In this regular series our editors pick out a theme and recommend a handful of games perfect for fans of that particular thing.
This week, it’s romance games. Whether you’re looking for a quick digital fling or something deeper and more meaningful, we’ve got something for you.
The blockbusters
Imagine teen-friendly movies After, Twilight or Mean Girls, but interactive. You’re essentially picturing Episode and Choices – the two biggest and most successful narrative games on the App Store.
Choices has every conceivable flavour of hormone-driven adolescent drama: high school romance, tales of reality TV stardom, Twilight-y supernatural thrills and plenty more.
Episode has all of that too, plus stories based on familiar film and TV series like Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars.
The multi award-winning one
For something gentler and more meaningful, give Florence a try. It’s a touching tale of young love that feels like an interactive comicbook, and it has deservedly won a ton of awards. We almost cried when we played it in the office, it’s that lovely.
Let your love life take flight
If sun and sand is your thing, then take a trip over to Love Island, the interactive story game that’s as gloriously trashy and weirdly compelling as the TV series.
If Love Island is a quick holiday fling, then Amber’s Airline is a more meaningful affair: you follow aspiring flight attendant Amber Hope on a romantic roller-coaster as she overcomes turbulence in her love life and beyond.
Something a bit…um…different?
Of course, you needn’t limit yourself to dating human beings. In Purrfect Date, you’re whisked off to a mysterious island inhabited only by cats. And as you unearth the secrets of this feline paradise, you might just make a meaningful connection. With a cat.
Hatoful Boyfriend, meanwhile, casts you as the new student at St. Pigeonation, a prestigious school for high-achieving birds. You’ll meet all kinds of different avians in your first term, and maybe, just maybe, you might find The One. And even if you don’t, you’ll have a grand time enjoying the increasingly strange story.