"Here is proof that you should think twice before paying for Sex"

With a video game title as bold and in your face as "Sex," one cannot help but be enticed, even a little. What one quickly finds out though, is that there is more enjoyment about slamming a certain body part in a car door. Hey, at least you might meet a cute nurse.

Vivid Interactive is back again with another adult themed video game that is more video and less game than ever. In typical Vivid Interactive fashion, you get to choose from five videos to view that supposedly are interconnected, but do not seem like it in the least. One could surmise that Sex stars a guy named Allen and his different fantasies, if you will, about the act in question. Allen is your typical nerd; at least one can only assume he is. There is next to no storyline throughout the game. You do not even get the A-typical, cheesy, badly acted, cliché storyline involving a pizza delivery guy.

After watching a visually interesting introduction movie promoting Vivid Interactive, you go to the main menu. This is the only place where your input on the controller does anything useful. You select from five different video sequences. It does not matter which video you choose, none will make very much sense. Three of the videos are basically a montage of random sexual acts, done depicting our nerd linger protagonist Allen. It is unclear whether or not these are his sexual fantasies or what he saw when looking through some window via binoculars from the tree across the street. One thing is clear though, these video clips sewn together are just odd.

These three videos in question have more depictions that make your cringe than anything sensual. The clips are random, no more than three seconds at any given time. They jump between different sexual partners and then go back to one you have already seen. One particular peculiar clip depicts a man with a bucket of ice cubes. He takes one out and cups it in his hand. We then see his hand move up towards a woman's backside and the ice cube disappears inside of her rear end - an act that most people will not find sexy.

At the beginning of these videos we see Allen on a black and white television. There is no perceivable reason as to why he is on a black and white television in some videos, when in others he is not. In one video, in which we can see him in full color, he is shows sitting at a piano with four friends standing around him, telling him he should find a girl. In a remarkable event, one of the men in this scene actually delivers his lines with conviction! He suggests Allen pursue Megan, the secretary at his work. Allen then fantasizes about Megan - only he is no where to be found in this fantasy. Instead, the typical, long haired, muscle bound, Adonis-like man is in this scene. Throughout this entire scene one cannot help but laugh at the depictions of sex. The body parts do not line up at all and it is more than obvious they are not actually partaking in the event they are displaying.

In an even crazier event, there are mini-clips strewn throughout that are so abstract, one can only think the people at Vivid Interactive were on acid the entire time this "game" was being made. There are two things in particular that will cause a furrowed brow on the "player." The first one depicts a man in a kitchen (another one of Allen's fantasies that do not contain him). He is apparently cooking a chicken dinner for his date, when suddenly and without warning, another man comes running into the kitchen and grabs the uncooked chicken, pan and all, and runs out the other side. The other outrageous moment comes when a man opens his closet and thousands of video tapes that one can only assume are pornographic, come pouring out. He then proceeds to box these tapes up in following clips, minutes apart from one another. One can only guess at what this means.

What makes things worse about this wannabe game is that the video quality is not great. Many times throughout playback, the video will cut out for a brief moment and then come back layered on top of another scene. It corrects its self quickly, but is very noticeable. The video will also seemingly cut off at what feels like random intervals, but when viewed again, it cuts off at the same place. The video just does not feel like it comes to an end when it does indeed end. The video is also choppy and grainy at times. However, for the downfalls, there are some salvageable things about it. It is presented in full screen with minimal pixilated views.

The only actual nudity presented within the game are nipples. Everything else about the women and the men is just assumed, as it never appears on camera. While there are quite a lot of female nipples shown, it never seems arousing. Bikini tan lines are very noticeable and quite the turn off on a couple of women and implants and fake breasts plague most others. The female hairstyle is that of the early 1990's and comes off as rather unattractive, especially by today's standards.

The music presented in this game is that one would normally expect to find in any pornographic film. While the music is far from great, it is just enough to pass by as acceptable without getting obnoxious or annoying, for a while at least. It is the kind of music that is obviously crated in a closet with a soundboard and a keyboard and not much else. One cannot expect much with this type of game though.

Perhaps the best part about the game (sadly) is the fact that you have some control over the videos during playback. Just like one would expect on a DVD player, you can pause, rewind, fast forward, etc all the videos to your liking. The 3DO controller has each key printed directly on it and the game follows the same controls. One thing that is slightly aggravating is that when on the menu, you must press left or right to get to the two videos on the bottom row. You cannot use the down key to get there; you have to cycle through all of them to get there.

The 3DO experienced some of the greatest times ever for the video game industry. As video games made the transition from cartridges to compact discs, the 3DO was a place where companies could try new stuff. While pornographic games were not necessarily a new thing at the time Sex came out, the 3DO certainly was a breeding ground for the porn industry to attempt to break into the video game market. Not a single one of these game, if you can even call them games, is ground breaking, and one can make the argument that not a single one of them is any good. Sex would be one of those that is not any good. It has very little user interface, no story line and does not even work as a pornographic movie. It is not a very good experience, from any point of view. One could say that perhaps it is a social commentary and it is intended to be bad. However, to that I would question what the commentary is on specifically. How does this relate to the world and the problems therein? What is the message behind this game? The answer: no one really knows. All that can be said is that this game is a cash in on the merger of videos becoming video games, and nothing more.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

Game Release: Sex (US, 1995)