Kitty Powers is a video game drag queen –Yes, we have come so far as a culture that that is now a thing– that also doubles as a video game developer/artist. While those in the States may not be familiar with Kitty, you have no doubt seen her work before. Kitty Powers, aka Rich Franke and is an artist for Media Molecule –Maker of the Little Big Planet series– and worked on the PSP Vita hit, Tearaway. That’s some pretty impressive credentials and it shows as Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker is a lot of good fun.
Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker looks like your standard dating simulator, but it’s not quite what you might be expecting. Dating simulators have been around for a long time, but the genre is most popular in Japan with only a few titles heading west. Not only that, but the kind of dating sims that do come around online tend to all feature the same sort of thing. You usually play a boy, most likely in High School, that finds himself in wacky situation and dates a half dozens well-endowed young women, and that’s the PG version of things. I can assure you that many of these “dating sims” get much sexier, wilder, and weirder? Anyways, Kitty Powers turns that all on its head and see you as you manage your own matchmaking agency with the guidance of your fabulous boss, drag queen Kitty Powers.
As you run your little matchmaker start-up you will have a litany of clients that will come in looking for your help in finding love. The clientele that come to your office are sent your way via Kitty’s little black book and it’s your job to guide them through a number awkward conversations, dozens of dating dilemmas, unexpected events, all wrapped around some simple, yet fun mini-games. Each of your clients will be set up with an ear-piece so that you can guide them in making the right choices during their date. You tell them the right things to say and play the various mini-games to earn the favor of your date. But not every date will end in happily ever after as you’ll quickly learn some clients are more compatible with than others. As you earn points for successful dates, you’ll be able buy new features in the shop. Upgrades to allow for the ability to change your client in the style studio, changing their hair, style, opening ups gifts and other things to help them better match the likes and wants of the person you are sending them out on a date with. You’ll also be able to open up new restaurants that not only change the look of dates, but offer harder and on harder challenges. I know some of that sounds weird, –How can you unlock places to eat? That makes no sense– but you aren’t really unlocking eateries, instead you are paying to install cameras in the building so you can keep an eye on your client. While this offers up a number of issues in the real world, in Matchmaker it’s all in good fun.
Clients that you help are procedurally-generated so there is always someone new to deal with. Kitty herself says it’s like a dating rogue-like, even if she admits to not knowing the term. The game also has an online component that sees your user-created avatar joining the dating pool of other people’s games. You’ll also get updates on how you did out on dates set up by other matchmakers. It’s nothing huge, but it makes you want to jump back into the game to see how your avatars love life is going. Likewise, the people you pair up will give you updates on their lives via the mailbox. If you really nailed the dates and paired up compatible people, their letters will reflect this. If you were honest, matched up their personalities, adjusted their style, kept the conversation fresh, you’ll be rewarded again with a final score that will earn you more points. It’s always fun to see how your former clients did, and when you see them be compatible enough to get hitched it’s a really rewarding feeling.
The whole thing is a lot of fun and has a fair amount of depth to the gameplay. The ability to unlock new locations, styles, clients, mini-games, and more really does keep things fresh throughout. While Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker starts things off pretty easy, it doesn’t waste time to really ramp up the difficulty with your clients and the various eateries. Sure, this is a dating simulator, but one in which you can easily screw up and fail. The PC version of the game also offers up some voice-over work from Kitty herself, and this really adds to the charm of the game as Kitty is downright hilarious with all her advice and comments.
There is a lot to love with Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker, but it does have some problems as well. While the graphics are nice to look at with a strong use of color, the quality of them is a bit lacking. The problem isn’t with the game itself, but more so with the fact that Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker is a port of a mobile game. Because of that fact graphics look a bit washed out on a large screen –Play this one in a window– and the animations, while funny, have a chunky feel about them. Also, as Kitty and this game is from a British studio, if you aren’t British you’ll be looking to Google for a translation guide at times. There is a lot of local dialects at play here which is really cool, but as an American, and from California at that, it sometimes was a bit of a challenge to understand some of the clients.
Still, the game offers up a lot of fun with its depth and various mini-games. If you are looking for a serious dating sim that lets you match up people whether they are gay or straight, you’ll love Kitty Powers’ Matchmaker. The game is on Steam at $9.99 –currently on sale for $7.49 at the time of this writing– and for that price you will have hours worth of dating goodness.
About Author
