"A good attempt, but needs ironing and a bit more storyline."

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Introduction
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I have been always a fan of dating sims. However, being unable to read or understand Japanese, I missed out on the Tokimeki Memorial: Girl's Side series, which was sad. So naturally, when this came out, I was quite excited.

Miami Nights: Singles in the City follows after the first dating sim released for the DS: Sprung. Miami Nights allows you to create your own avatar and choose your own path, which includes Singer, Actor and Model. You go around running errands, shopping for clothes, building up your stats, earn money and know the "right" people so you can have an easier way up your ladder into Miami's A-List.

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Gameplay - 7/10
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The controls are very easy to handle – you can either use the touch screen or the buttons on your DS to control your avatar and move him/her around the place. You can use items by tapping it on the touch screen or the D-Pad, and all the mini games that you will eventually encounter within the game itself uses the touch screen, hence points go to Miami Nights for successfully manipulating the touch screen to a certain extent.

The difficulty level is quite reasonable as well. The basic stat bars don't go down very easily, so you can work overnight without worrying about your character passing out, stinking up the place and what not, and require very little attention. In fact, you only need to replenish the basic stats every now and then.

As for the other stats, such as charisma and fitness, they are harder to gain than the basic stats, and sometimes can even fall if you perform other tasks, such as culture falls when you gain fitness and so forth. It does take some time to gain all the stats, so patience is required.

The “fun” in the gameplay, however, while novel in the first hour or so, eventually wears out and becomes tedious to do. The little mini games add little interest to the story, and your relationship with others is very easy to boost, to the point of being too easy. Just talk to them and sweeten them up, and it's all over already. In my opinion, it's just not realistic enough. The relationships happen too fast, and if you say the wrong thing, it doesn't affect the affection – the person just lightly insults you and then you'll have to patch up. The other CPUs in the game also seem to only know one pick up line throughout the game, and it gets tedious when you listen to it all the time.

As you try to boost your relationship with other characters, all you see of an indication of whether they agree with your character or not is a smiling/laughing face and some odd gestures. They keep repeating, and feels very wooden.

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Storyline - 4/10
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The story in the game is very, very short. I mean it. I finished the game within a few hours, and I felt disappointed. Where are all the wild parties? The paparazzi? The glamour? All you needed to do was to run around, do errands, pay ridiculously high amounts of money for stuff and go to one or two parties. The story starts off promising at first, but eventually it slows down to a boring and tedious pace, often having you repeat various tasks over and over again just for the sake of climbing the ladder.

The story lacks excitement in itself, despite its attempt to keep the player hooked. The events are clichéd and very often predictable, with no noticeable turn or sharp and unexpected plot twists to startle or surprise the player.

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Graphics - 6/10
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The graphics are mediocre, with nothing much to note. The characters' hair manages to come out in a block, and the way the avatars move are unnatural, stiff and rigid. The background is sometimes pixilated at a few points, but the animation is well done at certain points in the game. The outfits lack variety, and was mainly a series of mix and match.

Strangely enough, the best part of the graphics come only during the mini-game section, with the graphics and animation beautifully done, as compared to the rest of the game.

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Music - 5/10
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The music isn't really anything stunning or note worthy. Sure, there may be a few interesting dance tracks or techno tracks every now and then, but eventually you might want to turn off or lower the volume of your NDS so you don't really need to be distracted by the music, which becomes repetitive after a while.

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Replay Value - 3/10
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It takes only a few hours or so to complete the game if you're dedicated to it, and the replay value isn't very high, unless you want to see what other scenarios you'll come across if you choose other jobs. The game after completing the main storyline is just dull, and has nothing more to offer.

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Closing Comments
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Miami Nights: Singles in the City is a good try at promoting the dating sim genre to the western market. True, it may have learnt from the mistakes of its predecessor, Sprung, which didn't fare very well in the western market, but Miami Nights disappoints just as much. The game, while novel and quite evidently creative, loses interest after a while.

Perhaps we should start to import some of the Japanese dating sims translated into English, or the game-making companies could learn a bit more from their Japanese counterparts and fuse both worlds together to create a stunning product. However, Miami Nights can be applauded as a creative attempt, and is worth a few hours of gameplay, though renting this would be a more preferable option than buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/08

Game Release: Miami Nights: Singles in the City (US, 01/15/08)