Do you love watching Celebs Go Dating, Dinner Date and other mind-numbing entertainment on TV? Has it inspired you to start your own dating agency? Well, before you up-end your career and invest your life savings in becoming a professional cupid, how about investing in a Nintendo Switch game instead?
And who better to mentor you on the ways of statistically-aligned love than drag star Kitty Powers? The alter-ego of Kitty Powers' Matchmaker very own developer, Kitty serves as a colourful dating matriarch, informing your attempts to guide a series of digital lonely hearts to their potential soulmates. With the help of her 'little black book', you’ll attempt to conjure romantic magic by matching the right personalities and traits with one another.
As a premise, Matchmaker is largely the same as every other dating sim out there (including the many that now populate the eShop on Switch), but with a sense of humour more akin to the slapstick innuendo of British sitcoms in the ’60s and ’70s. And with so many games immediately asking you to kill someone or make virtual war, it’s nice to have another game that’s actually thematically ‘nice’; the entire point here is simply helping various cartoonish daters find their one true love. Of course, not everyone is going to vibe with the overuse of pink, the cartoon visuals and the camp sense of humour, but aesthetics aside, Kitty Powers' Matchmaker makes a big effort to be as inclusive as possible.
The customers who visit your dating agency are randomly generated, each with their own personality traits and preferences in a significant other. They’re all based on different social archetypes (sporty, trendy, alternative, etc) as well as a randomly-assigned sexual preference and gender. You’ll then consult Kitty’s little black book of other singletons and match up those whose personalities make the best fit. Everything from someone’s job to their birth sign can affect how well your client is received by their potential suitor, so before each date, you have the opportunity to help improve their chances (including adjusting their look or style accordingly).
When the date itself kicks off, you’ll be there to guide your client through the minefields or awkwardness and small talk. Your success here comes down to a few factors, some of which are based on observation and memory, while others leave a little too much down to chance. For instance, some questions posed to you by your date will require you to recall important information from their dating profile or statements made in a dialogue earlier in the date (such as someone’s preference for food, or whether it was raining or clear outside when you arrived).
Your client and their date will interact automatically, but you’ll need to occasionally complete mini-games to help them along – including memorising a series of phrases to impress the chef with your culinary knowledge or selecting the correct garment from lost property when your client needs a quick change of clothes. Some of these mini-games are random in their outcome, such as a Wheel of Fortune-esque disc that spins every time you tell a lie (including complimenting someone’s hairstyle when your client actually thinks it looks pretty naff). The main mini-game – and the one you'll use most often – is a slot machine that produces a series of potential topics of conversation.
You can nudge these up or down to access a topic you haven’t covered using gold coins, which are periodically earned through successful dates, certain mini-games and other little moments. While originally conceived as a mobile game, there aren’t any microtransactions to speak of, so you won’t need to cough up any more cash to earn more coins. In fact, coins are pretty easy to come by as Kitty Powers' Matchmaker is a game all about having a relaxing bit of fun (although it does take a while to earn enough for expensive upgrades).
You’ll create your own avatar at the start of the game, and as you pull off more successful dates you’ll level up your budding dating specialist and gain a better reputation. Levelling up will upgrade your dating HQ, while an improved rep will earn you access to more features that help improve your chances on a date. Soon, you’ll be able to give your clients a makeover prior to a date or help them pick out a gift to take with them.
Dates only ever take about five minutes at most, making Kitty Powers' Matchmaker more suited to short bursts of play in handheld mode rather than extended play sessions. The gameplay loop it serves up is quite rewarding – even if it does mean you’re stuck with one client until you successfully pair them with a new lover – but the mini-games themselves do start to get a little repetitive, especially when it takes a while to unlock new restaurants and the unique scenarios that come with them.
Conclusion
Kitty Powers' Matchmaker is a cute and inclusive dating simulator that does a great job of normalising love, regardless of gender, sexuality or appearance. While it doesn’t really hold up as a long-term experience, as a short term foray into the world of running a dating agency, Kitty Powers' Matchmaker really comes together. Dates are short and snappy, and it’s pretty rewarding to see a client end an evening with a new significant other. Mini-games are fun for a while, and grinding away to unlock new pages of the black book really opens up your options, but that gameplay loop can start to become a little too repetitive and a little too predictable after a while.
Comments 69
You lost me at inclusive.
'refreshingly' inclusive? Look at Nintendolife trying to get a war going in the comments section. Also this reads like someone just took a PR blurb and tweaked it - slightly.
The gameplay must be really good for it to deserve a 6 out of 10 because it looks like a newgrounds flash game (remember when this sort of "game" was free?)
Oh wait, there's no gameplay?! Well...
I’ve had this on Steam for about 7 years and have never played it. I don’t even remember buying it tbh it’s just always been there.
@Kalmaro yikes
@Lordplops
This isn't IGN, you'll see maybe one or two snowflakes get triggered by the word inclusive here.
I think it's always nice to see different people represented in media, but making it the main point of your game kinda makes me lose interest in it. Sometimes the gameplay suffers due to the developers obsessing over the message.
