Sprung review (DS)

The scenarios have a tendency to feel kind of disjointed when you go from one to the next, but the fundamental problem with Sprung is its trial-and-error gameplay. With a few exceptions, there is generally only one acceptable outcome for a scenario, though there are usually several paths along the dialogue tree that you can take to get there. Making the wrong choice can end the scene instantly, and the right choice is rarely very intuitive, though the game tends to make the least likely choice the correct one. Aside from a really long streak of good luck, you'll inevitably have to replay many scenes over and over again before you pick just the right dialogue path. Consequently, this grind sucks the fun out of what is otherwise a fairly whimsical experience. To the game's credit, there are a few scenes that both require some actual deductive reasoning and present some pretty good challenges, though you'll feel like you're being pushed down a very narrow path, with no real control over the proceedings. There are 50 different scenes between Brett and Becky, and the amount of time it takes you to get through the game can vary wildly depending, basically, on how lucky you get. Taking the straightest path through some scenes can take fewer than a minute, while it's possible to get stuck on one of the more complex scenes for a good half hour.

Though it doesn't really push the technical capabilities of the DS, Sprung does have a fairly distinct look to it, and it uses 2D sprites to represent the characters. The game's European's roots are fairly apparent in the art style, which is reminiscent of a French comic book. The characters look appropriately glossy and hip, and even the "dirty hippy" character is attractive, well dressed, and well groomed. Each character has a handful of emotive animations, which themselves are fairly smooth and effective, but because of their limited numbers, these animations repeat fairly often, and they don't always match the tone of the dialogue they accompany. With the dialogue written in text, the game's soundtrack fills in the void and actually does a pretty good job of it. Each location has a unique tune, so a crunky hip-hop beat plays when you're in the club, for example. Furthermore, there's some situation-specific music as well. The best music in the game, though, is the theme that plays when you've successfully completed a scene, because it has an infectiously gaudy, Euro-dance synth line that's too hummable for its own good.

Sprung is an interesting experiment, and as the second DS game from Ubisoft, it's a pretty bold move by the French publisher. Its willingness to tread some risqué ground, which most games tend to sidestep, is definitely intriguing, but your actual participation in the game feels kind of limited, and the repetition inherent to its gameplay makes Sprung even harder to recommend.