school student named Miley Verisse, a self proclaimed stand up comedy fanatic who has recently decided that she would like to start a comedy club at her high school for herself and all of her fellow stand up comedy fans. The game is on the ball for the most part, but does have a couple problems that need to be discussed, so let’s talk about Cherry Tree High Comedy Club!
As I said before, the story pits you as a teenager who is attempting to start a Comedy Club at her High School. The only problem is that there aren’t enough members to start the club so you must venture around town trying to convince people to join your club by the time the club deadline rolls around. The game has you running around the town interacting with different objects like convenient stores that will help restore your fatigue meter and jobs that will give you money so that you can buy things like movie tickets that will help improve your speech statistics in the movie category so that you will have something to talk about with someone who is a movie fan of their own. The higher you get statistically in a certain category, the easier it is to talk to a person who has those same interests so that you may persuade them to join your club. The gameplay is somewhat simple, you run back and forth along 2d levels pressing up and down to interact with certain objects like those stores I mentioned, it’s simple but satisfyingly lucid to not have a whole keyboards worth of controls that you must memorize in order to play through the game. Building up your speech skills and having different conversations with different people daily gives CTHCC an rpg element much like that of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. I honestly found myself wanting to progress to the next day to run back across town to interact with whomever it was that I was trying to convince to see how well I can carry on a conversation with them. The gameplay is simple, but it works for this type of game.
The visuals in CTHCC are absolutely gorgeous. The original anime artwork is bright, colorful and worthy of any of the top anime games on the market. The artists at Doujin Circle 773 should be proud of the quality art that they put out in this game. The same goes for the soundtrack, we have reviewed a few other games from Nyu Media and they have all had excellent soundtracks to go along with the bubbly visuals.
Does it seem like I only have good things to say about CTHCC? While most of the game is top notch, there are a few things that I have a problem with. Now this game and all of the games that are put out by Nyu Media are imports from Japan that have been re scripted into English, but this game was FULL of conversational cluster bombs. I found myself quite a few times completely stunned at the dialogue that was being used by the in game characters. There had to have been someone who proof-read the script and unfortunately these mistakes make the game feel a little cheap and unpolished. The second problem I have with this game is the fact that it was released for the PC, this game belongs on the smart phone markets and maybe the DS or PSP as a downloadable game. Now I’m not quite sure what the development process was for this game, but if Nyu Media were to release this game on the Apple or Android Markets with a $4.99 price tag I have to think that consumers would give this game quite the cult following.
Overall, Cherry Tree High Comedy Club is fun, engaging simulator that will keep you glued to it for the life of the main storyline. The gameplay is simple, but simple is sometimes refreshing when you normally have about 15 different buttons to worry about with other games. The visuals/art and soundtrack are excellent and are on par with any anime inspired game on the market, but I still can’t help but feel that CTHCC belongs on the smart phone markets or DS as a downloadable game. Either way, you can pick up CTHCC at the low price of $7 from Nyu Media. I encourage you to support the indie market, you won’t be disappointed!
Pros :- Excellent visuals
- Catchy soundtrack
- Simple, refreshing controls
- Dialogue errors that are unforgivable
- This game belongs on the Iphone