Looking forward to a day where games just include all of this stuff without fanfare, and NintendoLife won't slightly increase a game's score because they're probably worried about the backlash
No flame war yet?
I'll fire up the popcorn and be back in the morning when the comments are in the triple digits.
And for the record, my gender is King and my pronouns are His Royal Majesty/His Royal Highness, and damn the bigots who neglect to acknowledge my self-imposed regality. Trans-royals are REAL royals!!!
@Phostachio maybe you're right but I came straight to the comments section for the drama.
@Kalmaro What’s so bad about inclusivity?
@Lordplops I think he meant refreshingly inclusive in terms of dating simulators.
Go change your panties.
If the word "inclusive" is a problem for you - then you're the real problem, that is all.
@DeclanS98 Aye, agreed.
Seems like the real snowflakes are the ones whining about other people’s business.
@Kimyonaakuma In this instance, it reads as though the game suffers because of the quality of play, not the quantity of choice.
If folks are genuinely upset over the inclusion represented in this game, then I expect the same folks to be upset the next time a disabled person is able to enjoy a game like them. It’s the same. Don’t take a high road.
@HappyMaskedGuy When that becomes the entire focus of a game, instead of gameplay or a good story, I know it's going to be bad.
Same thing for when they make a movie with a female lead, but only focus on her being female instead of making an interesting story.
@HappyMaskedGuy You genuinely know people were scrolling down the site and saw the word in the headline and couldn't help themselves, sad stuff.
@Kalmaro The game is from 2014. The fact it’s ‘refreshing’ says more about the gaming industry than the game itself.
@nessisonett I'm not really too worried about the game, I already know it's not for me, I just couldn't help rolling my eyes when I saw the word "inclusive".
Good games typically doing have to talk about how inclusive they are or have articles written about how inclusive they are.
I'm here just for watching funny debates. 🐱
@Kalmaro and that's bad how?
@Anti-Matter get comfy. It's gonna be a loong thread.
@Kalmaro The focus of the game is dating. Do you have a problem with a transgender host? Is that it?
And the game didn’t talk about being inclusive—the reviewer did.
You can tell the difference, right?
@Dakotastomp I think he was talking about the way the NL reviewer wrote the title of the article.
It is just bad to bait like that. The main focus on the game is not about being gay. I mean it is included in the game but it is not the main focus. But most of us can get really nasty in the comments and that gets more clicks and more views and more comments which leads to more exposure to ads and revenue.
It is really sad.
@Dakotastomp https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/kitty_powers_matchmaker#comment5467331
@HappyMaskedGuy I could care less if they are trans, drag (are those the same thing?) or whatever. I just get annoyed when people act like that's the main thing you have to talk about, be it reviewers or the devs.
@Kimyonaakuma thank you for at least explaining your reason instead of how others just going "Get woke, go broke".
A woke game. Use it as click-bait. Playing both sides? Anything for clicks. Not my thing, but I did click, so job done, eh Nintendolife?
@Averagewriter By that context, I can kind of see the problem.
Wow. That is the most generic looking art I've ever seen.
That little "refreshingly inclusive" sounds like Kotaku writing right there. I was half expecting some of this article to claim it's the first of it's kind and low-key slam hetero options, all while giving it a 9/10 for being brave and bold.
And the comments section is a hayride, all this strawman. I doubt anyone here hates its inclusive nature, but I'd be damned if I didn't get a ton of vibes of how "journalism" has angled their viewpoints by that subtext alone. Certainly I am not alone.
Not picking this one up.
@Paraka Gone Home 10/10
I’d actually consider this on sale. You want to support games that go the extra mile like this.
Why do you guys even bother reviewing trash like this?
They aren’t mentioning inclusivity for your benefit, for god’s sake.
Believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve around your petty preferences. If you prefer to exclude people, or pretend that marginalised groups don’t exist, then go and play in your own little corner.
What pointless whining.
That art is beyond dreadful, clearly the last thing the developers thought of. It's ugly, for a dating sim that is a big dent to it for me.
As @Scapetti commented, looks like a flash game.
Don't care for 'inclusivity' when it's the main focus as is here since it makes it look like you're masking something poor. If this didn't have that angle and was purely say straight relationships this would be panned.
It’s hard to find games that are inclusive but I’ll have to wait for this to go on sale. Not interested enough to pay full price.
6/10, as in a 6/10 NintendoLife gave Sonic Blast on the Game Gear? Silly Nlife. 😂
"Inclusivity" is great... when married to an otherwise decent game. This looks like something I'd have played on Newgrounds in 2005. Hard pass.
@HappyMaskedGuy did you just assume my gender?
The art style in this game is just plain awful, it could be going for only $1.99 on mobile devices and yet still manage to look like an utterly subpar effort.
"Grows stale too quickly"... oh you mean like F.E. 3 H?
@Anti-Matter I don’t know if I would go so far as to call it a debate, debates usually imply educated view points on both sides it sure is funny though!
Everything is inclusive these days, politics shouldn't be part of gaming imho.
Game? Dating? What a load of trash. Minus 6. Stuff like this really should be on phones or tablets but never on gaming systems.
