Have You Played... Monster Prom?

The party has just begun.

I can’t remember now if it wasMonster PromorDream Daddythat introduced me to the dating sim genre, but Monster Prom was definitely my first dating sim hybrid, a sub-genre I’m now more than a bit obsessed with. Other favourite examples of mine include last year’sBoyfriend Dungeon(a dating sim and dungeon crawler),Max Gentlemen: Sexy Business(a dating and business sim), and HuniePop (a dating sim and match-3 puzzle game). Monster Prom is a dating sim and competitive multiplayer party game, where up to four players vie to romance attractive monsters and invite them to the school dance.

If this sounds like a recipe for social disaster on a scale with Monopoly, don’t dismiss it out of hand. While you do technically have the option to undermine another player’s attempts to woo your love interest of choice, the sheer variety of romanceable characters on offer usually leads to a scenario where you and your supposed rivals are all interested in different monsters anyway. At that point, you sometimes get the opportunity to wingman for a friend and net stat boosts for both of you. It’s actually all surprisingly wholesome… provided your idea of wholesome has room for loads of jokes riffing on sex, drugs, mind-bending cosmic horrors, and whatever else young adult immortal monsters get up to in a high school where everyone is conveniently over 18 years of age.