While I'm not a big gamer, one thing that I do love though is anime. I first heard about Huniepop years ago when I would watch Let's Plays of it on Youtube. The game had been on my mind for a bit again so a few days ago I decided to finally buy it and play it myself.
Note: This is considered a "hentai" game meaning that it has sexy naked anime women in it. If that isn't your cup of tea then this game probably won't be for you. I won't be showing any NSFW content here though.
Before we really get into this review though, I want to say one thing. If you're simply wanting a game to see a lot of hentai without much effort then this game won't be for you. Sure, the women are all cute and sexy, but this game isn't easy. In fact, I'd say it can be pretty difficult especially later on in it.
According to Steam, I've played this game for a total of 23 hours just in these past three days. I swear, I don't have a problem ._.
Huniepop combines a dating sim with a match 3 puzzle game. You'll meet and flirt with various girls throughout the game. You can buy them gifts, alcoholic drinks, and of course date them.
Dating the various girls is where the match 3 gameplay element comes in and is by far the hardest part of this game. Early on, you'll be learning the ropes and you'll learn more about getting better just through trying different things. I recommend reading some guides, but even then, the gameplay is quite challenging. Luckily, if you fail a date you can always try to date the same girl the next day if you wish. Where things get hard is that regardless of whether your date was successful or not, the next one will always be harder than the last one. Honestly the best strategy is that if you're about to fail a date, just exit out of the game before it gets the chance to save and try again. It's a bit of a work around if you're really struggling.
There's quite a few different girls to talk to and date in this game with a few hidden ones as well. You'll talk with them and learn all about each girl including: their likes and dislikes, birthdays, favorite colors, favorite spots to hang out, their cup size, and just about their personality in general. They'll quiz you on occasion to see just how well you've been paying attention to the answers they've given you. My advice is before you start talking to them, take a look at your phone in game. It keeps track of what they've told you about them so far. Do note however, the game won't allow you to look at your phone once they've given you a pop quiz.
The dating aspect is quite fun and each girl is unique in her own special way. You'll learn what foods they like as well as the gifts they like. If they're full when you take them on a date, you'll start with more moves. If you're dating a girl at night, you can buy her various alcoholic drinks to get her drunk before the date. Doing so will get you more sentiment which allows you to give her more date gifts which will help you a ton during the match 3 gameplay. By buying each girls things that they love, you'll unlock new date gifts and well as new hairstyles for each girl.
Catgirls are the best girls ^^
If you can manage to keep your hormones in check and really pay attention and strategize, you can ultimately have sex with every girl in this game. Once you've gotten 4 hearts with a girl (had 4 successful dates with her), you can then take her on a fifth date. If you take her on a 5th date at night and that turn's out to be successful, you'll finally get the chance to have sex with her in your bedroom. Sex, of course, is played out over the course of yet another match 3 game. This time however, there's no penalties (broken hearts) and it's time based. In the usual match 3 gameplay, you could take as much time as you needed. Here though, you gotta be quick! If you can complete it though, you'll be rewarded with a nude image of her as well as her panties as a sort of trophy.
After each successful date in the game, the girl will send you a cute pic of her. As you get more hearts with her, the pics she sends you will become more and more revealing until you have sex with her which typically gets you a full nude of her.
The game on Steam is mildly censored (shows nipples but no genitalia), but there's a patch online that removes all the censors in the game. If you're wanting to play this game for the hentai, it comes highly recommended. If you're just wanting to play this for the fun and challenging gameplay then the regular Steam version should do you just fine.
In conclusion, Huniepop is a fantastic game combining a fun dating sim with challenging match 3 gameplay. The fact that I've played it for 23 hours over the past 3 days should tell you enough about what I think of it. It's a ton of fun, albeit not everyone's cup of tea. If you want a fun casual game with addicting gameplay and you're not afraid to see at least a few nipples along the way, I highly recommend it! ^^