X-Change

"Too hardcore for Skin-emax...but at least it has its focus right."

Yeah, that's right...an Ordained Reverend has decided to take a sit and play a porn game, so that he could examine the genre for you. Get over it, ya pansies...I'm either going to be the best marker for these games, or the worst at evaluating them. Or I'll hit average. Whatever. Anywho...sex games provide you with material to ''self pleasure'' yourself. Given the atrocious nature of the actual ''gaming'' section some of the titles purport, it would be fairly safe to say that the emphasis is firmly planted on sex and not much else. You play these games to give yourself the jollies, not to have a good ol' fashioned video game romp with the occasional nude woman thrown into the fray. So optimally, a ''good'' sex game will have lots of sex so that you won't have to spend 5 minutes trying to ''get to the goods'', and will hopefully have it in a variety of places and situations so that anyone can pick it up, find something they like, and go from there. Easy as pie.

Enter X-Change, a slideshow of a game with minimal effort and lots of nudity for you to work with. From what I understand, your average sex game features Males put into a position (positions?) where they can have sex with lots of women, in lots of ways, and lots of times. X-Change pulls a switch on you, having the protagonist - a nerdy, gangly school kid named Takuya - being the brunt of a chemistry accident and turning into a girl. This, of course, means that right from the start you're going to get some female-body action. There HAS to be a scene where he discovers is now a ''she''. Lo and behold, the first 5 minutes of gameplay yields a scene where ''he'' not only stares ''him''-self down in the mirror, but then does a little ''examining''. Of course, the only way to get any help in a Hentai game is to ask a fellow female, whom will then demand that you show your newly-grown breasts to provide proof of your claims. Oh yeah, and then she's going to touch them. And do other things to you as well.

Okay, so the plot is ludicrous. That's fine...if you're playing a Hentai game, then you probably have the proper amount of suspended disbelief to allow such things to slide without too much worry. Since all of the above paragraph is a given (in terms of believing), why not add a little more strangeness to the plot? How about the fact that, now that Takuya is a woman, everyone wants to ''examine'' him/her? Heck, let's forego the actual examinations (in most instances) and just let everyone rape her. Takuya's not feeling too good, and needs to see the nurse? That's a raping. Takuya needs to get out of gym class, and goes to talk to the gym teacher? That's a raping. Takuya gets picked on by his/her step-sister? Yeah, this is followed by a raping. Takuya doesn't get abused by his/her step-sister? That's fine, as her boyfriend will rape Takuya instead. The moment that Takuya swaps sexes, everyone else in the world suddenly loses control of their libidos, resulting in raging, rampant sex everywhere you go. The best example I can offer is that Takuya gets on the bus to go to school...and everyone on the auto is already engaged in coitus, even the driver. Oh yeah, and Takuya gets drawn into that very quickly, too.

This ''game'' offers a minimal part to be played on your behalf. You occasionally make choices about where you want to go or what you want to do, performed by selecting a choice of 2-3 items listed in the text. The majority of these won't change the outcome of the game, although later choices - such as where you go and who you see (and do) - can affect whether or not you even want to return to your masculine form. (Frankly, with all the exercise Takuya gets as a women, you'd think that he would be more masculine as a gal.) So really, the choices you have to make only serve the purpose of offering up different ending scenes of promiscuity. Fret not, o horny ones, as X-Change features the ''non-stop'' text scroll! This way, you don't even have to read the silly text at the bottom of the screen! No, now all you have to deal with are the cheesy music and Star Wars-esque dissolves from scene to scene! No more waiting, simply click this, make the appropriate menu choices when they come up, and go back to watching the pictures as they roll on by!

If you're looking for sex, this game has it in spades. Sure, the plot is insipid, the music (what little there is) sounds silly, and the artwork isn't really that great...but if you want anime-styled nudity and you want to cut the fat from your game, go for this! Hey, there are even alternate endings, in case you wanted to end up with that hot childhood friend instead of the chemistry genius, so there is even a little bit of actual ''gaming'' on your part! So what if it doesn't leap into bed with some of the stranger fetishes out there...if your cup of tea involves nude women, then you don't have to look much further.

...and the best part is, you can do it all with just 1 hand.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/03