Sprung Review

When the Nintendo DS was first revealed, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see what developers did with this new toy. To date, Kirby’s Canvas Curse and Trauma Center, among others, have shown some truly creative ideas in action. There was a time, however, if you can recall, when the DS was off to a shaky start with games that didn’t know quite how to use the hardware. And that’s Sprung.

The one thing that Sprung has going in its favor is a sleek presentation. Few DS games are using the dual-screen function in useful ways, but Sprung’s approach makes a lot of sense and is actually very effective. A medium shot of your character is always displayed on the bottom screen while the person you are talking to appears on the top. It keeps the overall interface clean and gives the conversation a more authentic overtone. The art, also, is memorable, adding basic colors to realistic drawings to make it more cartoony. Characters are able to portray a wide range of emotions thanks to some good, seamless animation. However, the game itself is very static. Aside from slinking into embarrassed posture or rising in their seats with interest, characters don’t move. Kissing, slapping, and climbing into a hot tub all have to be imagined while lines and lines of text explain what’s really happening. It’s hard to keep track of what’s happening when applying make-up to your friend’s face doesn’t visually do anything.

The DS has the capability to emulate voices, but Sprung doesn’t even bother, which hurts the game even more. With the entire “adventure” taking place in text, the lack of deeper audio makes this one a real bore to play. Generic and repetitive music doesn’t do much to set a mood. It’s like reading a book, except it’s a video game. See the problem?

Sprung plays entirely through conversation. As either Brett or Becky, your ultimate goal is to score some action and maybe some cash, but the game splits this monumental ambition into scenes. In each scene, you talk to one or several people in an attempt to get something out of them (i.e. a kiss or information). So Sprung is like those Choose Your Own Adventure books where you select a choice from a list and hope it doesn’t lead to “The End.” Likewise, Sprung presents different things you can say. Depending on what you say, the other character will react differently and open up other conversation possibilities (or end the conversation and the scene). For instance, in one scene, you may have to keep your friend, Erica, from freaking out about the ski lift suddenly stopping. Panicking yourself isn’t going to help, but being too nice may only make her more nervous. You have an inventory of items, as well, that can be pulled out at any time to address the current problem.

Sprung’s writing is witty, sarcastic, and occasionally funny, but that doesn’t keep the game from being a real bore. Trudging through dialogue isn’t very interactive, and the game becomes tedious to play when your mind is wanting to zone out. While some of the situations are interesting, they would have been better as part of an actual adventure than being the adventure alone. I would have liked to get up and walk around the lodge than sit and talk to people all day.

I can accept the fact that Sprung isn’t a typical video game. I can even accept that it relies solely on text-based conversations. What I have trouble with, however, is how vague and ridiculous the solutions to these problems can be. Quite often, Sprung becomes sheer guesswork. I find myself not even caring anymore and just cycling back through all the dialogue until I can guess the right answer. Many of the things you are supposed to say come across as the wrong thing to say, my last choice if I were really in such a predicament. When you’re stuck in a longer than normal scene, too, it gets really annoying to have to re-read and re-answer all the previous questions up to the point where you screwed up.

One time through takes only a couple hours. If you enjoyed the game, though, you can always play it again as the other character (Brett or Becky), because there are jokes in each story that aren’t in the other. It’s also fun when you obtain the Nintendo DS item and show it to other people. Some of them say funny things like, “This game sucks.” How ironic… Anyway, there is no replay value. Like a standard murder mystery, when you already know the answer, getting there isn’t that fun.

Final Comments

Sprung was a bold move in video gaming but a terrible flop for the Nintendo DS. It is comparable to the text-based adventure games of old where your imagination had to do most of the work, and the solutions weren’t worth rediscovering a second time. In a way, Sprung isn’t even worth discovering a first time. It has its amusing moments and a neat, little presentation, but those can’t help a game that takes the interactive out of interactive simulation. Instead of playing Sprung, here are your options: 1) Read a book. 2) Play a real game. I won’t penalize you for either one.