Nintendo is releasing Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, and their Amiibo figures today. It’s like one big love letter to Nintendo fans. So for today, I prepared a little post about a browser game called The Love Letter.
It’s a simple game. You probably assumed as much when you saw the word” browser” up there. I know I’d have written it off right then and there. But I first read about the game in an article on authenticity in video games, so I had a much more thoughtful introduction to it than some idiot blogger talking about how cute it is.
And it is cute! That’s basically its entire appeal. The Love Letter will take you no more than five minutes (assuming that you win), and it doesn’t have an especially elaborate story. The premise is that you are a young man in junior high or so, and you discover a love letter in your locker. You’re then tasked with reading the letter in the five minutes before second period. So where’s the game?
Like actual junior high, the other students are all nosy jerkoffs, and you have to read this letter in secret. Students meander about the hallways of the school aimlessly, unless they spot you, in which case they will beeline towards you. You are a bit faster than then, but they’re fairly relentless in their pursuit. Your only chance is to try to shake them around a corner, and then find a vacant nook where you might be able to skim a sentence or two before some wayward classmates wander over. There’s much more tension than the cute graphics would suggest.
If another student catches you reading it, they’ll snatch it away and make fun of you. It’s a much more relatable losing state than those in many other games. Well, at least I imagine that it is. To date, I’ve still never received a letter from a secret admirer. I guess the time for that kind of thing has long passed, but it still bums me out a little. I know that I was a big goof throughout all of school, but you’d imagine that somebody would have found me more charming than stupid.
But enough about my silly hang-ups. The Love Letter is a perfectly fun little distraction. It’s not so deep that it should be any sort of conversation piece, but it’s a little nostalgic and maybe says something about childhood? I feel like I should have some sort of insightful thing to say here, but I can’t really find the words. Something about how things this seem silly to adults are very serious and important to kids? I don’t know. Take some time to think about it and come up with your own conclusion.