Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School

Overview

Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School is a licensed game based around trying to win the heart of a character based on a real-life teen idol, the eponymous Ms Nakayama, which plays much like other text-based graphic adventure games for the NES that were popular around that time, such as Portopia or Hokkaido Serial Murders.

The game has a curious history for what is essentially an early dating sim, as it was developed by Nintendo themselves for their FDS peripheral, in collaboration with Squaresoft. The game was designed by Squaresoft's Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, and Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto, creator of Metroid. Legendary Nintendo game pioneer Gunpei Yokoi and Squaresoft composer Nobuo Uematsu were both also involved in its development. As was, of course, Miho Nakayama herself, who lent her appearance to various promotional materials (including the box art) and recorded a message that was briefly available for winners of the game to listen to if they called a special number.

Gameplay

The game's protagonist enters Tokimeki High School and runs into a girl wearing glasses who looks identical to Miho Nakayama. Though the game is a standard text command-style adventure game similar to the Famicom Tantei Club series, in important scenes, the player is required to select a facial expression in addition to a verbal response. The four expressions (straight face, laughter, sadness, anger) must match the content of the response being given, and any incorrect responses immediately lead to the "game over" screen. This increased the game's difficulty considerably in comparison to other adventure games where there were fewer incorrect choices. Some scenes specifically require that the dialogue not match with the expression. For instance, choosing a dialogue expressing joy with a straight face may be the correct choice in a certain situation because it represents a deeper level of emotion and thought on the part of the protagonist. This system allowed the game to simulate a level of complexity resembling actual love relationships, leading to its classification as a dating simulation rather than an adventure game. The game has two different endings, depending on the choices made during the game, and the prizes receivable via the Disk Fax network differed for each ending.

External links

Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School at Atari HQ