@jarvismp http://www.magicnotion.com/matchmaker
It's on mobile too.
Wow, really high score for something that seems to have nothing to it at all. Even the "inclusive" part is meh as it seems to just boil down to a symbol on the character sheet. I guess that's fine for the type of game this is, but it'd be more "refreshing" if there was any actual depth to any of the characters.
@Scollurio Gender, sexual and romantic identities are not political in the slightest. Respecting them is a core basic of being a remotely decent human being in the 21st century.
@FredsBodyDouble - Real talk; That game could been SO MUCH more. Flashback sequences, puzzles, storylines of different views from the family... could been way more than an overblown walking simulator.
But nope, just a walking simulator about the rather piecemealed together story of one girl coming to terms with being gay. And that's enough to get a higher score from IGN than many Pokémon games.
Inclusivity and representation are good things (when handled well), but that can't be the backbone of a game, just as it can't be the backbone of a movie or a book. This game just... doesn't look fun. It looks like one of those low quality DS games with a random celebrity's face attached to it as a doomed marketing tactic. Typically, so-called "pandering" tends to be the result of a minority author who wants to give their minority some representation. This doesn't read that way at all though. This game comes off as thinking that inclusiveness is a substitute for quality, rather than an additional feature.
@Kalmaro That’s where it should have stayed. Trash like this is not gaming.
You're better off watching Markiplier play this, was a fun video. xD
@Paraka IGN likes its wokeness. A lot of game journalists do lately, and I have no idea why.
@kenyowa That's what I'm saying. Making a game or anything with a male lead and your tag line is "He's hetero and likes women" wouldn't do much better than this game. Especially if the devs focused more on advertising than over gameplay... It's even worse if gameplay end up boring too.
Most people don't stress over sexual preferences when it comes to a game. Those that do are in a small minority. The majority of us just want a decent game with good gameplay and possibly a good story if that fits the genre.
This game doesn't have any of that, in fact, it seems more proud of having a drag queen than good gameplay.
@Paraka story about priveledged white girl earns high praise despite the game itself making no sense. Why were half the doors in the house locked? Luckily they were locked in such a way that allowed for the story to be told in order. Game had great atmosphere squandered by a dumb story and not much really happening.
@FredsBodyDouble - That "game" was a tragedy all around, pretentiously so.
@Kalmaro - That was kind of the point, the point I originally made here about the review framing itself like Kotaku does. And with similar responses with strawman arguments about how hating the framing is also hating the fact.
"inclusive" more like "divisive"
Yuuuk. 🤢
@Darlinfan - It's like... A pattern comes out that suggests how people are more likely to respond or click on articles.
But your defense is basically saying, "This is all coincidence and no one is doing anything inspired by another thing." There is a reason these articles seem to be a reoccurring framing, and the pattern of the subsequent responses. I mean, you and I both knew what this comment section is going to be before clicking on it by the title alone.
You're also conflating the argument together. "You may not like the article, but people like inclusivity." No kidding, but I didn't drill that aspect of the game, did I? Hell, most western dating sims are increasingly inclusive, again no shocker. But that framing is what they wanted you to praise them for recognizing. "It's the fifth game for the first time to add more inclusive options." Cause it's been done, that review has been done.
I mean, think of how one year media journalists tossed around "finally breaking the glass ceiling," schtick for every female led movie.
But hey, apparently having an opinion is projection and that's a no-no.
"Nothing is meaningful." Deep.
Yawn.....and yawn.
Isn’t there like a corona virus happening or something.
@River3636 ...and?
A dating sim involving a drag queen?
N o p e
@Darlinfan - You're making assumptions, you're also making more elaboration over my opinion than there needs to be, and judging by your first response, you're as equal a glutton as I am over the review. So it wouldn't even be bothered to say I came to read the review and make comparison to what my first impression was. Cause to you, that'll be against your previous assertion of why I came and commented.
Your first comment was to mock the negative comments over the review, as if they're weightless cause, as you said, "they're here to be triggered." You're obviously not here for the review, either. So I am honestly unsure why we're comparing our blacks here in the oven.
Wow, this comment section is a real drag.
the definition of "inclusive" implies everyone can participate but we all know base on preferences and other things that word isn't true with this game, it needs another word.
also why complain about this? ya don't have to buy it lol
@Noid what's a "romantic identity" exactly? Are you by any chance suggesting that "romantic" people must have some fixed patterns when choosing their sexual identity?
@somebread And this thread is kind of frivolous to me right now. It is dating Sim with minimal graphics. It’s inclusive yay and great. Let us move on, it is subpar.
Devil May Cry 2: 4/10
Literally just a picture of a man dressed as a lady with nickelodeon flash mini games: 6/10
Journalism.
@Kalmaro So you're not just a bigot, you're dumb enough to announce that you're a bigot. Good to know on both counts.
@PanurgeJr This seems like a effort to bait me into some drawn out retort. I'll go ahead and give you the last word, I'm not interested in trading insults online.
I will say that you'd help yourself a lot if you read all my comments and got some context.
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